Review of Reviews, I18/O6. 



JAVA: Dutch Colonial Administration. 



By Senator The Hon. 



No. 



The nature of the Dutch rule in Java has been 

 the fruitful theme of writers for the last hundred 

 years, many of whom possessed no practical know- 

 ledge ot the actual conditions, no appreciation of 

 the native character — its inborn conservatism ajid 

 fatalism — and no conception of the immense diffi- 

 culties aiid problems that surround the government, 

 administration and economic development of tropi- 

 cal dependencies. 



The circumstances under which the Dutch came 

 to found a great Colonial Empire are interesting, as 

 indicating the profound influence that commercial 

 enterprise has always exercised in grouping the 

 available lands of the world under the control of 

 maritime nations. 



Early in the i6th century a large Oriental trade 

 had sprung up under the Portuguese flag, initiated 

 by the able and unscrupulous Dalbo<"iuerque. Many 

 of the cargoes of these richly-laden Argosies were 

 transferred to Dutch bottoms at the port of Lisbon, 

 and the cities of Antwerp and Anisterdam estab- 

 lished themselves as the great distributing centres 

 of North-West Europe. 



Atout the middle of the century the little Dutch 

 nation began its gallant revolt against the mighty 

 Spanish power, and the wealth accruing from their 

 valuable Indian trade helped largely to bring their 

 costly struggle to a successful conclusion in 1579- 

 The following year Portugal was annexed by Spain, 

 and five years later the Spaniards seized and con- 

 fiscated all Dutch ships lying in Portuguese har- 

 bours. 



Staniforth Smith. 

 I. 



The Dutch, deprived of this lucrative trade, saw 

 commercial ruin staring them in the face, and the 

 stout-hearted Netherlanders determined to contest 

 with Spain their commercial monopoly as they had 

 successfully contested her rule on land. Their pro- 

 jects were immensely assisted by the destruction of 

 the Spanish Armada in 1588, and the consequent 

 loss of that nation's naval supremacy. A Dutch 

 agent was sent to Lisbon to gain information regard 

 ing these lands of untold wealth, ajid as a result of 

 his report a fleet was equipped and despatched to 

 Java in 1595. By the year 1602 sixty-five ships 

 had made the return voyage, the returns of a single 

 trip sometimes resulting in a profit of 400 per cent. 

 To prevent cut-throat competition the States-Gene- 

 ral in 1602 enacted a law by which all the Dutch 

 traders were formed into a single corporation, and 

 given an absolute monopoly of the trade, so far as 

 their fellow-countrymen were concerned. This law 

 formed the basis of trade and government in the 

 Dutch East Indies for the two hundred years of 

 the Company's existence. The Company was formed 

 to trade, and not to rule; the Directors entertained 

 no dreams of annexation or colonisation, their cor- 

 poration was formed solely to maintain and expajid 

 the commerce and industries of the mother country ; 

 it was only at a later date that they were forced 

 into other avenues of activity, because the logic of 

 events proved stronger than the logic of statesmen. 



Whatever may be the sins of omission or commis- 

 sion that may be laid at the door of the Dutch East 

 India Company, the fact is apparent to any im- 



