THE CULTUKE SYSTEM IN JAVA 37 



introducing his system of " forced cultures ". This 

 system was an extreme example of State interference, 

 with State monopolies, State contractors, and forced 

 labour. Indeed the whole administration was sub- 

 ordinated to the business of growing and marketing 

 certain valuable crops. So far as the government 

 finances were concerned it was most successful ; but 

 it inflicted great hardships on the people, and was 

 abandoned after forty years on grounds of equity. It 

 would hardly be expected that a business based on 

 State management and forced labour could prove 

 economically successful, and, in point of fact, the 

 system of forced cultures was not an economic suc- 

 cess. It laid the foundation, however, of the present- 

 day success of agriculture in Java. The island had 

 previously stagnated, in spite of great natural resources 

 and an abundant labour supply. The " culture 

 system " demonstrated what rapid progress might be 

 made when to these advantages was added the assist- 

 ance of Dutch capital and enterprise. 



Not only is Java well adapted physically to cane 

 production, but the economic conditions are most 

 favourable. There is an abundant suppty of labour 

 at 5 annas a day, and the land which belongs to the 

 cultivators is rented in large blocks by the sugar 

 companies. The land is held either individually or 

 communally by the cultivators, but in either case the 

 sugar companies have no difficulty in arranging with 

 the headman for the lease of the land up to one-third 

 of the total cultivated area of any village, which is the 



