298 SPICES 



CHAP. 



In a country such as Sumatra was then, where the diffi- 

 culties the native had to contend with in getting a 

 regular sale for his produce were great, having to depend 

 on the irregular and scanty visits of ships to take it, the 

 absence of roads to the interior naturally deterred them 

 from extending the cultivation. It is perhaps due, too, to 

 the system of enforced cultivation as practised in Java 

 that the Javanese has developed into a higher class 

 cultivator than the Malay, who, not compelled to 

 cultivate anything, will never settle down to steady 

 work. 



At the same time the system was obviously open 

 to abuse. A native compelled to cultivate a crop and 

 to supply the produce to a European at a price fixed by 

 the latter, whether the planter lost by his garden or 

 not, is in the position of a slave to the European. As 

 long as the influence of the chiefs continued, the stipu- 

 lated quantity of pepper was cultivated and delivered to 

 the Company, but the price given for the pepper was 

 less than the value of labour employed, and the 

 cultivators held back their labour. The chiefs were 

 unable to enforce their orders. The Company in 1801 

 reduced their establishment, and a system of contracts 

 introduced, by which the residencies were farmed out to 

 Europeans in return for a certain quantity of pepper, 

 and the Kesident received a commission of one dollar 

 for every cwt. of pepper he delivered to the government. 

 Money was also advanced to the Malays to cultivate 

 pepper, and as most of the advance was never paid 

 back, according to local law the children of those who 

 had died or emigrated, or the whole village, became 

 liable for the debt, and so became slave-debtors. Sir 

 Stamford Raffles, however, in 1813, abolished this 

 slavery and declared pepper cultivators free, and 

 allowed the people to cultivate it or not, as they 

 pleased. Bencoolen, which supplied much pepper as 

 well as other spices, was given up to the Dutch, and it 

 was stipulated in the treaty that the British inhabitants 

 were to enjoy until the 8th of June 1820 the unfettered 



