174 AUSTEALASIA. 



Economic Condition of Java. 



The slave trade was abolislied in the Dutch East Indies at the end of the 

 seventeenth century, and slavery jDroperly so-called has ceased to exist in Java 

 since 1860, when nearh^ five thousand slaves were emancipated. But can the 

 rest of the people be regarded as freemen so long as they are subjected by 

 Government to forced labour ? While the authorities were satisfied with collecting 

 the taxes on the crops fixed by Sir Stamford Rafiles during the British occupation, 

 the results were financially bad, and the public deficit went on increasing from 

 year to year. But in 1832, the Governor- General Van de Bosch received full 

 power to modify existing arrangements, and the very next year the people had to 

 adapt themselves to the famous " system " of culture and taxation, which was 

 largely modelled on that of the tobacco monopoly in the Philippines. Neverthe- 

 less, the change was effected without causing a crisis, the Government edicts being 

 largely conformable to the adat, or old customs observed by the native rulers. 



In virtue of this " system of culture," which was to replace the land-tax by a 

 sort of Government monopoly of the crops themselves, each agricultural circuit of 

 the vast Javanese "farm," was placed under a controller, who reserved a fifth of 

 the land for the public service. Here the Administration, or its grantees, in- 

 troduced at its option the cultivation of economic plants, exacted throughout the 

 commune every fifth working-day (later every seventh), and de facto regulated 

 all the works, encouraged and coerced the workers. At the end of the year, it 

 took over from the producers the various exports, coffee, sugar, indigo, tea, 

 tobacco, cinnamon, pepper, " at the market price," after deducting two-fifths for 

 the taxes, and a fixed sum for transit charges. 



But this " market price " has always been fixed by the Government far below 

 the real value, and, according to official statistics, the Javanese peasantry have 

 been defrauded, since tbe introduction of the " system," to the extent of some 

 £80,000,000. On coffee alone, the " staple of the Dutch Colonial régime," the 

 plunder of the natives to the benefit of the home budget amounted, between 

 1831 and 1877, to the enormous total of £68,000,000. The real market price, 

 after deducting the impost, has occasionally been three times in excess of the 

 price oificially announced to the natives. 



Hence it is not surprising that by the Minister Van de Putte and many other 

 . Dutch statesmen this wholesale plunder of the Javanese has been denounced as 

 a " wretched system." On the other hand, an administration which yielded a 

 considerable " colonial bonus " to the mother country, often over £2,000,000 

 yearly, could not fail to find many admirers, although the bulk of the native 

 population meantime remained poor and half famished. Certain political econo- 

 mists have even ventured to hold up the procedure of the Dutch Government in 

 Java as a model of political wisdom. 



However, the era of direct agricultural monopolies seems to have run its course. 

 The Achinese war, followed by the ravages of insects on the coffee plantations 

 and the necessary increase of the public expenditure, have brought about a 



