SUGAR CONTRACTS. 5 



knowledge of his business. The Government 

 undertook to plant the canes and superintend their 

 culture, and to ensure the supply of a certain 

 quantity to the mill, as also to provide coolies and 

 servants for the work in the establishment, the only 

 payment by the contractor being a rate of 3^ rupees 

 on every picul of sugar produced, in order to re- 

 imburse the Government for the cane and the price 

 of labour. This was, of course, in addition to the 

 gradual repayment, without interest, of the money 

 advanced to enable him to erect his house and 

 buildings.* The contract was generally entered into 

 for twenty years, and in the first contracts the prices 

 given for the sugar produced were so extremely 

 favourable that every contractor made large profits. 

 Very few Dutchmen, however, engaged in the 

 business at first, but principally English and Chi- 

 nese,! masters of country ships and other traders, 

 who happened to be on the spot. Gradually, as the 

 manufacture became established, and the resident 

 Dutchmen began to enter into it, the contracts, espe- 

 cially those granted to foreigners, became less 

 favourable, and a more recent regulation of the 

 Government actually prohibited all foreigners what- 

 soever from owning, holding, or renting land, or 

 even from residing in the country, unless they shall 



* See a more detailed account of the sugar cultivation in Java 

 at the end of chapter 6th. 



t By a recent edict, Chinese are prohibited for the future from 

 becoming " sugar-fabricants." 



