Oct. 2, 1893.] .THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
359 
THE CULTUEE SYSTEM IN JAVA. 
[From Worsfold's Visit to Java.*] 
Towards the end of last century, the British 
Colonial Government succeeded the Dutch East India 
Company in the administration of Java. During 
the period antecedent to the British Occupation, the 
revenue of the Government was derived from two 
monopolies: (1) that of producing the more valuable 
crops, and (2) that of trading; in all products what- 
ever. Meanwhile the mass of the natives were left 
entirely to the mercy of the native princes, by whom 
they were subjected to all manner of exactions. 
The financial results of this state of things were 
seen in the fact that in 1810 the gross revenue of 
Java was only three and a half million florins.f a 
sum wliolly inadequate to the requirements of ad- 
ministration. 
During the five years of British occupation (1811- 
1816) Sir Stamford Raffles was Lieutenant-Governor. 
He at once introduced reforms. The native princes 
were displaced ; the village community, with its 
common property and patriarchal government, was 
modified; a system of criminal and civil justice, 
similar to that in force in India, in which a European 
judge sat with native assessors, was introduced ; the 
peasants were given proprietary rights in the soil they 
cultivated ; and complete political and commercial 
liberty was established. An inquiry into the nature 
of the respective rights in the soil of the cultivator, 
the native princes, and the Government resulted in 
establishing the fact that of the subject territory 
the Government was sole owner of seven-tenths. 
Of the remainder, two-tenths belonged to the Pre- 
anger Regents, and one-tenth was occupied by 
private estates, chiefly in the neighbourhood of 
Buitenzorg and Batavia. In order to teach the natives 
the western virtues of industry and independence. 
Raffles determined to introduce the Ryotwarree sys- 
tem. The property in the land vested in the Go- 
vernment was handed over to hidividual peasant 
proprietors. In return for his land each proprietor 
was made individually and personally responsible 
for the payment of his land tax, and his land was 
liable to be sold in satisfaction of his public or 
private debts. 
Before the English administration the peasant 
had paid — (1) a land rent for his rice lands to the 
native princes, amounting to a sum equivalent to 
one-half of the produce of sawah (irrigated) and one- 
third of tegal (unirrigated) lands ; and (2 1 a tax of 
forced labour to the Dutch Government, which took 
the form of unpaid labour in the cultivation of the 
produce for export. Raffles abolished both, and in 
place of them he established a fixed money payment 
equivalent to a much smaller proportion of the pro- 
duce of the land than had been paid before to the 
native princes alone. 
The Dutch regained their East Indian possessions 
by the Treaty of Loudon. On their return to Java, 
they restored the village community with its joint 
ownership and joint liability, and aholi-ihed all pro 
prietary rights of the natives in the soil, only allow 
ing ownership of land to the Europeans. They 
contend that this attempt of Raffles to apply Western 
Principles to an Eastern society had already proved 
disastrous. The peasants, on the one hand, had 
not acquired the habits necessary for the success- 
ful development of their holdings, but, on the other, 
through their inability to pay the land rent, were 
becoming hopelessly involved in debt to the Chinese 
and Arab money-lenders. The broad fact, however 
remains that during the short period of British 
rule the revenue rose from three and a half to 
seven and a half million florins, and the population 
from four to live and a half millions. 
As the old monopolies from which the chief part 
of the revenue had formerly been derived had been 
abolished by the policy of unrestricted commerce 
introduced by Raitles, it was necessary to find some 
• A visit to Java. By W. Basil Worsfold. London, 
R. Bentley * Son, 1893. 
t la tlorin9»=4;i. 
other method of raising money.. It we3 decided to 
retain the land tax as a basi^ of revenue, but, in 
order to make it more profitable, a return was made 
to the original principle of land tenure under native 
rule, by which the cultivator paid one-fifth of his 
labour and one-fifth of bis produce in return for 
the usufruct of the land. One day of gratuitous 
labour in seven 1 the European week) was substituted 
for one day in five formerly given to the landlord. 
In certain disti-icts, namely, those of which the 
Dutch became possessed by treaty and not by con- 
quest, this contribution in kind and labour was paid 
to the native princes, and not to the government. 
On private estates, again, as the Government had 
parted with their feudal rights in alienating the 
property, a tax of three-fourths per cent, on the 
estimated value of the property was substituted. This 
tax, called rerponding, was at most equivalent to 
one fifth of the net yearly income. 
As before, the produce due from the peasants 
cultivating Government lands was commuted into a 
money payment assessed npon the rice crops ; but 
this payment was made, not by the individnal 
Eeasants, but by the vedanas, or village chiefs, on 
ehalf of the whole community. Beside the land 
tax, an additional source of income remained in the 
Erofit arising from the sale of cofi'ee, grown either 
y the Preanger Regents and sold to the Government 
at prices fixed by treaty, or on the coffee plantations 
established by Marshall Daendels, which were now 
restored. 
These two methods of raising revenue were resorted 
to by the Dutch upon their return to the island, 
and continued in force during the period 1818 — 1833. 
They were wholly inadequate. Whether the Dutch 
were right or not in characterising Raffles' reforms 
as a failure, it is certain that nothing could be more 
desperate than the state of the island in the years 
immediately preceding the introduction of the culture 
system. At tne end of the period 1816-1833 both 
revenue and population seem to have become sta- 
tionary. The mass of the natives were becoming so 
impoverished that they ceased to be able to keep 
a supply of domestic animals and implements 
necessary for the cultivation of their lands. Apart 
from the princes, there waa no class, merchants or 
tradespeople, possessing any wealth that could be 
taxed. Not only was the revenue stagnant, but. 
Giving to a war with the sultans of the interior, a 
debt of over 35,000,000 florins was incurred by the 
Government, In a word, the colony seemed likely to 
become an intolerable burden to Holland. It was 
at this crisis that General Van den Bosch proposed 
the culture system as a means of rescuing the 
island from its financial and social difficulties 
The immediate object of the culture system was 
to extend the cultivation of sugar, cofi'ee, and other 
produce suited for European consumption ; its ulti- 
mate object was to develop the resources of the 
island. This latter was, of course, the most im- 
portant. Van den Bosch saw that the natives would 
never be able t ) do this by themselves. In the 
first place, they were still organised on the patri- 
archal model in village communities ; and, in the 
second, owing to the tropical climate and the extreme 
ease with which life could be sustained in so fertile 
a country, they were naturally indolent and unpro- 
gressive. He therefore proposed to organize their 
labour under European supervision. Bv this method 
he thought that he would be ablo both to raise the 
revenue and to improve the condition of the peasants 
by teaching them to grow valuable produce in ad- 
dition to the rice crops on which they depended for 
subsisteuce. Van den Bo.-ch became Governor- 
General of Java and its depeudencies in 1830. Before 
leaving Holland he had made his proposals known, 
and obtained the approval of the Netherlands Go- 
vernment. He took with him newly appointed officials 
free from colonial traditions, and his reforms in- 
spired such confidence, that a number of well-edn- 
cated and intelligent persons were willing to emigrate 
with their families to Java in order to take up the 
business of manufacturing the produce grown under 
the new Byatem. Upon his aniTal in the island,* 
