266 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Oct. 2, 1893. 
Bpeeiftl br&noh of the Colonlt,! Administration was 
created. The first work of the new department was 
to found the sagar industry. It was necessary to 
supply the manufacturers with both capital and in- 
come. Accordingly a sum amounting to £14,000 was 
E laced to the credit of each manufacturer in the 
ooks of the department. Of this sum he was allowed 
to draw up to £126 per month for the expenses of 
himself and his family during the first two years. 
From the third year onwards he paid back one- 
tenth annually. Thus at the end of twelve years 
the capital was repaid. The mannfacturer was to 
apply the capital so advanced to the construction 
of the sugar-mill, which was to be fitted with the 
best European machinery, and worked by water 
power. Free labour, and timber from the Govern- 
ment plantations, was supplied ; and the customs 
duties upon the machinery and implements imported 
were remitted. The building of the mills was super- 
vised by the controleurt, the officials of the new de- 
partment, and had to be carried out to their satis- 
faction. The department also undertook to see that 
the pea8ant8;in the neighbourhood of each mill should 
have from seven hundred to a thousand acres planted 
with sugar-canes by the time the mills were in 
working order. In Java, as in other Eastern countries, 
the landlord has the right of selecting the crop 
which the tenant is to plant, and therefore the 
peasants saw nothing unusual in this action of the 
Government. The controleurs ascertained, iu the 
case of each village, how much rice land was necessary 
for the subsistence of the village, and they then 
ordered the remainder, usually one-fifth, to be planted 
with sugar-canes. At the same time, they explained 
that the value of the crop of sugar would be much 
greater than that of the rice crop, and promised 
that the peasants should be paid not only for t)ie 
crops, but also for the labour of cutting the canes 
and carrying them to the mill. When, at the end 
of two years, the mills had been built and the plan- 
tations established, another advance was made by 
the department to the manufacturers. This was 
capital sufficient to pay for the value of the sugar 
crop, estimated, as it stood, for the wages of the 
peasants, and generally for the expenses of manu- 
facture. This second advance was at once repaid- 
by the produce of the mill. At first the department 
required the manufacturer to deliver the whole 
amount of produce to them at a price oue-third in 
excess of the cost of production. Subsequently he 
was allowed the option of delivering the whole 
crop to Government, or of delivering so much of 
the produce only as would pay for the interest on 
the crop adrance, together with the instalment of 
the original capital annually due. Working on these 
terms, large profits were made by the manufacturers, 
and there soon came to be a demand for such new 
contracts as the Government had at their disposal. 
As for the peasants, they were undoubtedly Ibene- 
fitted by the introduction of the system. While the 
land rent continued to be calculated as before, on 
a basis of the produce of ricefields, the value of 
the sugar crop was so much greater than that of 
the rice, which it partially displaced, that the money 
received for it amounted on the average of twice 
the sum paid to Government for land rent on the 
whole of the village land. iVIoreovt r, although the 
estimated price of the crop was paid to the wedanas, 
or village chiefs, the wages for cutting and carrying 
were paid to the peasants individually. The value 
of the crop, the rate of wages, and the relation 
between the peasants and the manufacturers 
generally, were settled by the controltius. 
In 1871, when the culture system was in fall oper- 
ation, there were 39,000 louws, or 70,000 acres, under 
sugar cane, giving employment to 222 j Oj native 
families, and ninety-seven sugar mills had been staiLod. 
One-third of the produce was delivered to Govern- 
ment at the rate of eight florins per picul,* and 
the remaining two-thirds were sold by the manu- 
facturers in open market. In the five years 1866- 
1870 the Government profit on sugar amounted to 
rather more than 25,000,000 florin3. 
• The picul=l35 lb, 
Subsequently the cultivation of coffee, indiRo, 
cochineal, tobacco, pepper, tea, and cinchona was 
added to that of sugar. The system pursued was 
not iden ical with the case of all produce. Cochi- 
neal, indigo, tea, and tobacco were cultivated in a 
manner similar to that adopted for sugar. But in 
the case of coffee, cinnamon, and pepper it was not 
found necessary to have any manufacturers between 
the coiitroUtcra and the peasantij. Of these, coffee, 
the most important, is ^rown on lands having an 
elevation of fr m 2000 to 4-500 feet. Each head of 
a family is required to plant a certain number of 
trees in gardens (the maximum was fixed in 18^7 
at fifty a year), and to keep a nursery of young 
trees to replenish the plantations. These gardens 
and nurseries are all inspected by native and European 
officials. The process of harvesting the berry is 
similarly supervised, but after that is accomplished 
the peasants are left to dry, clean, and sort the 
berries by themselves, and are allowed to deliver the 
crop at the cofifee stores at their own conveni' nee. 
Finally, private persons contract for periods of two 
or three years to pack and transport the coffee to 
the central stores at the ports. Of the coffee pro- 
duced on Government account, one-fifth only is 
sold in Java, and the remainder is sent over to 
Europe and sold there. 
The culture system was so successful as a finan- 
cial expedient, that between the years of 1831 and 
1875 the colonial revenue yielded snr^uses to Holland 
amounting to 725,000,000 florins. This total seems 
the more remarkable when we know that from 18B8 
onwards, the colonial revenue was charged with 
200.000,000 florins of the public debt of Holland, 
being the proportion borne by Beleium before the 
separation of the two countries, which took place 
at that date. 
In 1876, however, the long series of surpluses 
ceased, and they have since been replaced by deficits 
almost as continuous. These deficits are due to 
three well-ascertained causes : (1) the Achin war, (2) 
public works, (3) the fall in the price of sugar and 
coffee. In order to show that this remarkable change 
in the financial fortunes of Java is in no way due 
to the culture system, it is necessary to go some- 
what more into detail. 
(1) Before the outbreak of the Achin war in 1873, 
the average expenditure of the Colonial Government 
for military purposes was 30,000,000 florins annually. 
During the period 1873-1884 this expenditure rose 
to an average of 50,000,000 florins, and the total 
cost of the war during that period amounted to 
240,000,000 florins. Since 1884 the expenditure has 
been reduced by confining the operations of the 
troops to such as are purely defensive ; even then 
the average annual expenditure has reached 40,000,000 
florins. 
(2) Since 1875 the construction of railways and of 
other public works, notably the harbour works at 
Tanjong Priok, the port of Batavia, has been under- 
taken by Government. Since the cost has been paid 
out of currei t revenue, and not raised by loans, 
these works have necessitated a further annual ex- 
penditure of 8,0 0,000 florins. The total sum spent 
in public works between the years 1875-1884, 
amounting to 75,000,0(i0 florins, is almost exactly 
equivalent to the deficit incurred during the same 
period. 
(3) In suffering from the competition of France 
in sugar, and of Brazil in coffee, Java has not been 
peculiar. The British West Indian colonies are at 
the present time most disastrously affected by the 
bounty-fed sugar industry of France, and Ceylon 
is only just learning how to compensate itself for 
the diminution of its coffee export by the intro- 
duction of a new industry — tea. 
As for the general progress of the island, it is 
sufficiently indicated by the fact that since the 
date (1831) of the introduction of the system, the 
population has increased from six to twenty-thrte 
millions, and the revenue from thirty million florins 
to one hundred and thirtj'-two. 
Although the culture system has yielded such 
satisfactory results, it has been gradually abandoned 
since 1871. 
