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 Eaffles, 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 
