POSSESSIONS IN THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. 185 
*—The total of the expences for administrations amounts thus to 
/. 75,494,285. 
From the moment that the finances of India were able to place at 
the disposal of the central European Government a considerable an¬ 
nual surplus, it become necessary to value the problem: in what 
shape can this excess, composed of a money exclusively colonial of 
paper and copper, he conveniently transmitted to its destination ? 
The system called des cultures , introduced in 1832 by the Gover¬ 
nor General van den Bosch, is destined to render this transmission 
possible. The excess serves in the first place, to furnish advances to 
the contractors as well natives as Europeans, advances for which the 
Government demands no interest. In a country where capital is 
scarce and interest very high, ordinarily at 9 per cent, facilities of 
this nature are of immense advantage. These wise measures, and 
this unusual disinter estedness on the part of a Government, produce 
the most happy fruits. They are the source of a remarkable deve- 
lopement of agricultural industry in the possessions of the State. 
The returns of these advances are made in commodities reserved by 
the government, and it is only then that the annual excess exists in a 
form that permits it to be sent to Europe. 
In no other intertropical country has any thing similar been esta¬ 
blished. The promptitude of the results obtained is principally due to 
system of administration introduced into these colonies. Without 
the concurrence of former Javanese institutions, which have been 
pi udently maintained and extended, it would have been impossible 
(to give an example) for the undertaker of a sugar manufactory, to 
obtain the certitude that, during the continuance of his contract, the 
neighbouring population would be in a situation to cultivate, at a rea¬ 
sonable rate, the quantity of canes necessary for the uninterrupted 
working of his mill. Deprive him of this assurance, and the enter- 
piize would be wholly a hazardous speculation, in which no prudent 
man would risk his capital. These indispensable guarantees can be 
given by the government, of which the proof is furnished by what fol¬ 
lows. 
B e come to speak succintiy of the village organization of Java s 
a few lines will suffice to give a clear and and plain idea of it, and to 
make the utility ol this organization appr eciated in its application to 
cultures which it is intended to establish. 
According to the ancient usages of the country, adat, the sover¬ 
eign has the right of exacting from each tjatjah a contribution in 
money or in produce, or an equivalent quantity of. labour; the go- 
