POSSESSIONS IN PIIE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 1B9 
When England made herself mistress of Java the first care of her 
government was to introduce there a new system based upon the an¬ 
cient Javanese usages of the times of the Hindoo sovereigns; they 
were harmonised to the ordinances in force in English India. They 
granted to the village chiefs the right of dividing the land tax; the 
intervention of the regent of the district in financial matters ceased 
to exist, and the land tax was paid according to survey. This tax 
was levied at a half, at two fifths or at a third of the crop according to 
the fertility of the lands. As a proof that this system called land 
rent, and tenement tax, did not answer to its design, it caused a loss 
of more than 21 millions of francs, during the three years of the oe* 
eupation of Java by the English, as the subjoined table shews. 
From 
1812 to 1813. 
From 
1813 to 1814. 
From 
1814 to 181,5. 
Expenccs,.. ..Rs. 
Receipts,. „ 
9,107,700. 71 
8,061,331. 35 
1 . - ' '* 
9,092,418. 60 
5,399,745. 42 
5,889,624. 04 
7,520,980." 95 
Deficit,. „ - 
3,707,955. 29 
2,171,707. 31 
1,571,437. 65 
When the island of Java and the other possessions in these seas 
returned, by the treaty of the 13th August 1814, under the power of 
the Netherlands, three Commissioners were sent to India. The Ba¬ 
ron van der Capellen nominated Governor General formed part of 
this new commission, charged with the re-organization of all parts 
of the administration. 
The territorial tax introduced by the English was for the present 
retained, later it was modified. We immediately discovered an ex¬ 
treme confusion in the direction of finances, so that it was found ne¬ 
cessary at the beginning of 1818, to establish a new period of admi¬ 
nistration, and to make concessions upon the arrears of the three 
years preceding. In place of collecting the tax from each rate-payer. 
We contracted with the chiefs of desa, by stipulating the sums for 
which they should be accountable to the treasury. We continued to 
follow this system of collection until 1830. 
In order to have an opportunity of judging with precision and in 
an equitable manner, of the value of lands, the resident of each .pro¬ 
vince as the delegate of Government, and the village chiefs with the 
elders representing the rate-payers, were charged topnake the assess¬ 
ment, and to pass a decision in the Dutch and Malay languages, after 
which each chief of desa, assisted by the elders, proceeded to divide 
