TI1E HISTORY AND PRESENT CONDITION OF MALACCA. 737 
would ere long' be able to exhibit a revenue equal to all her ex¬ 
pellees. 
Lands. —The subject of laml tenures and revenue in Malacca is 
one of very considerable complication and not at all understood out 
of the place itself. As the evidence of Mr. Leonard Wray before 
the committee of the House of Commons on the subject of Sugar 
cultivation may tend to bring Malacca iuto notice as a sugar produc¬ 
ing country, I will make no further apology for endeavouring to 
render the subject of the land tenures one of readable interest. 
During the period of the Dutch possession, Malacca was consider¬ 
ed a mere outpost of the supreme colonial government in Java, for 
securing Dutch supremacy and monopoly in the Straits, and not only 
was agriculture discouraged but it was absolutely prevented. The 
cultivation of grain was forbidden as interferring with monopoly in 
Java, and other species of tropical cultivation were equally disallow¬ 
ed from the same cause. Land consequently was of little or no va¬ 
lue, and it seems to have been recklessly granted away by the Dutch 
local government to all applicants for it. In 1825, when we fi¬ 
nally assumed possession of the place, it was found that the whole of 
the lands of the interior had been granted away to private individu¬ 
als,* and not the lands'alone blit the right of levying the custom¬ 
ary Malayan tax on them. That tax is ten per cent, upon produce 
of every description obtained from the land, and it seerns that the 
proprietors (either by direct grant, or by inheritance or purchase 
from direct grantees) levied or considered themselves to have the 
right to levy, ten per cent upon such produce as the land yielded at 
the time we took possession in 1825. It was not however till 1827, 
when Malacca was placed under the government of Mr. Fullarton, 
that any detailed investigation was made into the respective rights of 
government and of private individuals. The proprietors were called 
upon to produce their grants, but not one was forthcoming. This 
was accounted for by the operation of the Dutch system of registry, 
whereby, on a transfer or inheritance of land, the original grant and 
all prior deeds of transfer were deposited in the Record Office. The 
system was no doubt good, but unfortunately the Dutch carried 
away all these records with them. 
Mr. Fullarton seems to have been very doubtful of the legality of 
■ * It is curious that nothing seems to have been known, or at least said, 
about these Grants during our previous possession of Malacca of several 
years. 
