Volume 14 Australasia - dana ward's homepage

174 AUSTRALASIA.Economic Coxiiition of Java.Tlie slave trade was abolished in the Dutch East Indies at the end of theseventeenth century, and slavery properly so-called has ceased to exist in Javasince 1860, when nearly five thousand slaves were emancipated. But can therest of the people be regarded as freemen so long as tliey are subjected byGovernment to forced labour ?While the authorities were satisfied with collectingthe taxes on the crops fixed by Sir Stamford Raffles during the British occupation,the results were financially bad, and the public deficit went on increasing fromyear to year. But in 1832, the Governor-General Van de Bosch received fullpower to modify existing arrangements, and the very next j'ear the people had toadapt themselves to the famous " sj'stem " of culture and taxation, which waslargely modelled on that of the tobacco monopoly in the Philippines. Nevertheless,the change was effected without causing a crisis, the Government edicts beinglargely conformable to the adat, or old customs observed by the native rulers.In virtue of this " system of culture," which was to rei^lace the land-tax by asort of Government monopoly of the croj)s themselves, each agricultural circuit ofthe vast Javanese " farm," was placed under a controller, who reserved a fifth ofthe land for the public service. Here the Administration, or its grantees, introducedat its option the cultivation of economic plants, exacted throughout thecommune every fifth working-day (later every seventh), and de facto regulatedall the works, encouraged and coerced the workers. At the end of the 3-ear, ittook over from the producers the various exports, coffee, sugar, indigo, tea,tobacco, cinnamon, pepper, " at the market price," after deducting two-fifths forthe taxes, and a fixed sum for transit charges.But this " market price " has alwaj's been fixed by the Government far belowthe real value, and, according to official statistics, the Javanese peasantry havebeen defrauded, since the introduction of the " system,'' to the extent of some£80,000,000. On coffee alone, the " staple of the Dutch Colonial regime," theplunder of the natives to the benefit of the home budget amounted, between1831 and 1877, to the enormous total of £68,000,000. The real market price,after deducting the impost, has occasionallj' been three times in excess of theprice officially announced to the natives.Hence it is not surprising that b}' the Minister Van de Putte and many otherDutch statesmen this wholesale plunder of the Javanese has been denounced asa " wretched system." On the other hand, an administration which yielded aconsiderable " colonial bonus " to the mother country, often over £2,000,000yearly, could not fail to find many admirers, although the bulk of the nativepopulation meantime remained poor and half famished. Certain political economistshave even ventured to hold up the procedure of the Dutch Government inJava as a model of political wisdom.However, the era of direct agricultural monopolies seems to have run its course.The Achinese war, followed by the ravages of insects on the coffee plantationsand the necessary increase of the public expenditure, have brought about a