Mobilizing Labour for the Global Coffee Market: Profits From an Unfree Work Regime in Colonial Java
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Contents
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Language
English
ISBN
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Table of contents
Prologue: The need for forced labour
I The company as a territorial power
Intrusion into the hinterland
Retreat of princely authority
Territorial demarcation and hierarchical structuring
The Priangan highlands as a frontier
Clearing the land for cultivation
The composite peasant household
Higher and lower-ranking chiefs
Rendering servitude
Peasants and their lords in the early-colonial era
II The introduction of forced cultivation
A colonial mode of production
From free trade to forced delivery
The start of coffee cultivation
Increasing the tribute
Coercion and desertion
Indigenous management
Under the Company’s control
Tardy population growth
Tackling ‘cultivation delinquency’
III From trading company to state enterprise
Clashing interests
Failing management
After the fall of the VOC
A conservative reformer
Strengthening the government apparatus
Social restructuring
Stepping up corvee services
Sealing off the Priangan
The land rent system
IV Government regulated exploitation versus private agribusiness
Discovery of the village system
Land sale
In search of a new policy
The deregulation of coffee cultivation, except in the Priangan
Patching up leakage and other irregularities
Increasing leverage for private estates
The downfall of the free enterprise lobby
The policy dispute continues
Political turmoil at home
V Unfree labour as a condition for progress
Shifting coffee cultivation to gardens
Mobilizing labour
Expansion of forced labour
Beyond the reach of the government
The obligation to perform coolie labour and the need for tight surveillance
In search of the hidden labour reserve
Indispensability of the chiefs, for the time being
The Priangan variant as a ‘colonial constant’
Spreading benevolence at home and on Java
VI The coffee regime under the cultivation system
A new surge in the colonial tribute
Coffee and more
More and more coffee
Approaching the workfloor
The happiness of the innocent
Stagnation
Crisis
Non-compliance
VII Winding up the Priangan system of governance
‘A system that is arbitrary, repressive and secretive’
Taxation, resistance and retribution
Cultivating coffee and growing food
The welfare of the people
Good governance
From protectors to exploiters
The reform operation
Release from servitude
VIII Eclipse of the coffee regime from the Sunda highlands
The dilemmas of political expediency
A turn for the better?
Impact of the reforms on the peasantry
Establishment of the village system
Shifting the onus of servitude
The contours of a new economic policy
The agrarian underclasses
Epilogue: Servitude as the road to progress
Glossary
List of abbreviations
List of illustrations
Color plates
Regional map of Priangan regencies in the early twentieth century
Source: F. de Haan – Priangan, vl. 1
Map from 1778 of the Priangan highlands under direct control ofthe VOC. The eastern regencies Sumedang and Surakarta werestill claimed by the princely state of Cirebon on the north coast.
Source: NA
Marriage procession in the Salak valley. Painting by A. Salm (1872).Colour lithograph by J.C. Greive Jr.
Source: KITLV Collection
Moonlit landscape near Sumedang. Painting by A. Salm (1872).Colour lithograph by J.C. Greive Jr.
Source: KITLV Collection
Posthumous portrait of H.W. Daendels by Saleh (1838). TheGovernor-General is pointing on a map to the Great Trunk Road,near Megamemdung mountain in the Priangan regencies. Theconstruction of this Jalan Pos led to the deaths of many thousandsof forced corvee labourers. P. Engelhard noted that laying thesection across this mountain alone cost the lives of 500 menrecruited from a nearby regency.
Source: Rijksmuseum Amsterdam
Two drawings of the village on Java. The first shows theunregulated lay-out, as was commonly found, and the second theplanned ‘barrack’ design. The blueprint of the model village wasdesigned by Van Sevenhoven a few years after the introduction ofthe cultivation system.
Source: NA
Portrait of O. van Rees as Governor-General (1884-88)
Source: KITLV Collection
Other illustrations
Gaga (slash-and-burn) field of a nomadic cultivator in Jampang in the early twentieth century. The felled trees are laid out over the terrain to prevent erosion of the top soil and to terrace the hillside.
Source: F. de Haan – Priangan, vl. 1, p. 376
Sawah (irrigated rice field) in Sukabumi in the early twentieth century
Source: F. de Haan – Priangan, vl. I, p. 368
The regent of Indramaju, accompanied by a haji (drawing by Rach 1770). According to colonial archivist F. de Haan, this is the only known portrait of a regent from the VOC period. De Haan noted that the native nobility were eager to imitate the dress styl
Source: Perpustakaan Nasional Indonesia Collection, Jakarta
Change of horses and pasangrahan (accommodation for travelling officials) at Cimanggis on the road from Batavia to Bogor (drawing by Rach ca. 1770-72). Behind the bushes in the left foreground, the district head of Cimanggis can be seen walking, followed
Source: Perpustakaan Nasional Indonesia Collection, Jakarta
G.G. Van der Parra, seated in a palanquin on a visit to Sukahati or Heart’s Desire, the corralled residence of Bogor’s temanggung (drawing by Rach 1772). The buildings to the left are most probably sheds for storing coffee beans.
Source: Perpustakaan Nasional Indonesia Collection, Jakarta
View of Buitenzorg (Bogor) in the early 19th century
Source: J. Crawfurd, vl. 1, 1820
Pedati. From the beginning of the 19th century, these unwieldy and heavy peasant carts facilitated the transport of coffee from the hinterland to the Company’s warehouses on the coast. The introduction of the pedati brought to an end the use of pack anima
Source: F. de Haan – Priangan, vl. 1, p. 165
The Great Trunk Road with change of horses near Cianjur (photo pre-1880)
Source: KITLV Collection
The Great Trunk Road at Puncak (1875). Buffalo teams stood by to help carts on the steep sections.
Source: F. de Haan – Priangan, vl. 1, p. 485
Coffee warehouse on the Citarum river. The boats waiting to be loaded are owned by a private company contracted for shipping the coffee beans to the coast (photo pre-1880).
Source: KITLV Collection
Kraton of the regent in Cianjur. His residence-cum-office was destroyed by an earthquake in 1879.
Source: KITLV Collection
Office of the Resident in Bandung. The seat of the Dutch colonial bureaucracy in the Priangan Regencies was initially in the Cianjur foothills but was relocated here in 1864. The building had, of course, to exceed the kraton of the regent of Bandung in ma
Source: KITLV Collection
The district head of Banjaran surrounded by his retinue of servants and officials. [Banjaran lies to the south of Bandung, at the foot of the Malabar mountain.] A payung is held above the wedana’s head to demonstrate his authority (photo prior to 1880).
Source: KITLV Collection
Ferry on the Citarum river near Cianjur. A Dutch civil servant is waiting with his carriage for the crossing. He is accompanied by a panghulu, a high-ranking religious official who is in charge of the district mosque (photo pre-1880).
Source: KITLV Collection
A gardu (watchhouse) alongside the road on the outskirts of Batavia. Since the time of Daendel’s authoritarian rule, each village in Java had to be guarded at night by watchmen to ward off danger and raise the alarm by beating the drum hanging at the entr
Source: KITLV Collection
Wasada tea estate in the hills above Garut, owned by K.F. Holle (photo pre-1874)
Source: KITLV Collection
Archival sources
Index of names
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