In My Account Of Northern Celebes, I Shall
Show How Successfully The Same System Has Been Applied To A
People In A Very Different State Of Civilization From The
Javanese; And In The Meanwhile Will State In The Fewest Words
Possible What That System Is.
The mode of government now adopted in Java is to retain the whole
series of native rulers, from the village chief up to princes,
who, under the name of Regents, are the heads of districts about
the size of a small English county.
With each Regent is placed a
Dutch Resident, or Assistant Resident, who is considered to be
his "elder brother," and whose "orders" take the form of
"recommendations," which are, however, implicitly obeyed. Along
with each Assistant Resident is a Controller, a kind of inspector
of all the lower native rulers, who periodically visits every
village in the district, examines the proceedings of the native
courts, hears complaints against the head-men or other native
chiefs, and superintends the Government plantations. This brings
us to the "culture system," which is the source of all the wealth
the Dutch derive from Java, and is the subject of much abuse in
this country because it is the reverse of "free trade." To
understand its uses and beneficial effects, it is necessary first
to sketch the common results of free European trade with
uncivilized peoples.
Natives of tropical climates have few wants, and, when these are
supplied, are disinclined to work for superfluities without some
strong incitement. With such a people the introduction of any new
or systematic cultivation is almost impossible, except by the
despotic orders of chiefs whom they have been accustomed to obey,
as children obey their parents. The free competition of European
traders, however introduces two powerful inducements to exertion.
Spirits or opium is a temptation too strong for most savages to
resist, and to obtain these he will sell whatever he has, and
will work to get more. Another temptation he cannot resist, is
goods on credit. The trader offers him bay cloths, knives, gongs,
guns, and gunpowder, to be paid for by some crop perhaps not yet
planted, or some product yet in the forest. He has not sufficient
forethought to take only a moderate quantity, and not enough
energy to work early and late in order to get out of debt; and
the consequence is that he accumulates debt upon debt, and often
remains for years, or for life, a debtor and almost a slave. This
is a state of things which occurs very largely in every part of
the world in which men of a superior race freely trade with men
of a lower race. It extends trade no doubt for a time, but it
demoralizes the native, checks true civilization - and does not
lead to any permanent increase in the wealth of the country; so
that the European government of such a country must be carried on
at a loss.
The system introduced by the Dutch was to induce the people,
through their chiefs, to give a portion of their till, to the
cultivation of coffee, sugar, and other valuable products. A
fixed rate of wages - low indeed, but, about equal to that of all
places where European competition has not artificially raised it-
-was paid to the labourers engaged in clearing the ground and
forming the plantations under Government superintendence. The
produce is sold to the Government at a low, fixed price. Out of
the net profit a percentage goes to the chiefs, and the remainder
is divided among the workmen. This surplus in good years is
something considerable. On the whole, the people are well fed and
decently clothed, and have acquired habits of steady industry and
the art of scientific cultivation, which must be of service to
them in the future. It must be remembered, that the Government
expended capital for years before any return was obtained; and if
they now derive a large revenue, it is in a way which is far less
burthensome, and far more beneficial to the people, than any tax
that could be levied.
But although the system may be a good one, and as well adapted to
the development of arts and industry in a half civilized people
as it is to the material advantage of the governing country, it
is not pretended that in practice it is perfectly carried out.
The oppressive and servile relations between chiefs and people,
which have continued for perhaps a thousand years, cannot be at
once abolished; and some evil must result from those relations,
until the spread of education and the gradual infusion of
European blood causes it naturally and insensibly to disappear.
It is said that the Residents, desirous of showing a large
increase in the products of their districts, have sometimes
pressed the people to such continued labour on the plantations
that their rice crops have been materially diminished, and famine
has been the result. If this has happened, it is certainly not a
common thing, and is to be set down to the abuse of the system,
by the want of judgment, or want of humanity in the Resident.
A tale has lately been written in Holland, and translated into
English, entitled "Max Havelaar; or, the "Coffee Auctions of the
Dutch Trading Company," and with our usual one-sidedness in all
relating to the Dutch Colonial System, this work has been
excessively praised, both for its own merits, and for its
supposed crushing exposure of the iniquities of the Dutch
government of Java. Greatly to my surprise, I found it a very
tedious and long-winded story, full of rambling digressions; and
whose only point is to show that the Dutch Residents and
Assistant Residents wink at the extortions of the native princes;
and that in some districts the natives have to do work without
payment, and have their goods taken away from them without
compensation. Every statement of this kind is thickly
interspersed with italics and capital letters; but as the names
are all fictitious, and neither dates, figures, nor details are
ever given, it is impossible to verify or answer them.
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