The History of Java, v. 1-2

by Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles

EASTERN DISTRICTS.

The Dutch, in acquiring these extensive and valuable provinces on the sea coast, were considered to have acquired the same right as had previously been enjoyed by the native sovereigns, and deemed it advisable to continue the long-established principles and forms of native government. In the same manner, therefore, as the emperors of Java were looked upon as the ultimate proprietors of the land in their dominions, the Dutch Company were considered as possessing the same right with respect to the provinces under their immediate administration; and the princes of Java having been in the habit of entrusting the government, police, and revenue of the different provinces to inferior chiefs, the same system was adhered to under the Dutch. The native system of drawing again the revenues of government from these inferior chieftains, by means of contributions in kind, in money, and by occasional fees and presents, was also maintained; a portion of the common class of inhabitants under the native government being assigned to the performance of different sorts of public works, transports for government, the repair of the roads, the construction of public buildings, the guarding of public stores, the loading and unloading of government vessels, the cutting of grass, the cutting of fire-wood, the keeping a police guard, and other offices, the same principle was adopted under the management of the Dutch, and as under the native form of administration a reward for these feudal services was granted, by the use of an assignment of rice fields allotted either to individuals or to certain classes of workmen, but withdrawn from them as soon as the public duty ceased to be performed, the same mode of remuneration was also adopted by the Dutch.

These principles of administration being combined with the mercantile interests of the Dutch Company, gave rise to certain contracts, which the native chiefs of the different districts (termed by the Dutch Regents) were compelled to enter into on their appointment, for the annual delivery to the Company, either without payment, which was called a contingent, or for a price far below that of the market, which was termed a forced delivery at a fixed price, of such quantity of rice, pepper, cotton, indigo, and other articles, as the market and present state of trade and commerce made most desirable; while the planting of coffee and the cutting of teak timber was always considered as a feudal service, for which, besides the use of a certain portion of rice fields, allotted to the individuals or villagers employed, a certain payment was made, about equivalent to the expenses of transportation to the government yards or storehouses.

The administration of the Eastern Districts, including Madúra, was vested in a governor and council for the north-east coast of Java. The governor was, at the same time, director of the Company's trade, and resided at Semárang. Subordinate to this government was that called Gezaghebber and council, established at Surabáya, the chief place of the east point of Java; while in the other principal districts along the coast, as at Tegal Pekalóngan, Japára, Jawána, &c. residents were fixed: no direct correspondence from the eastern part of the island was maintained with the government of Batavia, except by the governor, usually termed the governor of Java, or by the governor and council. Even the residents at the native courts of Súra Kérta and Yúgya Kérta, only communicated with government through him. By him the succession to the throne of the Susúnan and of the sultan was generally determined; the appointments of native chiefs and regents were made on his proposal; the Company's farms and duties for the Eastern Districts were sold by him; and though he had literally no salary whatever from the treasury of government, he was supposed to draw from his situation a yearly revenue of between three and four hundred thousand dollars. At the same time the correspondence with the Eastern Districts was neither very regular nor very expeditious, and the management of the Company's affairs in those districts was as much a mystery to the chief government at Batavia, as the governor of Semárang chose to make it.

This system continued, without any essential alteration, until after the arrival of Marshal Daendals in 1808.

Some of the contingents, such as indigo, cotton yarn, pepper, &c. to which, however, the regents had not without great reluctance submitted for many years, were then indeed partially abolished; but, on the other hand, all the peculations of the Dutch servants residing along the coast, who had for their own private emolument raised the deliveries, chiefly of rice, at some places to double, and at others to more than double the quantity legally assessed on the regents, at the same time paying for them at some places two-thirds, and at others only half the price assigned by the government, were at once transferred and confirmed to government, by a single decree, ordering, without previous inquiry or reserve, that all the produce which had been usually delivered to the respective residents along the coast, under whatever denomination, should, in the same quantities and with their surplus weight, be for the future delivered to government, and that no higher prices should be granted for the same than that which the residents used to pay.

Equally inconsistent and oppressive in its consequences was a measure by which, on the one hand, the wages of private labour and services were raised to an unusual price, while on the other, the public works, the public transports, and the plantations of coffee, were carried on either gratuitously or at the former inadequate rate. This regulation raised the price of all the first necessaries of life, and principally of rice, which the common classes of the inhabitants felt as a heavier grievance than any they had ever experienced from the former system. Till then, the colonial administration had always, as far as was consistent with their own monopoly and forced delivery of produce at fixed rates, taken particular care to keep down the price of rice and salt as much as possible.

But a measure, still more pernicious in its consequences, was that by which the native regents were each of them subjected to a contribution in hard cash, while at the same time the power of levying taxes on the inhabitants of these districts was left in their hands; a system which, in all cases, afforded them a pretext, and in many an apology, for the most vexatious oppression.

The commendation which is due to this administration is rather founded on those arrangements which had a tendency to prevent peculations in the inferior European servants in every department, and on the abolition of the subordinate governments of Semárang and Surabáya. Fixed salaries were allowed to the residents; they were prohibited from keeping private vessels, and from all trade in the products of their districts. The sale of the government farms and duties was made public, and in a great measure free from corruption, by which means they were immediately raised to more than three times the former amount: each branch of public expenditure and receipt was fixed and ascertained; new and practicable roads were established; the appointment of every native, from the first rank as low as a Demáng, was reserved to the government alone; the Javan custom of pawning the person for a small sum of money was prohibited; fees and presents were abolished. By such measures, a much more regular, active, pure, and efficient administration was established on Java than ever existed at any former period of the Dutch Company.