The British government did accordingly alter the whole system of revenue. The subject was forced upon its attention, not only by the desire which every humane and liberal administration must feel, to promote the happiness of its subjects, but by considerations of a prudential nature. The resources of the country had sunk under a capricious and tyrannical system of exaction; industry was paralyzed, and confidence was destroyed. The opportunity for effecting a reformation was favourable, our means ample, and we had nothing to dread from the opposition of those interested in supporting abuses: it was, therefore, resolved to abolish all oppressive taxes, and to come immediately upon the soil for support of our establishments, by appropriating a fixed portion of its produce, leaving the full enjoyment of the remainder to the cultivator, with every facility for turning his industry to account. What was done in consequence, by the land revenue arrangements, has been seen in the account given of landed tenure.
The subjects of the colony were freed from the sway of their chiefs, who were no longer permitted to demand at pleasure their services or their property. These chiefs were compensated for the loss of their former influence by salaries in money or allotments of land, which they either held on condition of performing the police duties, or collecting the revenue. When paid by the rent of land, they were permitted to exact no more than the assessment settled by government. No arbitrary power was allowed them to disturb the peasant in the enjoyment of the remainder, or to drag him from his home and his duties to his family, for the purpose of swelling their idle pomp, or performing services about their person or household. The Chinese farmers of the revenue in Chéribon and other districts, having oppressed the people by every rapacious and tyrannical expedient, were, by the discontinuance of the farms, deprived of the power they had exercised over the persons and property of the natives. Forced services and all deliveries of produce at inadequate rates on government account were abolished; and for whatever colonial produce or supplies might be required for the public service, the fair market price was ordered to be paid. Duties on the transport of goods from one part of the country to another, and on the sale of commodities at markets or bazars, were, for the most part, abolished, as injurious to trade and discouraging to agricultural industry. The system of farming the import and export duties, which existed under the Dutch, was likewise annulled, and collectors were appointed to receive the duties immediately for government. Internal duties, of the nature of tolls and market dues, had been universally, though secretly, levied by the Chinese, in Chéribon and other places, in direct opposition to the orders of government and the terms of their engagement. This abuse, engrafted on the farming system, incalculably aggravated its evils and called loudly for redress. The farmer thrust his rapacious hand into every place where there was the least prospect of gain, and limited his demand only by the capacity of the merchant to satisfy it, or by an ill-defined custom, which might be perverted almost at pleasure, so as to accommodate itself to any exaction. The evils resulting from this mode of raising a revenue may easily be calculated, when it is stated, that, for a very trifling contribution to government by the farmer, duties were levied upon internal transport amounting to nearly fifty per cent. on the value of the commodities transported. Rice, on its transport from one part of the island to another, had been liable to duties of about forty-six per cent. Regulations were made for fixing the amount of import duties, and equalizing them over the island.
The restoration of the Dutch Indian empire to the sovereign of the Netherlands, at a period when these important changes were only in progress, may have perhaps prevented the full accomplishment by the English of the details in some districts, but the principles of the new system were not only introduced and thoroughly understood in all the more populous districts under the European government, but an experience of three years fully demonstrated the advantages resulting from it to the public revenue. It would have been attended with great immediate loss, without any corresponding future gain, to have abolished at once all the former sources of revenue; but the thorough change of system was declared, and the principles of it were acted upon, as far as was consistent with the security of public tranquillity and the realization of the current resources of the country; and the results of these arrangements, as far as they went, proved that a land rent might, even with the existing taxes in the capitals, &c. be realized at the rate of at least six rupees annually from each cultivator, or after the abolition of the taxes bearing on agriculture, at the average rate of four Spanish dollars from each cultivator, giving in the one case a rental for the whole island of about six millions of rupees, and in the other of four millions of Spanish dollars, or at five shillings the dollar, a million sterling. Of this one-fourth would accrue to the native princes, and the remainder to the European government. The particulars of the land revenue settlement effected in each district, and the detailed resources of the different parts of the island, will be particularly noticed in the statistical accounts which will appear in a subsequent part of this volume, when the subject of revenue will be again adverted to; and, in the mean time, it may be sufficient, for the purpose of shewing the general resources, to refer to the annexed table, exhibiting the revenues and expenses of the Javan government for a period of three favourable years under the old Dutch Company, for three years under the administration of Marshal Daendels, when its real resources were first called forth and the revenue was higher than before known, and for the first three years under the British government, of which alone, the accounts are yet closed. The dependencies included in this table do not include the Moluccas or Spice Islands, the administration of which under the British government was kept distinct from that of Java.
By this statement it will appear, that the revenues actually realized in cash, on Java, in the year 1814-15, and before the land revenue arrangements had become fully effectual, amounted to upwards of six millions and a half of rupees: to this may be added one-third more for the revenue of the native provinces, making a total revenue of the island exceeding eight millions and a half of rupees, or above a million sterling.
From a colony which was able to furnish at such a moment so extensive a revenue from its own internal resources, after the drains, checks, and restrictions to which it had been subjected during the last two centuries, what might not have been expected, had confidence been once established in the permanency of the government, and the tide of British capital been once fairly turned into it?
FOOTNOTES:
[74] The inhabitants of these Islands are strikingly alive to a sense of shame; a feeling, which is heightened by the influence of a tradition among the Maláyus, that, on the first establishment of the Malayan nation, the islanders stipulated, that neither they nor their descendants should ever be put to shame. The tradition runs as follows:
"Then Ampu and Maling made obeisance to Sangsapurba (a prince who had arrived in Sumatra from Western India, and who is supposed to have founded the Malayan empire) and represented to him that Demang Lebar Daon (chieftain broad leaf of Palembang), had a daughter. Sangsapurba accordingly sent to ask her in marriage; but he excused himself, alleging, that she would probably be struck with sickness, and that he would only resign her to him as a wife on certain conditions. These conditions were, that, on Sangsapurba marrying his daughter, all the family of Demang Lebar Daon should submit themselves to him; but that Sangsapurba should engage, both for himself and his posterity, that they should receive a liberal treatment; and, in particular, that when they committed a fault, they should never be exposed to shame nor opprobrious language, but if their fault was great, that they should be put to death according to the law. Sangsapurba agreed to these conditions; but he requested, in his turn, that the descendants of Demang Lebar Daon should never move any treasonable practices against his descendants, even though they should become tyrannical. 'Very well,' said Demang Lebar Daon; 'but if your descendants break your agreements, probably mine will do the same.' These conditions were mutually agreed to, and the parties swore to perform them, imprecating the divine vengeance to turn their authority upside down who should infringe these agreement. From this condition it is, that none of the Malayan rajas ever expose their Malayan subjects to disgrace or shame: they never bind them, nor hang them, nor give them opprobrious language; and whenever a raja exposes his subjects to disgrace, it is the certain token of the destruction of his country. Hence also it is, that none of the Malayan race ever engage in rebellion, or turn their faces from their own rajahs, even though their conduct be bad, and their proceedings tyrannical."—Malàyan Annals.
[75] See Report on the Districts of Japára, by the Resident Dornick, in the year 1812.
[76] See a further account of this work under the head Literature.