| In | 1812 | 73 | ships | 29,450 |
| 1813 | 73 | 37,546 | ||
| 1814 | 125 | 56,942 |
By an official return made in March 1816, it appears that the total quantity of tonnage in vessels boarded on their passage through the Straits of Súnda, amounted in 1812 to 45,000 tons; in 1813, to 56,000 tons; in 1814, to 64,000 tons; and in 1815, to 130,000 tons; to which, adding a third for vessels which passed without being boarded, the whole amount of tonnage for these four years, would be 390,000, the quantity in the fourth of these years being nearly triple that of the first.
The commerce of Java may be considered under the two general divisions of the native and the European, the former including the internal and coasting trade, with that of the Malayan Archipelago in general; the latter comprehending that carried on by Europeans and Americans with India, China and Japan, Africa, America, and Europe.
Java has already been described as a great agricultural country. It has long been considered as the granary of the Eastern Islands.
The southern coast is for the most part inaccessible, and seldom visited by traders; but along the north coast there are no less than thirteen principal ports, besides numerous other intermediate and less considerable ones, frequented by native vessels at all seasons of the year. Many of these are sheltered, and form safe harbours in all weather, as Bantam, Batavia, Rembáng, Grésik, and Surabáya. Even where the vessels lie in an open roadstead, the wind is seldom sufficiently strong to render the anchorage unsafe. Several of the rivers are navigable for many miles into the interior, and most of them are capable of receiving native vessels into the heart of the town, through which they generally run; but the rivers of Java, as well as those of the eastern coast of Sumatra and the western coast of Borneo, are for the most part obstructed at their entrance by extensive bars, which preclude the admission of vessels of any very considerable burthen. Piers have been run out in many places, to remedy this inconvenience; but in consequence of the quantity of soil annually carried down, the bars or banks are continually increasing, and in some places, as at Tégal, have nearly blocked up the communication between the rivers and the sea.
The produce and manufactures of the country are conveyed from one district to another and to these maritime capitals, either by water or land carriage. The principal navigable rivers to the westward, are those which disembogue themselves below Táng'ran, Kráwang, and Indramáyu, and the produce brought down by them is usually conveyed to Batavia. To the eastward, the great Sólo river, which is navigable from Súra-kérta, affords, with the Kedíri, the principal and only outlets from the native provinces by water towards the northern coast. Down the former, which empties itself by several mouths, near Grésik, into the great harbour of Surabáya, during the rains, large quantities of the produce of the richest provinces of the interior are conveyed. The boats employed, which are of considerable burthen, return with cargoes of salt. This river runs through many valuable teak forests, and consequently affords the means of easy transport for the timber; an advantage which is also derived from several smaller rivers on the northern coast, particularly in the neighbourhood of the principal building yards. Facilities of the same kind are also found at most of the sea ports, which are generally seated on rivers passing through forests in the interior, down which timber required for house-building and the construction of small craft is floated with ease. An inland navigation is carried on to a considerable extent, by means of small canals, in Demák and some of the neighbouring districts, where it is common, even during the harvest, at the driest season of the year, to observe innumerable boats with their light sails crossing an extensive, flat, and highly cultivated country and traversing the corn-fields in various directions. In the rich and fertile delta of Surabáya, the whole produce of the adjacent country is conveyed by water carriage, generally on light rafts constructed of a few stems of the plantain tree.
Goods not conveyed by water carriage, are usually carried on the backs of oxen or horses, or on the shoulders of men and women, carts not being generally used, except in the western districts, where the population is thin, or in some of the more eastern districts, particularly those recently under Chinese direction. The cart of the western districts, termed pedáti, is of clumsy construction, running on two large solid wheels, from five to six feet in diameter, and from one to two inches broad, on a revolving axle, and drawn by two buffaloes. It is the ordinary conveyance of goods to the capital, within a range of about sixty miles from Batavia.
Few countries can boast of roads, either of a better description, or of a greater extent, than some of those in Java. A high post road, passable for carriages at all seasons of the year, runs from Anyer, on the western side of Bantam, to within twenty miles of Bányuwángi, the eastern extremity of the Island, being a distance of not less than eight hundred English miles. Along this road, at intervals of less than five miles, are regular post stations and relays of carriage horses. A portion of it towards the west, which proceeded into the interior, and passed over some high and mountainous tracts, was found to occasion great delay and inconvenience to passengers, and to impose an oppressive duty upon those inhabitants, who, residing in the neighbourhood, were obliged to lend the use of their cattle, or the assistance of their personal labour, to aid carriages in ascending the steeps; this part of the line has therefore been abandoned, and a new road has recently been constructed along the low lands, from Batavia to Chéribon, by which not only the former inequalities are avoided, but a distance of fifty miles is saved. This route is now so level, that a canal might easily be cut along its side, and carried on nearly through all the maritime districts of the eastward, by which the convenience of inland navigation might be afforded them, for conveying the commodities continually required for the consumption and exportation of the capital. Besides this main road from one extreme to the other, there is also a high military road, equally well constructed, which crosses the Island from north to south, leading to the two native capitals of Súra-kérta and Yúg'ya-kérta, and consequently to within a few miles of the South Sea. Cross roads have also been formed wherever the convenience or advantage of Europeans required them; and there is no part of the Island to which the access is less difficult. But it is not to be concluded, that these communications contribute that assistance to agriculture or trade on Java, which such roads would afford in Europe: their construction has, on the contrary, in many instances, been destructive to whole districts, and when completed by his own labour, or the sacrifice of the lives of his neighbours, the peasant was debarred from their use, and not permitted to drive his cattle along them, while he saw the advantages they were capable of yielding reserved for his European masters, that they might be enabled to hold a more secure possession of his country. They were principally formed during the blockade of the Island, and were intended to facilitate the conveyance of stores, or the passage of troops necessary for its military defence. The inhabitants, however, felt the exclusion the less, as good inferior roads were often made by the side of these military roads, and bye-roads branched off through all parts of the country, so that the internal commerce met with no impediment for the want of direct or convenient lines of communication.
Nor is it discouraged by the want of understood or established places of exchange. Bazars or public markets (here called pékan) are established in every part of the country, and usually held twice a-week, if not oftener. The market days are in general regulated by what are called pásar days, being a week of five days, similar to that by which the markets in South America appear to be regulated. At these markets are assembled frequently some thousands of people, chiefly women, on whom the duty devolves of carrying the various productions of the country to these places of traffic. In some districts, extensive sheds are erected for the accommodation of the people; but, in general, a temporary covering of thatch, to shelter them from the rays of the sun, is made for the occasion, and thought sufficient. Where the market is not held within a town of considerable size, the assemblage usually takes place under a large tree, in a spot occupied from immemorial usage for that purpose. In these markets there are regular quarters appropriated for the grain merchant, the cloth merchant, venders of iron, brass, and copper ware, and dealers in the various small manufactures of the country, as well as those of India, China, and Europe. Prepared eatables of every kind, as well as all the fruits and vegetables in request, occupy a considerable space in the fair, and find a rapid sale. In the more extensive bazars, as at Sólo, the kris handle makers have their particular quarter, and in an adjoining square, horses and oxen are exposed for sale.
Small duties are generally levied in these bazars, the collection of which was formerly farmed out to Chinese; but it being found that they exacted more than the settled or authorized rate, and that they contrived, by means of the influence which their office conferred, to create a monopoly in their own favour, not only of the articles of trade but of many of the necessaries of life, that system has latterly been relinquished wherever practicable, and government has taken the management of that portion of the public revenue into its own hands. In the bazars, accordingly, regulated under the immediate superintendence of its officers, extensive sheds are built, and a small compensation only is required for the use of them by those who there intend to expose their goods for sale. This duty is collected at the entrance into the market-place, and is taken in lieu of all other taxes or customs whatever, formerly levied on the transit or sale of native commodities. It is to be regretted, that this improvement had not been extended to the native provinces, where every article of produce and manufacture is still impeded in its progress through the country to the place of consumption or export, by toll duties and other impolitic exactions, and charged on its arrival there with heavy bazar duties, to the discouragement of industry and enterprize, and the depression of agriculture and trade, in a degree not compensated by a proportionate benefit to the revenue[57].