[68] Among the exports from Java for the Europe market, no particular notice has been taken in the text of the extent of the spice trade, the produce of the Moluccas having, during the provisional administration of the British government, been conveyed direct from Amboina to the port of London, without being landed and re-assorted at Batavia, as was formerly the case under the Dutch government.
The sovereign Prince of the Netherlands has, by a solemn act, abandoned his right to the feudal services of his native subjects in the Eastern Archipelago, but has at the same time reserved to the state the exclusive monopoly of the spices. It may perhaps have been deemed expedient, in aid of the finances of Great Britain, that this odious monopoly should have been permitted to remain for upwards of five years under her uncontrolled dominion; and that, while the cloves on Amboina were raised by forced services, the nutmeg gardens on Banda should have been cultivated by slaves. There may have been reasons also which induced her to continue the system of extirpation in the neighbouring islands, and to act up to those stipulations for depressing these unhappy countries, for which the Dutch have in all ages been so justly reprobated. But now that the sovereign, to whom they are again ceded, has recommenced the Dutch administration in the Eastern seas, with an appearance of something more like justice, humanity, and sound policy than we have been in the habit of witnessing for the last two centuries, it is to be hoped that the profits of two annual cargoes of spices, whatever they may amount to, will never be considered of sufficient importance to tempt a great and magnanimous nation longer to trample on the hallowed rights of humanity, and to persevere in a system, which, while it may have afforded a temporary profit, has tended to degrade, depopulate, and destroy the fairest countries in creation. If the nutmeg and clove trees were allowed to grow where Providence would seem to have ordained that in their natural course they should, and this trade were opened to a free commerce, nutmegs might perhaps be procured as cheap as betel-nut, and cloves as cheap as pepper.
"In the Spice Islands," observes Adam Smith, "the Dutch are said to burn all the spiceries which a fertile season produces beyond what they expect to dispose of in Europe, with such a profit as they think sufficient. In the islands where they have no settlements they give a premium to those who collect the blossoms and green leaves of the clove and nutmeg trees which naturally grow there, but which this savage policy has now, it is said, completely exterminated. Even in the islands where they have settlements, they have very much reduced, it is said, the number of those trees. If the produce even of their own islands was much greater than what suited their market, the natives, they suspect, might find means to convey some part of it to other nations; and the best way, they imagine, to secure their own monopoly, is to take care that no more shall grow than what they themselves carry to market. By different acts of oppression, they have reduced the population of the Moluccas nearly to the number which is sufficient to supply with fresh provisions and other necessaries of life, their own insignificant garrisons, and such of their ships as occasionally come there for a cargo of spices. Under the government of the Portuguese, however, these islands are said to have been tolerably well peopled."
Had Dr. Smith written at the present day he might have heightened the picture by observing, that so far from even being able to supply the garrisons, these islands have long been considered incapable of raising sufficient supplies for their own subsistence; they have for many years depended almost entirely on Java for rice and the common necessaries of life, and latterly supplies have been sent to them from Bengal.
[69] This general remark is not intended to apply to the traders of Pinang (Prince of Wales' Island), who are in general well-informed and most honourable in their dealings, possessing great experience in the trade, and acquaintance with the habits and character of the natives: but this establishment is comparatively of recent date, and the very general view here taken has reference to the intercourse which has subsisted during the last century.
[70] See an able report on the Eastern Islands, by R. T. Farquhar, Esq. late Lieutenant-Governor of Prince of Wales' Island.
[71] Gold.—From a calculation recently made, it appears that the number of Chinese employed in the gold mines at Mentrada and other places on the western side of Borneo, amounts to not less than thirty-two thousand working men. When a mine affords no more than four bengkals (weighing about two dollars each, or something less than a tahil) per man in the year, it is reckoned a losing concern, and abandoned accordingly. Valuing the bengkal at eighteen Spanish dollars, which is a low rate of estimation, and supposing only four bengkals produced in the year by the labour of each man, the total produce is 128,000 bengkals, worth 2,224,000 Spanish dollars, equal to 556,000l., at the rate of five shillings the dollar. But it is asserted, that upon the general run of the mines, seldom less than six bengkals per head has been obtained, and in very rainy seasons seven. Taking the medium at six and a half bengkals, the 32,000 Chinese will procure 208,000 bengkals, which at eighteen Spanish dollars the bengkal is 3,744,000 Spanish dollars, equal to 936,000l. Such is the result of a very moderate calculation of the produce of these mines. According to an estimate made in the year 1812, the annual produce of the mines on the west coast of Borneo was estimated at 4,744,000 Spanish dollars, being an excess of a million sterling. The quantity of gold procured on Sumatra, the supposed golden Chersonesus of the ancients, is according to Mr. Marsden about 30,800 ounces, which, at 4l. sterling the ounce, is worth 123,200l., equal to 492,800 Spanish dollars.
With respect to the disposal of the gold from the mines of Borneo, it may be observed, that every native Chinese, whether employed in the mines, in agriculture, as merchant or artificer, manages every year to remit at least the value of one tahil, more or less, of gold to his relations in China. These remittances are generally made by the junks in gold, as it saves freight, is more easily smuggled on shore without the notice of the rapacious Mandarin, and remitted over-land to the residence of their families. Taking the Chinese male population who can thus remit at double the number employed in the mines, and supposing one half to be born in the country, most of whom may not remit to China, this remittance would amount to 34,000 bengkals or tahils, which at eighteen Spanish dollars is 612,000 dollars, or 153,000l.
It is calculated that, one year with another, at least five hundred Chinese return in the junks to their native country with a competency. Several have been known to take away one thousand bengkals of gold, many from three to five hundred, but very few return before they have cleared a competency of two thousand dollars, or from one hundred to one hundred and twenty tahil of gold. This goes partly in gold; though they prefer investing a part of it in tin from Banka, opium, and other articles. Say, however, that they remit one half in gold, five hundred men, at one thousand dollars each, will give five hundred thousand dollars, which added to the small family remittances, accounts for an amount exceeding one million of dollars, or 250,000l. This calculation, however, seems to be far within the mark, and gives less by one half than what is usually stated to be remitted to China from the Bornean mines, which has been estimated at a loose guess at two millions of dollars, or 500,000l.
A further amount of not less than the value of a million of dollars (250,000l.) is supposed to find its way annually to Western India, and principally to Bengal, viâ Batavia, Malacca, and Pinang, for the purchase of opium and piece goods. The surplus enriches Java and some of the other islands, in exchange for salt, tobacco, coarse cloths, &c.