Coffee Economy in Late Colonial Netherlands East Indies: Estates and Capital, 1890–1940

https://doi.org/10.22146/lembaran-sejarah.33509

Dias Pradadimara(1*)

(1) 
(*) Corresponding Author

Abstract


This paper provides an attempt to look at the coffee economy in late colonial Netherlands East Indies, by focusing on the private estates that produced coffee and on the capital-owning class who invested in these estates. Since mid-19th century there was an increasing accessibility for would-be planters to gain access to land, especially in Java and Sumatra. Attracted to the increasing, if volatile, the world price of the commodity, coffee-producing estates were established in great numbers across the archipelago, despite the threat of the coffee leaf rust plantdisease. Only the attraction to rubber planting and the economic crisis in the 1930s dampened the enthusiasm. At the same time, the individual planters and Indiesbased companies who controlled most of the coffee producing estates in the late 19th century were gradually replaced by incorporated companies both based in the Indies and in the Netherlands. The increasing flow of capital following the rubber boom in the early 20th century made the role of individual planters and Indiesbased companies declined further.

Keywords


coffee; estates; capital; planters; kopi; perkebunan; modal; pemilik perkebunan

Full Text:

PDF


References

Baardewijk, Frans van (1994). “Rural Response to Intensifying Colonial Exploitation. Coffee, Sate and Society in Central and East Java, 1830-1880”,

in: G. J. Schutte (ed). State and Trade in the Indonesian Archipelago. Leiden: KITLV Press.

Bastin, John (1957). The Native Policies of Sir Stamford Raffles in Java and Sumatra. An Economic Interpretation. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Bosma, Ulbe & Raben, Remco (2008). Being “Dutch” in the Indies: A History of Creolisation and Empire, 1500-1920. Singapore: NUS Press.

Bree, L. de (1938). Gedenkboek van de Javasche Bank, 1828-24 Januari-1928 I, Weltevreden: Kolff.

Broeze, Frank (2005). “A Scottish Merchant in Batavia (1820-1840): Gillean Maclaine and Dutch Connections” in: Ina Baghdiantz McCabe, Gelina Harlaftis & Ioanna Pepelase Minoglou (eds). Diaspora Entrepreneurial Networks: Four Centuries of History. Oxford: Berg.

Broersma, R. (1916-1917). “Particuliere Landerijen in West Java,” Koloniale Studien 1, 3.

Campo, J.N.F.M. a (1996). “The Rise of Corporate Enterprise in Colonial Indonesia”, in: J. Th. Lindblad (ed). Historical Foundations of a National Economy in Indonesia, 1890s-1990s. Amsterdam: North-Holland.

Carey, Peter (1986). “Waiting for the Just King: The Agrarian World of SouthCentral Java from Giyanti (1755) to the Java War (1825-30)”, Modern Asian Studies 20, 1: 59-137.

Creutzberg, P. (1975). Changing Economy in Indonesia 1 Indonesia’s Export Crops, 1816-1940. The Hauge: Martinus Nijhoff.

Dobbin, Christine (1983). Islamic Revivalism in a Changing Peasant Economy. Central Sumatra, 1787-1847. London: Curzon Press.

Encyclopaedie van Nederlandsch Indie I.

Forrest, Denys (1973). Tea for The British. The Social and Economic History of a Famous Trade. London: Chatto & Windus.

Gedenkboek 1863-1938, 1938.

Gudmundson, Lowell W. (2003). “On Paths Not Taken. Commercial Capital and Coffee Production in Costa Rica”, in: William Gervase Clarence-Smith,

and Steven Topik (eds). The Global Coffee Economy in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, 1500-1989. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 335-359.

Henley, David (2005). Fertility, Food and Fever. Population, Economy and Environment in North and Central Sulawesi, 1600-1930. Leiden: KITLV Press.

Hoedt, Theopile George Emil (1930). Indische Bergcultuurondernemingen voornamelijk in Zuid Sumatra. Wageningen: H. Veenman & Zonen.

Houben, Vincent (1994). Kraton and Kumpeni. Leiden: KITLV Press.

Jonker, Joost (1991). “Sinecures or Sinews of Power? Interlocking Directorships and Bank-Industry Relations in the Netherlands, 1910-1940”, Economic and Social History of the Netherlands 3: 119-131.

Kano, Hiroyoshi (2008). “Indonesian Exports, Peasant Agriculture, and the World Economy, 1850-2000”, Economic Structures in a Southeast Asian State, Singapore: NUS Press.

Korthal Altes, W. L. (1991). Changing Economy in Indonesia 12 A. General Trade Statistics, 1822-1940. Amsterdam: KIT.

Kuitenbrouwer, Maarten & Huibert Schijf (1998). “The Dutch Colonial Business at the Turn of the Century”, Itinerario 22, 1: 61-86.

Lindblad, J. Th. (1993). “Ondernemen in Nederlands-Indie c.1900-1940”, Bijdragen en Mededelingen betreffende de Geschiedenis der Nederlanden 108, 4: 699-710.

Paerels, B. H. (1946). “Bevolkingskoffiecultuur”, in: C. J. J. van Hall and C. van de Koppel (eds). De Landbouw in de Indische Archipel Deel IIb Genootmiddelen en Specerijen. ‘s-Gravenhage: van Hoeve, pp. 89-119.

Paige, Jeffrey (1997). Coffee and Power. Revolution and the Rise of Democracy in Central America. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Pakhuismeesteren van de Thee (1924). “De Java Thee en de Nederlandsche Markt”, in: Gedenkboek der Nederlandsch Indische Theecultuur, 1824-1924. Weltevreden: G. Kolff, pp. 70-82.

Pelzer, Karl J. (1978). Planter and Peasant. Colonial Policy and the Agrarian Struggle in East Sumatra, 1863-1947. ‘s-Gravenhage: Martinus Nijhoff.

Potter, Lesley (2008). “Production of People and Nature, Rice, and Coffee. The Semendo People in South Sumatra and Lampung”, in: Joseph Nevins and Nancy Lee Peluso (eds). Taking Southeast Asia to Market. Commodities, Nature, and People in the Neoliberal Age. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

Taselaar, Arjen (1998). De Nederlandse Koloniale Lobby. Ondernemers en de Indische Politiek, 1914-1940. Leiden: Research School CNWS.

Tate, D. J. M. (1996). The RGA History of the Plantation Industry in the Malay Peninsula. Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press.

Thomas, W. A. (1998). “An Intra Empire Capital Transfer: Shanghai Rubber Company Boom, 1909-1912”, Modern Asian Studies 32, 3.

Ultee, A.J. (1946). “Koffiecultuur der Ondernemingen,” in: C. J. J. van Hall and C. van de Koppel. De Landbouw in de Indische Archipel Deel IIb Genootmiddelen en Specerijen. ‘s-Gravenhage : van Hoeve, pp. 9-88.

Voon Phin Keong (1976). Western Rubber Planting Enterprise in Southeast Asia 1876-1921. Kuala Lumpur: Penerbit Universiti Malaya.



DOI: https://doi.org/10.22146/lembaran-sejarah.33509

Article Metrics

Abstract views : 3367 | views : 4182

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c) 2018 Lembaran Sejarah

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.


ISSN 2620-5882(online) | © 2024 Lembaran Sejarah

View My Stats