Cornell University Library
GN 635.J3B95 1957 pt.1
Structural changes in Javanese socie!
C.2
31924023504461
3 1924 023 504 461
STRUCTURAL CHANGES
IN JAVANESE SOCIETY:
THE VILLAGE SPHERE
Professor D. H. Burger
being Part I:	"De dorpssfeer" of Structuurveranderingen
in de Javaanse samenleving, published in Indonesia,
2nd year, 1948-49, pp. 3HT-398
(authorized translation by Leslie H. Palmier)
TRANSLATION SERIES
Modern Indonesia Project
Southeast Asia Program
Department of Far Eastern Studies
Cornell University
Ithaca, N. Y.
1957PREFACE
The meagerness of scholarly studies of modern Indonesian society
is generally acknowledged, and for those who do not read either the
Indonesian or Dutch languages the paucity of such writings is espe-
cially great. The object of the Cornell Modern Indonesia Project’s
Translation Series is to make more widely available important
materials in these languages relating to modern Indonesian society.
While the selection of an item for translation is an indication of
its being regarded as important, this does not necessarily imply
endorsement of the views presented. Indeed, it is expected that
during the course of the Series items representing differing points
of view will be published”
One of the more important Dutch studies of twentieth century
Indonesian society to appear during the post-war years has been
Professor D. H. Burger’s monograph Structuurveranderingen in de
Javaanse samenleving (Structural Changes in Javanese Society),
published in Indonesia in seven parts during 1Β4Β-5ϋ. Professor
Burger and the editors of Indonesie have been kind enough to grant
permission for the publication of this translation of Part I of
this important monograph, "De dorpssfeer" ("The Village Sphere").
The Cornell Modern Indonesia Project wishes to express their appre-
ciation to Professor Burger and the editors of Indonesie for granting
this permission.
Translation of this part of Professor Burger’s monograph has
been the work of Mr. L. H. Palmier, Research Fellow in Southeast
Asian Studies at Yale University. Mr. Palmier recently spent two
years in Indonesia under the auspices of the United Kingdom Treasury
Committee for Studentships in Foreign Languages and Cultures. The
Cornell Modern Indonesia Project wishes to express its appreciation
to Mr. Palmier for undertaking this translation. The Project is
also indebted to Miss Ruth T. McVey for her help in editing the
translated manuscript.
George McT. Kahin, Director
Cornell Modern Indonesia Project1
STRUCTURAL CHANGES IN JAVANESE SOCIETY: THE VILLAGE SPHERE
With the coming of the Europeans to Java there came into con-
tact two different cultures, an Eastern and a Western, possessing
completely different social structures. This contact had a pro-
found influence on Javanese culture. In this article an attempt
will be made to make an inventory of these phenomena, laying
emphasis on the economic and social aspect of this problem; the
state of affairs at the outbreak of the last world war will be
given special consideration.
The East India Company, as is known, originally strove only
for commercial and not for political ends. But the defense of its
economic interests involved it in the internal difficulties of the
Javanese states, whereupon as a reward for military help it obtained
territory along the north coast and so, against its will, went _______-
’'from trader to sovereign." This sovereignty still broughtno
administrative responsibility but only meant that the regents were
henceforth appointed not by the princes but by the Company and
that the compulsory deliveries could be claimed directly from the
regents. A completely free hand was otherwise permitted the regents.
Java was at that time still a feudal country. The people
cherished a religious respect for princes and nobility. The com-
pulsory deliveries were enacted in feudal fashion. Economic life
was marked by an almost moneyless economy. The Dutch East India
Company had already appointed "residents," but those were no more
than resident merchants, living at a fixed place ashore, as con-
trasted with the merchants who sailed with the Company’s ships.
Footnote to page 1.
(1) This article is an elaboration on my inaugural speech,
given on 28th October, 1948 as Professor of Indonesian Economy
at Batavia.
A great part of this article had already been written in 1941
as a contribution intended for the Kolonial Tijdschrift /Colonial
Magazine/ but as a consequence of the war was not published. The
manuscript was lost. In the internment camp of Pekalongan and
Sukamiskin I reconstructed the text from memory in the form of
notes, which laid the foundations of this article. This explains
why source references are often lacking or are only vague.
This article may further be considered as a continuation of
my thesis: Deontsluiting van Java’s binnenland voor het
wereldverkeer /The opening of Java’s interior to the world
economy/, 1939. Mostly it is only the conclusions therefrom
that are adopted and for further discussion reference must be
made to the thesis.2
Just after 1800 the true Western administration of the interior
began and with it the deeply penetrating Western influence. On
the foundations laid in the Company’s time the Netherlands Colonial
Government later continued building.
About 1800 the conviction was reached that with the old feudal
system of production no further increase of exports was possible,
but that the country must yet produce more than it did. The
reason for the low level of welfare of the people was sought in
feudalism and it was supposed that as the feudal arbitrariness,
coercion,and oppression were lifted, the population would strive
for a higher living standard. Dirk van Hogendorp therefore
pleaded for the defeudalissation of Javanese society. The power
of the nobility, in his opinion, had to be curtailed; tyranny
and corruption must be fought; legal security and freedom of
persons and good would, he thought, automatically lead to a
Javanese export production from which the mother-country would
profit. Conservative quarters opposed this, pointing out the
enormous injury such measures would cause to the influential chiefs
and fearing that they would lead to war.
Yet Raffles,under the English occupation carried through
reforms of this kind, which, under the name of the "land rent
system" were tried until 1830. The attempt failed, because a
radical defeudalization was still quite impossible. The old
feudal system of production with forced services and deliveries
had to be upheld. It is true that a European Civil Service could
be introduced, which asserted modern principles of government* but
it had to permit too much arbitrary influence on the part of the
chiefs. Wherever the aim was production on a large scale, use
had to be made of the village organization.
The new economy which arose offered a dreary spectacle, did
not lead to greater popular welfare, and contained no promise for
the future. The people did not work towards a higher standard of
living, and there resulted no export production. The lesson was
learned that the country could not be governed without feudalism,
that for export production on a large scale use had to be made of
the village organization, that the development of Java could not
yet come from the Javanese, and that Western leadership in pro-
duction would be necessary.
Raffles * reforms were introduced in the Government lands
without at first meeting any opposition.,, But in the Principali-
ties the people raised the standard of revolt when the Netherlands
Government, simultaneously with the land rent system, attempted
a gradual defeudalization. The repugnance against these attempts
in the extremely feudal Principalities reached a climax when the
Netherlands government forbade the leasing of land. This land-
lease --the renting of village land with its population by the
Javanese nobility to non-Javanese entrepreneurs (2)—strengthened
feudalism; the ban was issued in the interest of the villagers
Footnote on page 3.3
but injured the nobility. The prohibition of land -lease provoked
an uprising which led to the Java War (1825-1830), which thus had
not only international but also internal social origins. The
people followed the nobility in the struggle for the preservation
of feudalism. They set themselves against the Netherlands, the y
\too-progressive7Dutch overlord who attacked feudalism and wished
to Westernize the country. From the national point of view, the
Javanese people lost the war, for they had to give up more of
their national independence. But as for the social aspect, they
won the peace insofar as the Netherlands government henceforth
broke with defeudalization everywhere. In the first place the
hire of land with its population in the Principalities was again
permitted; secondly,the culture system was introduced into Java
outside the Principalities, whereby the influence of the tradi-
tional chiefs was used as far as possible; and thirdly.in the
outer territories it was decided to follow a policy of non-inter-
ference, whereby the Netherlands officials so far as possible had
to remain outside internal difficulties and might not on their
own initiative take action against despotic arbitrariness.
This meant the complete failure of the land rent system,
whose objective a century later still could not fully be reached.
I therefore find it difficult to consider, as still is done,
that Raffles was a great statesman who was before his time. Poli-
tics is the art of the possible and he desired the completely
impossible. He was the type of statesman who desires too much,
wants everything at once, and desires the new to be more beautiful
than is possible and therefore, in van Vollenhoven’s words, desires
nothing.
Both Dirk van Hogendorp and Raffles had borrowed their ideas
from the policy introduced into British India by the English. They
made, however, the fundamental mistake of underestimating the
great difference in^ocial situation already existing at that time
(2) "desa-verhuur": lease of a village with its inhabitants by
a regent to a Chinese trader. The latter was then permitted
to collect the taxes (in labor or produce) which were due to
the Monarch or his representative. Usually in the 18th
century, principally for the requisitioning of rice.
Landverhuur:	Usually in the Principalities of Central Java
after 1800. The Monarch or appanage-holders leased groups
of villages with their inhabitants to European or Chinese
planters. The lessee had the right to plant a part of the
people’s lands and to demand compulsory service from the
people for this purpose.
Particuliere landerijen: Areas of land sold by the European
government from about 1800 to 1813 to Europeans and Chinese.
The owners were entitled to collect taxes from the occupants
of the lands and to demand herendiensten (compulsory services
tor public purposes). These lands lie in the main between
Jakarta and Tjirebon. The greatest part was expropriated
between 1910 and 1930.
Grondverhuur:	Lease of arable fields by the Indonesian
owners to non-Indonesians, principally European sugar mills,
for the planting of sugar-cane. After 1870.4
between the two countries. British India at that time stood eco-
nomically already on a much higher level. It had outgrown the
agrarian, feudalj methods of production. Even economic life in
the interior of the country was on more than a self-sufficiency
level. There was here, a much more highly developed money economy,
which had its origins in Indian society itself. In the 16th cen-
tury and earlier the collection of taxes in gold, the payment of
the salaries pf the Princely officials in money, a regulated coinage
and a pretty highly developed credit and marine insurance system
were already known. Above all, India differed greatly from Java
I in that it produced materials for international trade: these con-
sisted not only of agricultural products such as opium and indigo,
but also, and chiefly, manufactured products—cotton goods, which
found their way around Asia and into Europe. The Javanese interior
on the other hand was marked by a feudal-agrarian system of pro-
duction directed to self-sufficiency.
It is true that Java had known a sea-trade in olden days, but
the island itself produced little for this trade. Javanese trade
even before the days of the Company had generally never been more
than/h. transit trade of spicesyfrom the Moluccas to the Straits of
Malacca, whence they were traded further. About 1800, apart from
coffee produced under compulsory cultivation, Java supplied little
more than rice, which was sold to the Moluccas.
Dutch writers of the beginning of the 19th century are agreed
on this great difference between India and Java. The Factory of
the Netherlands Trading Company (Nederlandse Handel Maatschappij)
in a letter of 2nd September 1826, Muntinghe in a report of 1st
November 1826, Van der Capelle in his report published by Ottow,
and Du Bus in his so-called "Colonissation Report,',' all pointed out
the great difference in development between the two countries. All
were agreed that India stood on a higher level, produced more itself
for trade, had formed more capital and enjoyed more circulation of
money. The Factory was of the opinion that for this reason no
Western leadership for production was necessary in India but was in
Java.
Raffles in his "History of Java" drew various comparisons be-
tween Java and India and thought that Java had a simpler economic
structure than India, that the needs of the people were small, that
Java enjoyed little division of labor and supplied more agricultural
than industrial production for trade. Java was, in his opinion,
the granary of the eastern islands, but it produced no porcelain
as did China, no scarves, cotton goods, and silks as did India.
The British in India limited themselves to trading much more
than the Dutch in the Netherlands Indies. Until 1765 the British
in India were still just merchants, who only bought and sold. They
still possessed no territory, levied no taxes, and wielded no
authority over the country. Only after that year did this change,'
the British East India Company establishing and gradually extending
its authority over the interior. The British administration, how-
ever, continued to identify itself closely with the highly developed
native society.5
The monopoly of the English East India Company was apparently
never so strict as that of the Dutch. The British monopoly in
India was, in the years 1784 and 1793 partially, and in 1813 alto-
gether, destroyed for the benefit of British private traders, who
thereafter could deal directly with Indian merchants. As trade
was made freer, the British administration retired to the exercise
of governmental authority, the administration of justice, and the
levying of taxes to cover the costs of government. Everything
which could impede trade was thus swept away.
This policy, therefore, fitted in a natural way the stage of
development of Indian society, which was marked by a high level
of export production. The problem in India was how the government
must be set up best to encourage the already existing exchange
economy and to further the existing export production. The prob-
lem of Java was how such an exchange economy and such export
production could be created out of nothing.
Raffles, on the other hand, desired to introduce the British-
Indian system of exploitation with the same combination of govern-
ment, indigenous export production, indigenous and Western trade.
In this way India and Java were lumped together, even though no
adequate native export production existed in Java. At one stroke,
the arrears of centuries were to be made up. While in India
this system fitted into the social structure in a sound way, for
success in Java a social revolution whereby an export production
could be created would have been first necessary. The cardinal
mistake of the introduction of the land system into Java on the
British-Indian pattern was, therefore, that the principal differ-
ence in social structure between both countries was ignored. Later
development bears this out. The Indians subsequently produced
modern commerce, industry, and banking. European economic in-
fluence remained relatively less than in Java and what the Euro-
peans began in the economic field was later taken over by Indians
through commercial channels and under their own economic steam.
In 1851, for example, the first mechanical jute-factory was
erected, with Scottish capital. In 1925 there were 264 similar
factories, all of which were in the hands of Indian businessmen,
financed by Indian capital, and employing 300,000 men. In Java
such a development was almost wholly absent. Here export pro-
duction had to be organized by Europeans.
It is noteworthy, moreover, that also in British India a
reaction against Western penetration arose in the middle of the
last century; a penetration which had expressed itself in the
annexation of more regions, in the construction of railways, and
in missionary activity. A misunderstood regulation of 1857 created
a panic fear of forced conversion to Christianity among Hindu
troops, which led to a mutiny and then to a general uprising. The
Indian states remained loyal to the British government. After the
uprising had been suppressed with great difficulty, a reaction
followed, whereby the nobility were more respected than before
in the hope of thereby winning their trust. This was done quite
consciously at the expense of the peasantry, but it was hoped to
create a powerful landed nobility on the example of the English6
gentry, which was considered a stabilizing element in English
society. This policy was principally followed in the province of
Oudh, with the consequence, however, that a free hand was given to
the abuse of power by the nobility, the rights of the peasant to
his land were suppressed, and two thirds of the land came into the
hands of great landlords without the permanent rights of the peas-
ants to this land being recognized. Later attempts to alleviate
the peasants’ lot met great difficulties.(3)*
In India, too, native opposition to modernization led to more
respect for feudalism by the colonial government, though in other
ways than in the Netherlands Indies. A development such as in
Oudh, with abuse of power by the nobility at the expense of the
peasantry, was pretty well constantly opposed in Java since the
time of Daendels; it was tolerated only in the Preanger and in
the Principalities, and even this was ended by the abolition of
the so-called Preanger-system in 1870 and by the Principalities’
agrarian reforms at the beginning of this century. Unlike the
policy introduced into Oudh, the Javanese culture system in the
rather brief period of its existence, 1830 - 1870, led to an in-
crease of production which later also gave an important increment
to the Javanese people's income. The culture system used feudal-
ism for new export products, which were thus the result of forced
labor. European leadership was necessary, and for it the choice
was between the operation of the feudal authority by government
and its operation by private Western businessmen. In the latter
/case land would have to be given as private lands, the ’’particuliere
landerijen,,(4)w or as lands on long-term lease. These latter,
however, would at that time have had to develop into semi-private
lands, since hired labor on a large scale was still unknown, the
masses could be organized into large units only by means of feudal
serfdom, and the planters therefore were obliged to attempt
establishing on such land people dependent on them. The issue
of lands to private persons would thus have made feudalism perma-
nent. Luckily the government held the feudal power in its own
hands, so that later, when the society had outgrown feudalism, the
vfeudal reins could gradually be eased.
Van Den Bosch himself had proposed, at the introduction of
the Culture System, that the chiefs direct production, However,
because cultivation required more regulation than was first ex-
pected, the European Civil Service was given extensive authority.
In addition there arose in the bosom of the culture system a
European business class. The sugar manufacturers first only had
authority within the walls of the factory, but as knowledge of
cultivation progressed they demanded a voice in the management of
and later the sole authority over the plantation. The chiefs were
thereby dethroned as directors of production.
(3) Sir John Strachey: India, its administration and progress,
1911, p. 381 ff, and Flora Ann Steel: India through the
ages, 1919, p. 346.
(4) See footnote (2).7
Van Den Bosch had further desired that the Javanese remain
a peasant and not be reduced to a coolie, But even at the time
of the Culture System and later still more so, the increasingly
technical nature of cultivation made it necessary that the people
work according to the instructions of European planters. In the
long run, cultivation became therefore entirely dependent on hired
labor.
Van Den Bosch also wished that the people—to use a modern
term—should retain a subsistence economy. They should, simply
stated, be paid by exemption from the land tax. This was too
rough-hewn a measure. A more complicated regulation appeared
necessary, whereby the people were paid in money for their crops.
This, however, strongly stimulated the circulation of money in
the interior, the very thing which the Culture System had wished
to avoid.
The Culture System brought still more undesired consequences.
From it arose the previously almost unknown hired labor in the
harbor towns and in the sugar factories. The forced cession of
agricultural land for cultivation increased the leasing of land
between Indonesians. The way was thus prepared for the admission
of labor and land into the money-economy, and one of the bases
of the later private estate-agriculture was laid.
The Culture System, therefore, intended in general to pre-
serve the Javanese character of the country, and in its design
abstained from all attempts at reform. But unintentionally and
in spite of itself it worked powerfully at preparing for the
later modernization of the country. The Culture System ended when
the plantations developed beyond it and the planters gained com-
plete authority over them. This could only be given to them when
they had learned to obtain authority over the labor and the land
of the people by means of contract—and therefore not in a feudal
fashion. The freedom of contract which the planters wished, also
made it necessary to place the Indonesians in a position to con-
tract and to give them freedom of person and goods and security
of property. For this there was necessary a general reform of the
society, which would work according to the same principles as the
earlier land rent system, the principles of which could now be
realized. The mesalliance of Western capitalism with Javanese
feudalism was thus broken up in the last quarter of the last cen-
tury, and Western enterprises working on a contractual basis
emerged as purely capitalistic figures.
Netherlands colonial policy up to the beginning of this
modern policy—thus until·, late in the 19th century—remained
purely anzdjiterest-policy/ which was directed by Dutch self-inter-
est. These-ζί nt erests were, however, seen in a broader and broader
light:	it was realized that the Netherlands’ interests called
for a prosperous Indonesian people and demanded the modernization
of the country. The narrower aim of obtaining export produce,
which had been held in olden days and which the Culture System
extended into the organization of export production, widened it-8
self under modern policy into a concern for the development of the
whole society. With this in mind, the colonial government inten-
tionally sought after the welfare of the Indonesian people. This
policy made room in increasing degree for general cultural ideals,
which were strengthened by European humanitarian Ideas which, near
the turn of the century, were given a moral basis.
From about 1870, under this modern colonial policy, the wel-
^fare of the people was promoted in substance by a policy of emanci-
pation, by which the guiding principle was, for the sake of free-
dom and legal security, to free the individual from the old social
bonds, which were considered oppressive. By these were understood
at first only the feudal bonds, but later the village ties—the
influence of the village heads and the communalism of the desa—
were also included. The government built its hope thus on an in-
dividualistic development of Javanese society, in order that per-
sonality, the spirit of enterprise, and the desire for welfare
\ should be able to develop themselves.
This policy had no satisfactory result. The people reacted
to the internal peace and security with an enormous increase of
population, but with no strong desire to raise the standard of
life. The country became overpopulated, and about 1900 this
made necessary an inquiry into the dimished welfare of the people
and led to the 20th-century government’s welfare services, whose
task it was to develop the village-economy. In the first thirty
years of this century the pressure of population was relieved by
the enormous expansion of the Western plantation cultures. In
the depression of the thirties overpopulation again made its ap-
pearance, because in various regions the danger of famine had to
be warded off and the indebtedness of the people in several areas
assumed a serious character.
Like a red thread through the whole of this history went the
increasing Western penetration. Western influence did not pene-
trate further only in a geographical sense, because the Europeans
not only sought contact with new territories, but it also penetrated
structurally in that there was increasing intervention in the
structure of Javanese society.
viA	In the old Javanese society four levels could be distinguished:
Jc firstly the monarchs, secondly the provincial heads (about the
A	equivalent of the modern regents), thirdly the village heads, and
xf	fourthly the mass of the villagers. The Europeans initially, at
the beginning of the 17th century, had contact with the monarchs,
about 1800 with the regents, in the middle of the last century with
the village heads, and in this century with the villagers. Thus
exports in the 17th century were principally organized by agree:-
ments with the monarchs, in 1800 through contracts (the so-called
’’Acten van Verband”) with the regents. In the middle of the last
century the Culture System was formally based on voluntary agree-
ments which the residents concluded with the village heads. In
the 20th century the production of sugar, tea, kapok, etc., was
based on agreements which Western enterprises concluded with vil-
lagers, who thereby rendered up their labor, the use of their I9
arable land, or their products.
The point of contact between Western influence and Javanese
society was thus placed ever deeper. This may also be observed
from a number of other phenomena. For example, credit for coffee
deliveries was provided by the East India Company in the Preanger
to the regents; later advances were extended by the Dutch planters
to the village heads, who contractually bound the products, labor,
and land of their villages; in our times credits have been ex-
tended to the villagers themselves for labor wages, land leases,
and deliveries.
The deliveries brought by the monarchs to the East India
Company were succeeded, after the territorial cession of Java’s
north coast, by forced deliveries by the regents. These deliver-
ies were, shortly after 1800, replaced by land rent. After an
experiment with assessment by districts (divisions of a regency),
there followed an assessment by villages. This, after an unhappy
attempt at an individual assessment, remained in existence through-
out the whole of the 19th century. About 1900 an individual as-
sessment was then introduced. The burdens involved in the forced
deliveries and in land rent were thus consecutively laid on mon-
archs, regents, district heads, village heads, and villagers.
When in the 17th and 18th centuries the East India Company
made contact with the monarchs and regents, who still governed the
interior in completely old-Indonesian fashion, a dualism existed
at the top of the society, namely an opposition between the West-
ern-oriented East India Company and the feudal and communal in-
terior. When in the 19th century Western influence penetrated
to the village heads, this dualism displaced itself to this level.
About the turn of the century the circulation of money spread, «η
and the dualism penetrated to within the village society.
European scientific knowledge of the Indonesian world at
first limited itself to the social superstructure, and only in
1807 did it discover the village as an independent popular organi- ~y
zation. Then, through research into land rights, corvee and desa
services, and the standard of living, it reached into the various
nooks and crannies of village society; and, finally, through labor
analysis, budget and menu research it penetrated to the business
and family level.
As Western influence progressed, voices were raised in warn-
ing against further penetration. About 1800 the conservatives
set themselves against the first plan to defeudalize. When this
was nevertheless carried through, they desired to prevent a
further destruction of the regents’ prestige, to which end in
1820 a regulation on their obligations, titles, and ranks was
drawn up. This consolidated what had survived of feudalism. In
1830 political and financial motives caused an abandonment of a
further modernization of the country. As the Culture System
despite itself attacked the old Javanese structure, it tampered
as little as possible with the village. Later, there followed
intensive government interference with the village, but as the10
mothering of the people aroused unrest among them, some opposed
this under the motto ’’leave them alone.” In the depression of
the thirties economy compelled moderation, the prevention of ’’per-
fectionism.','
At present Professor Boeke pleads for the consolidation and
the conservation of whatever remains of the already strongly af-
fected social structure of society, since this fits better into the
character of the village, than development in the Western spirit,
which, moreover, offers little prospect of success. I return to
this point in the last part of this article. There was thus a
multitude of motives for these conservative standpoints, varying
from Netherlands or Netherlands-Indies financial interests to
the consideration of cultural and social factors for their own
sake. Always, however, the conservatives had an eye for the value
of Indonesian institutions for the Indonesian society and their
conservatism always tended to preserve the situation existing in
their time.
The penetration of Western influence followed thus an unin-
terrupted, continuous line. Out of necessity this influence had
to continue its penetration, especially when the ’’system" was
changed and the Company's rule was succeeded by the "land rent
system," followed by the "Culture System" and thereafter by modern
colonial policy. Within these changes of systems, tactical devi-
ations of course had to be made, because the territories which
had not yet been brought under Western influence, demanded provi-
sion of an efficient organization of exports, of production, or
of government. The weak points brought to light were then strength
ened, and the foundations laid in earlier periods were built on.
/ Western influence thus penetrated first into the feudal upper
class and subsequently into the village sphere. The point of con-
tact was laid ever deeper. While, as mentioned, earlier arrange-
ments about the villagers were made by the higher and lower chiefs,
at present the agreements concerning the sale of products, wage
•xlabor, and land rental are concluded with the villagers themselves.
To this extent the contractual economy and Western influence, of
which this economy is an expression, has without doubt penetrated
to the villagers themselves.
Yet it is proper here to make an important reservation. The
question arises, namely, what sort of character these agreements
bear; do they contain besides purely contractual, Western elements
also other, old-Indonesian elements, and if so, how far is this
mixture beneficial or harmful?
This contractual economy—another name for the money economy—
is altogether new and in the interior is due to Western influence.
The circulation of money emerges from Western society, which has
a completely different structure from that which Javanese society
originally had. In Javanese society of a century and a half ago
economic life was not contracutal and not organized by businessmen.
Economic life in the villages was then regulated by mutual assist-
ance and other forms of communal co-operation, which rested on11
solidarity, the communal features of the village, and also on the
subordination of the villagers to their village heads. This soli-
darity and this subordination together formed the village ties.
The economic life which existed above the villagers and provided
the needs of the monarchs, the nobility, and the export market,
was based on the claims to goods and services, therefore on the
feudal bondage of the people to monarchs and nobility. Village
ties and feudalism formed together the traditional ties of the
Javanese society. It was these traditional ties which wholly
penetrated the economic and other social life of the Javanese
society about 1800. The control of production was not in the hands
of businessmen but of the chiefs.
In the course of the 19th and 20th centuries, with the deeper
penetration of Western influence, new contractual forms of organi-
zation and other features of the money economy entered, and the
traditionally linked Javanese society changed ever more into a
contractually linked society, while in supra-village economic life
the chiefs were replaced as production leaders by businessmen, who
were generally non-Indonesians.
Now it is noteworthy that almost all new contractual forms
are not purely contractual but show certain features borrowed from,
or reflecting in one way or another, traditional ties and thus
the old social structure. These forms are thus combinations of
Western and Eastern elements.
The sale of products, wage labor, and land hire were in the
first decades of their existence narrowly linked with the chiefs’
influence, because the people were contractually bound through
feudal and village heads. These features have only gradually been
able to liberate themselves from this influence of the heads.
Concerning the sale of produce, the relationship in which the
Chinese buyer stands to the Indonesian producer is not purely busi-
nesslike and commercial, but in the eyes of the latter, often is
rather a personal relationship of mutual assistance. This relation-
ship on the side of the villager is governed by ideas which he
has borrowed from the traditional village solidarity.
If the Chinese trader combines the buying of produce with
running a shop or stall, thus with the sale of imported goods—
which incidentally occurs more out of Java than on it—the rela-
tionship is of this same nature: the peasant brings his produce
and demands imported goods or money according to his daily needs.
Here is—once more in the eyes of the Indonesian producers—no
question of Western bookkeeping relationship but rather of mutual
assistance.
This is also the case with the relationship of the Indonesian
producer to the moneylender. "The peasant looks upon him," accord-
ing to Boeke, "as a way out, as a port in the storm, as an indis-
pensable guide through the labyrinth of the money economy." And it
would be an error, Boeke continues, to consider these rural debtors12
as innocent victims of a gang of usurers. (5) As Soekasno clearly
explains, the richer villagers are morally obliged to help the poor,
for which reason the village chiefs are also conscious of this duty
and, when they themselves are unable to help, bring the poor into
contact with moneylenders. With this, however, assistance crosses
over imperceptibly into usury, and the intervention of the village
heads easily degenerates into abuse of power, so that mutual assist-
ance, usury, and abuse of power are narrowly interwoven with village
credit.
The reliance of the villager on the assistance of others can
naturally only be realized when the aid is returned, or when it is
characterized by a spirit of mutual helpfulness which is supported
and sanctioned by public opinion, as is the case in the village.
This certainly does not occur in commerce, thus in regard to mer-
chants and moneylenders, who are led by the desire for gain. The
traders and the nofiieylenders, both Chinese and Arab, know the men-
tality of the villager all too well, they seek their power in per-
sonal contact, learn the personal standing of their clients, and are
very flexible, but naturally they can abuse the good faith of the
farmer and they do this in various ways. The purchasing and credit
relations in the village sphere are therefore unhealthy; advantage
is taken of the economic weakness of the opponent, of his need for
money, of his lack of insight into market and price developments,
of his incomplete knowledge of price differences for better quali-
ties .
By the buying up of produce and by financial credit, debts were
often intentionally driven high in order to bind the peasants to
the lender. The borrower could in this way fall so deeply into
debt that the contractual bondage degenerated into a debt-sepfdom
which in the extent and indissolubility of the bond was reminiscent
of feudal servitude: the peasant, freed from his chiefs, fell into
the hands of the usurer.
Credit and the sale of produce thus contained several elements
which were borrowed from the traditional ties but which were out
of place in the new pattern because they prevented the Indonesian
from drawing out of these new forms that economic benefit which
he would have enjoyed from a purely commercial institution.
Wage labor also shows a combination of Western and Eastern
elements, which in this case does little or no damage. The direct-
ors, the heads of the Western plantation enterprises, used the in-
fluence of the heads at first openly and later, at the end of the
previous century, clandestinely. On sugar plantations there was
often an old, trusted employee, who had worked at the factory for
(5) The interests of the voiceless Far East, Leiden, 1948.13
years and was held in honor by his employers because he enjoyed an
almost unlimited trust on the part of the local people. Because
of this he was often able to solve difficulties with the people;
this he did less through eloquence than through his personal guaran
tee of the fairness of the new, uncomprehended regulations. This
patriarchal feature recalls the erstwhile trust of the people in
the chiefs, thus feudalism in the best sense. It is a matter of
course that patriarchal features occur in regard to wage labor more
strongly in Indonesian firms than on Western plantations.
Wage labor also contains elements of village ties. The links
which bind the laborers to the enterprises are often more than
purely individual relations. Frequently one can find groupings
consisting of acquaintances and friends from the same village;
there are foremen whose position apparently corresponds to that
of a chieftain of the kind prescribed by customary law; and the
hiring of new laborers is dependent on the approval of the older
ones. There are various forms of mutual assistance among laborers
in the factories and workshops. All these have been borrowed from
the communal sphere .of the villages. In individual cases, moreover
advances of money to wage labor have led to debt-slavery for the
borrowers.
The leasing of peasants’ land to Western sugar plantations
(the so-called "grondverhuur" (6)) was removed from the influence
of the feudal heads but not altogether from the villages, since
certain communal lands were leased out by the village.
Moreover, this land-hire was not ruled by a strong, impersonal
ethic of "business is business," whereby an agreement once made was
invariably kept. When about 1920 the price of paddy rose steeply
and the already agreed rentals were no longer proportionate to the
value of the produce of the leased land, the sugar plantations were
forced to pay higher rentals than had been stipulated. The popular
sense of justice demanded this, and it was feared that a denial
would cause difficulties. In the thirties the reverse case arose,
because the sugar plantations were obliged to change course and
restrict their activities. Their difficulties were evident to the
people also, and the land lessors were found prepared, in consider-
able numbers, to break the land-hire contracts. In both cases the
leasing of land to Western plantations was ruled by the sense of
flexibility and relativity which is inherent in all Javanese
agreements. The ancient village bond was an entity of personal and
not business relationships. In this sphere strong, personally
colored relationships were formed by the agreements. In the execu-
tion of contracts, account was always taken of variations in the
(6) See footnote (2).14
personal circumstances of the contracting parties. (7) This feature
which is closely connected with the traditional village ties, is
thus also to be found in the leasing of land to the sugar planta-
tions .
New co-operatives appeared to be successful only if their
membership was restricted to the inhabitants of one village. The
co-operatives emphasized strongly all sorts of social benefits to
the members and their families. The modern co-operatives, there-
fore, contain elements which are borrowed from village solidarity.
The various modern forms of organization which are known in the
village are thus all a mixture of Western and Eastern elements
which have been copied from the traditional solidarity of Javanese
society and can make no difference or work beneficially or harm-
fully. Insofar as the last is the case, a further modernization
of the features by a strengthening of Western elements is desir-
able. This is especially the case in the purchase of produce and
the extension of credit, since the defects of these features injure
the sale of agricultural and horticultural produce and the products
of industry and fishing.
If one now asks once more how deeply Western economic influence
has penetrated into Javanese society, the answer follows that con-
tractual social intercourse, it is true, has penetrated to the
villagers, but that this, in the lowest sphere, in the last link
which connected the villagers to this intercourse, is impure and
appears harmful on account of its admixtures. It may therefore be
said that Western influence in this manner does not reach the
villagers, but, in pure form, penetrates only to the produce buyers
and moneylenders or their agents and other middlemen in the village
sphere. This level lies approximately between the village head and
the villagers, because these merchants and moneylenders operated
as a rule only upon a part of the village.
Modern governmental concern for the people shows certain
parallels with the development of these contractual features.
The concern for social welfare at the end of the last century
and the beginning of the present rested on various forms of compul-
(7) If in the fruit trade a bargain has been concluded between
Indonesians and a deposit (pandjer) up to 1/10 or 1/6 of
the bargain sum has been paid, but a third party later makes
a higher bid, it often occurs, according to Levi, that the
owner of the tree enters into consultation with the buyer
and the latter raises the price. On the other hand, if
pressed by price falls, the purchaser can often satisfy the
peasant with a smaller sum. These relationship are extra-
ordinarily supple (Levi: Ontwikkelingsmogelijkheden van
cooperatieve organisatievormen voor de ankoop van ooft in
Nederlands-lndi& /Possibilities of development of coopera-
tive forms of organization for the sale of fruit in
Netherlands Indiay" Wageningen 1937, pp. 28,37).15
sion, strong and weak, and thus on feudalism, which to the end
could not be dispensed with in various modern village institutions
such as the village schools, village banks, etc. Nevertheless, in
the last thirty years the belief in the benefit of imposed institu-
tions has weakened markedly, for which reason such compulsion has
been more and more omitted. Thus, like the contractual features,
social welfare work was also freed, in the main, from feudalism.
The agricultural information service rejected all compulsion in
principle. The officials of this service approached the peasants
with the very greatest tact, seeking to convince and not to compel.
Before visiting a village they had to discard shoes, slippers,
spectacles, or fountain pens, which would have immediately distin-
ϊ guished them externally from a simple villager. They had to bear
themselves very politely, therfore as peasants and not as aristo-
crats. They had to take no higher seat than the host himself used
and might not sit on a mat if the host sat on the floor. They
might not act as teachers, but had preferably to bring the peasant
interrogatively to new ideas; it was thus proper to avoid not only
every compulsion but even the appearance of superiority. The
Public Health Information Service worked in the same way. Here
the high colonial government approached the peasant as an equal
or even as a modest inferior. This governmental policy was thus
completely shorn of feudalism; at the most one may speak of an
ϊ adaptation of the information service to the communal element of
the village society.
The agricultural colonization by Javanese of the other Indo-
nesian islands reflected to a high degree the influence of communal
village ties.
On the one hand this worked as a brake, because the people did
not like to leave their home areas. Every year a contingent was
collected only with difficulty. The people in the poor regions with \
bad land appeared the least willing to emigrate, while those from |
ίthe prosperous regions were the most ready. The explanation lies,
in my opinion, in the fact that in the richer areas a money economy,
thanks to Western plantations and the cultivation of cash crops,
was most developed. Here the village ties were weakened and the
people were less tied to the village and therefore less stay-at-home.j
In poorer regions there were as a rule fewer plantations and cash
crops, there was therefore less of a money economy, and the link
with the village remained stronger and more difficult to break.
On the other hand, agricultural colonization has received
enormous help from the assistance given by colonists established in
the outer islands to the immigrants. This help meant an important
lessening of the expenses which the government incurred on account
of colonization and made possible a large-scale colonization.
Agricultural colonization profited besides from Western forms of
organization, from scientific research into soil and agriculture,
from Western techniques of construction of large irrigation works,
and from modern means of communication by land and water. This
colonization was therefore an example of a happy combination of
Western and Eastern elements.16
Colonial welfare policy had until about 1900 the principal
task of bringing legal security and freedom to the people. Although j
the importance of the masses was kept in view, it still sufficed
to exercise supervision over the chiefs, so that no more than a	<
control of the village heads was attempted. Later more account
was taken of the differentiation of the people, and the people’s	i
credit service and the agricultural information service sought con-	,
tact with important individuals who stood out from the masses. The
popular credit service also introduced regional investigations into
the credit needs of various types of borrowers. The research into
individual applications determined to which type the applicant
belonged. The agricultural information service tried to make con-
tact with prominent personalities in the village, capable farmers,
so-called ’’contact-men," whom it attempted to organize into small
groups, the so-called "peasant circles." Under the seed stations
set up by this service there were capable farmers, the so-called
"seed-growers," who saw to the further distribution of good seed
and plant material.
Insofar as taxation is concerned, it is true that in theory
the income tax took minute account of all personal circumstances of
the individual taxpayer, but considering that in practice this was
unworkable, the assessment was in effect made following certain
types of professions and labor.
The Land Tax Service used a personal assessment of the land-
owners, but the service itself took account only of the assessment
of the plots of land into which the cultivated land of each village
was divided and each of which comprised a number of individual
pieces of land. The division of this plot assessment among the
individual landowners was left to the village.
In general, intensive Western influence, which here means the
application of rational methods of administration, reached the level
of economically stronger villagers and small units and groups which
stood between the level of the village and of the individual. This
niveau was thus determined by the previously-mentioned contact-men,
peasant circles, seed growers, credit and tax forms, and land tax
plots.
The level to which rational government policy reaches is the
same as that to whiclj, in economic life purely contractual economy
reaches; it is determined in trade and credit by the merchants and
moneylenders with their agents, in labor by the groups of workers,
and in industry by various intermediaries between entrepreneurs and
villagers.
In summary it may be said that both economic life and govern-
ment policy have struck against the traditional ties of Javanese
society. Both have been able to free themselves for the greater
part from feudalism but in both the communal village ties still
play an important role. Both the purely contractual features and
the rational methods of governmental administration have by-passed
the village heads; they have not yet reached the masses as such,
but reach a level that lies in between village head and villager.17
In many areas the colonial government has tried to go yet
further. Insofar as land is concerned, in the twenties it was
thought to introduce a "Native Land Register;" the Topographical
Service, which until then only surveyed the land tax plots, would
thenceforward have surveyed the individual plots. The"Native
Land Tax" in the towns already used an individual assessment of
each individual piece of land. So far as labor is concerned, the
Labor Office decided shortly before the war to carry out an investi
gation into the relationship between the various leaders of casual
groups of laborers and the workers themselves.