_Commerce--Advantageous Situation of Java for Commercial
Intercourse--Importance of Batavia in particular--Native
Trade--Roads and Inland Carriage--Markets--Influence of the
Chinese--Coasting Trade--Exports and Imports--Trade with
the Archipelago--China--Kamtschatka--Western India--Europe,
&c.--Dutch Commercial Regulations--State of the Eastern
Islands--Advantages which they possess--Causes of the Depression
of the Nations and Tribes which inhabit them--Japan Trade._
From the importance which the Dutch, in the days of their greatness,
attached to their East-India commerce, of which Batavia was the
emporium, and the importance which this commerce conferred upon them,
from the desire excited in the other nations to obtain a share in
its advantages, and the crimes committed to maintain its undivided
monopoly, some idea may be formed of its magnitude and value. When
the French troops, in the summer of 1672, under Louis XIV. had
overrun the territory of Holland, with the rapidity and irresistible
force of the sea after bursting the dykes, the Republic formed the
magnanimous resolution of transporting its wealth, its enterprise, and
its subjects to another hemisphere, rather than submit to the terms
of the conqueror, and fixed upon Batavia, already the seat of its
eastern commerce, as the capital of its new empire. They could have
found shipping in their own ports for the transport of fifty thousand
families; their country was inundated with the ocean, or in possession
of the invader; their power and political importance consisted in their
fleets and colonies; and having been accustomed to maintain their naval
superiority by the fruits of their eastern trade, and to buy the corn
of Europe with the spices of the Moluccas, they would have felt less
from a removal of their seat of empire from the north of Europe to the
south of Asia, than any people who ever contemplated a similar change;
while, at the same time, the very project of such an extraordinary
emigration, and the means they had of carrying it into effect, give
us the highest ideas of the independent spirit inspired by their free
government, and of their commercial prosperity, derived, in a great
degree, from their eastern establishments and connexions.
The same advantages which the Europeans derived from the navigation of
the Mediterranean, the inhabitants of the Malayan Archipelago enjoyed
in a higher degree; and it cannot be doubted, that among islands
lying in smooth and unruffled seas, inviting the sail or oar of the
most timid and inexperienced mariner, an intercourse subsisted at a
very early period. To this intercourse, and to the fertility of the
soil of Java, which soon rendered it an agricultural country, must be
attributed the high degree of civilization and of advancement in the
arts, which, from the monuments of its progress which still exist,
there is every reason to believe it once attained. In short, to adopt
the expressions of Dr. Adam Smith, when speaking of a very different
country[54], Java, "on account of the natural fertility of its soil,
of the great extent of its sea-coast in proportion to the whole of
the country, and of the number of its navigable rivers, affording the
conveniency of water carriage to some of its most inland parts, is
conveniently fitted by nature to be the seat of foreign commerce, of
manufactures for sale to the neighbouring countries, and of all the
improvements which these can occasion."
But though there can be little doubt that Java very early emerged from
barbarism, and rose to great commercial prosperity, to determine the
precise time at which these events took place is perhaps impossible;
and to approach the solution of the question would involve an inquiry
that will be better reserved till we come to treat of its languages,
institutions, and antiquities. If, in the consideration of these
topics, it should be made to appear, that, in very remote ages, these
regions were civilized from Western India, and that an extensive
Hindu empire once existed on Java, it will be reasonable to infer a
commercial intercourse still earlier than the communication of laws and
improvement.
In the remarkable account of the rich commodities conveyed to ancient
Tyre, it would appear that there were many articles the peculiar
produce of the Malayan States; and in that given by Strabo of the
importations into Egypt, cloves, which we know to be the exclusive
produce of the Moluccas, are expressly mentioned. The same taste for
the fine kinds of spices, and the same desire to obtain them, which
prompted European nations successively to make themselves masters of
these islands, must in all probability have operated, in a very remote
period, on the merchants of Hindustan, and even of countries lying
farther to the westward, who had already found their way into the gold
regions; and if the hypothesis, which places Mount _Ophir_ on Sumatra
or the peninsula of Malacca, cannot be maintained, it will at any rate
be admitted, that previously to the discovery of America, no country
was known more rich in gold than the Malayan Islands, and that, on that
account, they were peculiarly attractive to foreigners, who could not
be supplied from any other quarter.
The Arabs, it is known, had in the ninth century, if not long
previously, made themselves acquainted with these countries; and the
Chinese, if we may trust the Javan annals, had visited Java at the same
period. According to Kempfer, the _Maláyus_ in former times had by far
the greatest trade in the Indies, and frequented, with their vessels,
not only all the coasts of Asia, but even ventured to the shores of
Africa, and particularly to the great island of Madagascar; "for,"
adds this author, "John de Barros in his Decades, and Flaccourt in his
History of Madagascar, assures us, that the language spoken by the
inhabitants of that large African island is full of Javan and Malayan
words: subsisting proofs of the commerce with these two nations, about
two thousand years ago the richest and most powerful of Asia, had
carried on with Madagascar, where they had settled in great numbers."
Whatever credit we may attach to these statements and inferences,
respecting the commerce of these islands before they were visited by
Europeans in the fifteenth century, it is certain that, at this period,
an extensive trade was established at Malacca, Acheen, and Bantam, then
the great emporiums of the Eastern Archipelago. Hither the rich produce
of Sumatra, Borneo, and the Moluccas, was conveyed in the small trading
craft of the country, and exchanged for the produce of India and
China. These ports were then filled with vessels from every maritime
state of Asia, from the Red Sea to Japan. The Portuguese, who preceded
the Dutch in India, and who had fixed upon _Goa_, on the coast of
Malabar, as the capital of their eastern settlements, selected Malacca
as the most convenient station for conducting and protecting their
trade with the islands, and erected it into a secondary capital. The
Dutch finding this desirable station pre-occupied, and being foiled in
their attempts to dislodge their rivals, first established a commercial
settlement at Bantam, and subsequently subdued by force of arms the
neighbouring province of _Jákatra_, (or _Jokárta_), on which, as will
be afterwards mentioned, they built the fortress, the city, and the
port of Batavia.
Nor was it without reason that they selected this spot for the capital
of their new empire. "What the Cape of Good Hope is," says Adam Smith,
"between Europe and every part of the East Indies, Batavia is between
the principal countries in the East Indies. It lies upon the most
frequented road from Hindustan to China and Japan, and is nearly about
midway on that road. Almost all the ships, too, that sail between
Europe and China, touch at Batavia; and it is, over and above all this,
the centre and principal mart of what is called the country trade of
the East Indies, not only of that part of it which is carried on by
Europeans, but of that which is carried on by the native Indians, and
vessels navigated by the inhabitants of China and Japan, of Tonquin, of
Malacca, of Cochin China, and the Island of Celebes, are frequently to
be seen in its port. Such advantageous situations have enabled these
two colonies to surmount all the obstacles which the oppressive genius
of an exclusive company may have occasionally opposed to their growth:
they have enabled Batavia to surmount the additional disadvantage, of
perhaps the most unwholesome climate in the world."
It would be as difficult to describe in detail the extent of the
commerce enjoyed by Java[55], at the period of the establishment of
the Dutch in the eastern seas, as it would be painful to point out how
far, or to show in what manner, that commerce was interfered with,
checked, changed in its character, and reduced in its importance,
by the influence of a withering monopoly, the rapacity of avarice
armed with power, and the short-sighted tyranny of a mercantile
administration. To convey an idea of the maritime strength of the
native princes anterior to this date, as giving a criterion by which
to judge of the trade of their subjects, it may be sufficient to state
that warlike expeditions, consisting of many hundred vessels, are often
reported to have been fitted out against Borneo, Sumatra, and the
peninsula. In the art of ship-building, however, they do not appear to
have advanced beyond the construction of that sort of vessel adapted to
the navigation of their own smooth seas, and now to be met with in all
their ports and harbours; nor do they seem to have had any knowledge
of maritime geography beyond the shores of their own Archipelago,
and the information which they gained from the reports of the Arabs,
or the traditions of their own more adventurous ancestors. This
circumstance would lead us to infer that the trade of Java was carried
on chiefly in foreign vessels, and through the enterprize of foreign
adventurers. The habits of the people had become agricultural; they
had nearly deserted an element which they had no powerful temptation
to traverse, and on which they could reap little, compared with what
they could draw from the fertility of their own territory. Leaving
therefore their ports to be filled, and their commodities to be carried
away by the _Maláyus_, the _Búgis_, the Indians, the Chinese, and
the Arabs, they for the most part contented themselves with enjoying
the advantages of a trade, in which they incurred no chance of loss;
and thus, though their own country yielded neither gold nor jewels,
they are said to have been plentifully supplied with these and other
valuable articles on their own shores, in exchange for the produce of
their tranquil industry and their fertile soil. This kind of traffic
was almost entirely annihilated, or at least very much diverted from
its ancient course, by the restrictive system of Dutch colonial policy.
Some branches of it were, it must be allowed, partially encouraged by
the influx of European capital and the demand for particular articles
which bear a high price in the European market; but this was an
inadequate compensation for the loss of that commerce, which may be
said to be as much the growth of the country as any of its indigenous
plants. In order to show to what insignificance it was reduced under
Dutch oppression, and what tendency it has to improve under a better
system, it is only necessary to compare its state during the latter
years of the Dutch government, before the blockade, and afterwards
during the short interval of British administration. For the first
of these purposes, I have drawn, in the introduction to this work, a
short sketch of the condition of the Dutch East India Company, for a
considerable period previous to our arrival; and I now proceed to give
some account of the external and internal trade of Java, as it existed
at the time when we restored it to its former masters.
The extent of this commerce, since the establishment of the British
government, and since a greater freedom of trade has been allowed,
may, for a want of a better criterion, be estimated from the amount
of tonnage employed since the beginning of the year 1812, at which
period the operations of the military expedition had ceased, and the
transports were discharged.
In the year 1812, the number of square-rigged vessels which entered the
port of Batavia amounted to 239, and their aggregate tonnage to 48,290
tons, and in the same year the native craft amounted to 455 vessels, or
7,472 tons, or together 55,762 tons. The quantity cleared out during
the same year was 44,613 tons of shipping, and 7,762 of native craft,
making together 52,375.
In the year 1813, the number of square-rigged vessels was 288, and the
tonnage 51,092, the native craft amounting to 796 vessels, or 13,214
tons, or together 64,306 tons.
In 1814, three hundred and twenty-one ships, or 63,564 tons, cleared
out with 568 native vessels, or 9,154 tons, shewing the total tonnage
of Batavia during this year to have amounted to 72,718 tons.
The returns for the following year have not been received, but they are
estimated to exceed either of the two former years, and not to have
fallen much short of one hundred thousand tons; and it may be noticed,
that during one year after the first accounts were received of the
successes of the allied armies against France, no less than thirty-two
ships, measuring fifteen thousand tons, cleared out, and carried
cargoes, the produce of Java, to the London market.
The average annual tonnage which cleared out from the port of
_Surabáya_, for the three last years, amounted to about thirty thousand
tons, and the native tonnage trading to the neighbouring port of
_Grésik_ is estimated to have even exceeded that quantity.
At the small port of _Súmenap_, situated at the east end of _Madúra_,
which is a principal resort for the native trade, the tonnage which
cleared out was
_Small prahus and vessels._ _Tonnage._
For 1812 3,765 15,230
1813 4,752 33,769
And the estimated value of the same,
_Imports._ _Exports._
For 1812 Rupees 625,628 Rupees 396,820
1813 740,080 492,020[56].
The value of the imports and exports of _Semárang_, on which duties
were actually collected at that port, were
_Imports._ _Exports._
For 1812 Rupees 555,044 Rupees 167,101
1813 1,530,716 985,709
1814 686,330 549,038
The native tonnage which cleared from _Rembáng_ was as follows:
In 1812 862 vessels or 8,058 tons.
1813 1,095 ditto 8,657
1814 1,455 ditto 12,935
The trade from the other minor ports was inconsiderable, the effect of
the regulations passed in 1813 being yet hardly felt. From _Pakalúngan_
the tonnage which cleared was for 1812, 5,962 tons, and for 1813, 4,679
tons, the imports being about 150,000 rupees, and the exports 300,000
rupees in each year; from _Tégal_ for 1812, 2,445 tons, and for 1813,
1,926 tons, the imports being about 50,000, and the exports about
60,000 rupees in each year.
The amount of tonnage which touched at _Anyer_, on the way through the
Straits of _Súnda_, to and from Europe, Africa, and America, was
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].
Almost all the inland commerce, beyond what is thus carried on though
the medium of bazars, is under the direction of the Chinese, who,
possessing considerable capital, and frequently speculating on a very
extensive scale, engross the greater part of the wholesale trade, buy
up the principal articles of export from the native grower, convey them
to the maritime capitals, and in return supply the interior with salt,
and with the principal articles imported from the neighbouring islands,
or from foreign countries. The industry of the Javans being directed
almost exclusively to the cultivation of the soil, they are satisfied
if they can find an immediate market for their surplus produce; and the
Chinese, from their superior wealth and enterprize, offering them this
advantage without interfering with their habits, have obtained almost a
monopoly of their produce, and an uncontrolled command of their market
for foreign commodities.
The trade carried on by native vessels along the coast, with the
neighbouring islands, and with the peninsula of Malacca, has been
even more shackled than that placed under the impolitic restraints of
interior regulation; and if it exists now to any considerable extent,
it is owing only to the great natural advantages that attend it.
Independently of the dangers to which the peaceable unprotected trader
has so long been exposed, from the numerous pirates who infest the
Eastern Seas, and who for many years have been in the habit of annually
sweeping the coast of Java, the various restrictions, penalties, and
prohibitions established by the Dutch government, in order to insure
their own monopoly, closed all the minor ports against him.
Among these restrictions, none operated more forcibly to prejudice
the native trade than the rigid and enforced monopoly of the teak
timber; an article of produce with which Java abounds, and of which
the shipping of the Archipelago had, from time immemorial, been
principally constructed. The facilities for building and repairing
vessels along the coast, while the sale of timber was unrestricted,
not only allowed a more abundant supply of shipping at a cheap rate
for the convenience of the native trader, but attracted the beneficial
visits and the intercourse of foreigners, and encouraged a species of
trade, which under the recent system has been lost. The _Búgis_ and
Arabs of the different eastern ports, navigating in large vessels,
were induced to give them an annual repair on Java; and rather than
depart in ballast, frequently carried out cargoes, the profits of which
alone, independently of their refit, would not have been sufficient
to tempt them to the speculation. These adventurers not only imported
considerable quantities of gold-dust to defray the expence of their
repairs, but many other articles the produce of the Malayan islands;
for which they in return exported large quantities of salt and other
bulky commodities, which would otherwise hardly repay their freight.
In consequence of the stop put to this kind of intercourse, the
Malayan States were principally supplied with salt from Siam and the
Coromandel coast, or manufactured the article for themselves, while
an accumulating undemanded surplus for many years remained on Java
unsaleable. Of the nature of the restrictions under which the internal
commerce and the native trade in general were placed until lately, some
idea may be formed from the amount of the duties which were exacted at
_Chéribon_ prior to the introduction of the land revenue settlement[58].
These, with still heavier and more vexatious duties and exactions,
were levied on trade in other districts of the island. Constant
requisitions were made by the Dutch government for the services of
native vessels, at rates far below a just compensation to the owner,
and the native traders were forbidden to traffic in any of the articles
of Dutch monopoly; considerations which incline us rather to express
our surprize, that there should have been any native trade at all, than
that there should be so little as now exists.
The coasting trade is carried on in vessels belonging chiefly to
Chinese, Arabs, and _Búgis_ (natives of Celebes), and in smaller
Malayan _práhus_[59]. The enterprize of the Arabs, Chinese, and
_Búgis_ is very conspicuous. They are in general fair traders; and
Europeans acquainted with their several characters can rely on their
engagements, and command their confidence. Many of them, particularly
the _Búgis_, are possessed of very large capital.
By means of the coasting trade, the produce of the maritime and inland
districts is conveyed to _Batavia_, _Semárang_, and _Surabáya_, the
principal ports of consumption and exportation; and in return those
districts receive iron, steel, and other articles of foreign produce
and manufacture from abroad. The western districts being but thinly
inhabited, do not yield a sufficient supply for the consumption of
Batavia; and on this account, as well as its being the principal mart
of foreign commerce, the trade of the eastern districts is attracted
to it, in a higher degree than to any of the other great towns in
their own immediate neighbourhood: but owing to the unhealthiness of
the climate, the loss occasioned by the paper money, which the native
traders of other islands could never understand, and the various
vexations and impositions to which they were subjected, these latter
invariably prefer the more eastern ports of _Semárang_ and _Surabáya_,
or rather _Grésik_, in the immediate vicinity of the latter, which has
always been the principal establishment and residence of the Arabs.
The _Búgis_ import into Java from the other islands, Malayan camphor,
tortoise-shell, edible birds'-nests, bees'-wax, cloth called _sárongs_,
of a very strong texture, their own manufacture, and gold dust, which
they lay out in the purchase of opium, iron, steel, Europe chintzes
and broad cloth, and Indian piece goods, besides tobacco, rice, salt,
and other productions and manufactures of Java, with which they return
eastward during the favourable monsoon.
The Arabs navigate square-rigged vessels, from fifty to five hundred
tons burden. The Chinese also have many brigs, besides their peculiar
description of vessels called junks, as well as native-built _práhus_.
They extend their voyages to Sumatra, the Straits of Malacca, and
eastward as far as the Moluccas and Timor, collecting birds'-nests,
camphor, _bich de mar_, and other articles, making Java a grand depôt
for the produce of all the countries to which they resort. Throughout
the whole of Java, trade is usually conducted by the Chinese: many of
them are very rich, and their means are increased by their knowledge of
business, their spirit of enterprize, and their mutual confidence.
If a cargo arrives too extensive for the finances of one individual,
several Chinese club together, and purchase the goods, each dividing
according to his capital. In this manner a ready market is always open
at Java, without the assistance of European merchants, and strangers
are enabled to transact their business with little trouble or risk.
The objections which have been made to the political influence of the
Chinese and Arabs in the Eastern Islands, do not equally apply to them
as traders. In this last capacity, and subject to regulations which
prevent them from uniting the power of a chief with the temper of a
merchant, and despotism with avarice, their value cannot be too highly
rated. The persevering industry and speculative turn of the Chinese is
too well known to need description; and the Arab traders are here what
they are all over the world, keen, intelligent, and adventurous. The
_Búgis_ have long been distinguished among the Eastern Islands for the
extent of their speculations and the fairness of their dealing.
Java exports, for the consumption and use of the other islands of the
Archipelago, including the Malayan ports on the peninsula, rice, a
variety of vetches, salt, oil, tobacco, timber, Java cloths, brass
ware, and a variety of minor articles, the produce of her agriculture
and manufactures, besides occasionally, as the market admits, a
considerable quantity of European, Indian, and Chinese goods. Almost
the only articles for which Java is at present dependent on its
neighbours are _gúmbir_, imported from Lingen (_Ling'ga_) and Rhio,
where it is produced to the annual amount of from twenty to thirty
thousand _píkuls_,--and _pámur_, the metal used for damasking the
Javan _krís_, of which a small quantity is imported from _Biliton_
and _Célebes_, where alone it is found. The following articles,
the exclusive produce of the Eastern Islands, are collected at its
principal ports, for re-exportation to India, China, and Europe: tin,
from _Bánka_; gold-dust, diamonds, camphor, benjamin and other drugs,
edible birds'-nests, _bich de mar_, rattans, bees'-wax, tortoise-shell,
and dyeing woods, from Borneo and Sumatra; sandal and other fine woods,
nutmegs, cloves and mace, coarse, wild and damaged spices, _káyu-púti_
and other pungent oils, from the Moluccas; horses and sapan wood, from
_Sumbáwa_; _Búgis_ cloths, and many collections for the Chinese market,
from Célebes. Cloths are also sometimes imported from _Báli_, and
pepper is collected at _Bánjermásin_, on Borneo, and from several of
the Malayan states.
The tin brought to Java is almost exclusively from the mines of
_Bánka_. This metal is also exported from several of the other islands,
and from the peninsula of Malacca, whence these countries have been
considered the _Temala_ of Ptolemy, _timáh_ being the Malayan word for
tin; but the quantity obtained from all other sources falls far short
of what is procured on _Bánka_, which exports to the annual amount of
thirty thousand _píkuls_, or nearly forty thousand cwt. of this metal.
The mines on _Bánka_ are worked by Chinese, who deliver the metal into
the government stores in slabs, at the rate of about eight Spanish
dollars the _píkul_, of one hundred and thirty-three pounds and a
quarter.
A very extensive branch of trade is carried on by a direct
communication between Java and China, entirely upon Chinese capital,
in a description of vessels called junks. From eight to ten of these
vessels arrive annually from Canton and Amoi, with cargoes of teas,
raw silk, silk piece goods, varnished umbrellas, iron pots, coarse
china-ware, sweetmeats, nankeen, paper, and innumerable minor articles,
particularly calculated for the Chinese settlers. They are from three
to eight hundred tons burthen, and sail at stated periods, generally
reaching Batavia with the north-east monsoon, about the month of
January. Of all the imports from China, that which produces the most
extensive effects on the commercial and political interests of the
country is the native himself: besides their cargoes, these junks bring
a valuable import of from two to five hundred industrious natives
in each vessel. These emigrants are usually employed as coolies or
labourers on their first arrival; but, by frugal habits and persevering
industry, they soon become possessed of a little property, which they
employ in trade, and increase by their prudence and enterprize. Many of
them, in course of time, attain sufficient wealth to render themselves
independent, and to enable them to remit considerable accumulations
yearly to their relations in China. As these remittances are generally
made in the valuable articles, such as birds'-nests, Malayan camphor,
_bich de mar_, tin, opium, pepper, timber, leather hides, indigo, gold
and silver, the return cargoes of these vessels amount to an almost
incredible value.
The quantity of edible birds'-nests alone, annually exported from Java
to China on vessels of this description, is estimated at not less than
two hundred _píkuls_, of which by far the largest proportion is the
produce of the Javan rocks and hills. It is well known that these are
the nests of a species of swallow (hirundo esculenta) common in the
Malayan islands, and in great demand for the China table. Their value
as a luxury, in that empire, has been estimated on importation to be
weight for weight equal with silver. The price which these nests of the
best quality have of late years brought in the Canton and Amoi market,
has been forty Spanish dollars per _káti_, of rather more than a pound
and a quarter English. They are usually classed into first, second,
and third sorts, differing in price from forty to fifteen Spanish
dollars, and even to ten and less for the most ordinary. The price in
the Batavian market rises as the period for the departure of the junks
approaches; but as the principal produce of Java is still a monopoly
in the hands of government, it is difficult to fix the price at which
they might be sold under other circumstances. Generally speaking,
however, they sell throughout the Eastern Islands considerably lower
than they are calculated to do in China, which may be accounted for by
the perishable nature of the commodity, and the great care necessary to
preserve them from the damp, as well as from breakage. On this account,
they are seldom bought by European traders. Birds'-nests consigned by
the Javan government to the Canton factory in 1813, sold to the amount
of about fifty _píkuls_, at an average rate of about twenty dollars per
_kati_: but this was at a period when the China markets were unusually
low.
The quantity of birds' nests obtained from the rocks called _Kárang
bólang_, on the southern coast of Java, and within the provinces
of the native princes, is estimated, one year with another, at a
hundred _píkuls_, and is calculated to afford an annual revenue to
the government of two hundred thousand Spanish dollars. The quantity
gathered besides by individuals, on rocks and hills belonging to them,
either in private property or held by farm from the government, in
other parts of the island, may amount to fifty _píkuls_; making the
extent of this export not less than one hundred and fifty _píkuls_,
besides the amount of the collections from the other islands of the
Archipelago.
In the Malayan islands in general, but little care is taken of the
rocks and caverns which produce this dainty, and the nests procured are
neither so numerous nor so good as they otherwise would be. On Java,
where perhaps the birds are fewer, and the nests in general less fine
than those to be met with in some of the more Eastern Islands, both
the quantity and quality have been considerably improved by European
management. To effect this improvement, the caverns which the birds are
found to frequent are cleansed by smoking and the burning of sulphur,
and the destruction of all the old nests. The cavern is then carefully
secured from the approach of man, the birds are left undisturbed to
form their nests, and the gathering takes place as soon as it is
calculated that the young are fledged. If they are allowed to remain
until eggs are again laid in them, they lose their pure colour and
transparency, and are no longer of what are termed the first sort. They
are sometimes collected so recently after their formation, that time
has not been given for the bird to lay or hatch her eggs in them, and
these nests are considered as the most superior; but as the practice,
if carried to any extent, would prevent the number of the birds from
increasing, it is seldom resorted to, where the caverns are in the
possession of those who have a permanent interest in their produce.
Much of their excellence and peculiar properties, however, depend on
the situation of the place in which they are formed. It has often been
ascertained, for instance, that the same bird forms a nest of somewhat
different quality, according as it constructs it in the deep recesses
of an unventilated and damp cavern, or attaches it to a place where the
atmosphere is dry, and the air circulates freely. The nature of the
different substances also to which they are fixed, seems to have some
influence on their properties. The best are procured in the deepest
caverns, (the favourite retreat of the birds), where a nitrous dampness
continually prevails, and where being formed against the sides of the
cavern, they imbibe a nitrous taste, without which they are little
esteemed by the Chinese. The principal object of the proprietor of a
birds'-nest rock is to preserve sufficient numbers of the swallows,
by not gathering the nests too often, or abstracting those of the
finer kinds in too great numbers, lest the birds should quit their
habitations and emigrate to a more secure and inaccessible retreat.
It is not unusual for a European, when he takes a rock under his
superintendence, after ridding it of the old nests and fumigating the
caverns, to allow the birds to remain undisturbed, two, three, or even
more years, in order that they may multiply for his future advantage.
When a birds'-nest rock is once brought into proper order, it will
bear two gatherings in the year: this is the case with the rocks under
the care of the officers of government at _Kárang bólang_.
In the vicinity of the rocks are usually found a few persons accustomed
from their infancy to descend into these caverns, in order to gather
the nests; an office of the greatest risk and danger, the best nests
being sometimes many hundred feet within the damp and slippery opening
of the rock. The gatherers are sometimes obliged to lower themselves by
ropes (as at _Kárang bólang_) over immense chasms, in which the surf of
a turbulent sea dashes with the greatest violence, threatening instant
destruction in the event of a false step or an insecure hold. The
people employed by government for this purpose were formerly slaves, in
the domestic service of the minister or resident at the native court.
To them the distribution of a few dollars, and the preparation of a
buffalo feast after each gathering, was thought sufficient pay, and
the sum thus expended constituted all the disbursements attending the
gathering and packing, which is conducted by the same persons. This
last operation is however carefully superintended by the resident, as
the slightest neglect would essentially deteriorate the value of the
commodity[60].
Although the Malayan camphor, which is the exclusive produce of Sumatra
and Borneo, is much stronger than the camphor from China, it has not
yet been considered an article of extensive export for the European
market. It is always, however, in the greatest demand in China, where
it is either consumed, or as has been supposed by some, it undergoes
a certain process previous to its re-exportation under a different
appearance. It is not known in what manner the China camphor for the
European market is prepared; and unless the Malayan camphor is used
in the composition, it seems difficult to account for the constant
demand for it in China, whence it is never re-exported in its original
state. Whatever value may be set on the Chinese camphor, that exported
from Japan is of a still superior quality, and more in demand for the
European market.
_Bich de mar_ is well known to be a dried sea slug used in the dishes
of the Chinese: it is known among the Malayan Islands by the name of
_trípang_, and collected on the shores of nearly all the islands of the
Archipelago. It usually sells in China at from ten to fifty dollars
per _píkul_, according to its quality, but being an article still
more perishable than the birds'-nests, and very bulky and offensive,
it seldom composes the cargoes of European vessels. It would be very
difficult to ascertain the average price, as it varies according to the
difficulties experienced in collecting it, and the immediate demand in
the market, for its perishable nature will not admit of the excess of
one season being laid by to meet the deficiency of another. It requires
constant care on the voyage, and a leaky vessel frequently loses a
whole cargo.
Stic-lac, used in dying, is procured in many parts of Java, and can
easily be obtained in a quantity sufficient to meet the demand. The
insect which yields it abounds in the Bantam districts, and the lac
prepared is considered of good quality; but it is not an article which
appears to have attracted much attention.
The trade between Java and China in vessels belonging to Europeans,
at present consists principally in carrying out tin, pepper, spices,
rattans, and betel-nut, for the China market, and receiving in return
a few articles of China produce in demand for the European market, a
balance of cash, and a supply of manufactures required annually at
Batavia; but it is calculated that cotton, rice, and timber, which may
be considered as the staple produce of Java, might be exported to China
with advantage.
A small quantity of Javan cotton lately sent to China, was sold at
a higher rate than the ordinary prices of the cotton from Western
India[61]. Cotton-yarn is an article sometimes exported to China, but
in the existing state of society on Java, the exportation of the raw
material is likely to be attended with the greatest advantages. Some
writers have estimated the capability of Java to export raw cotton
almost incredibly high, but it must be admitted, that although the soil
is not universally favourable, yet few countries afford greater general
advantages for the cotton cultivation, it being practicable to raise it
to a great extent, without interfering with the general grain produce
of the country. It could be grown as a second crop on the rice fields,
being planted shortly after the harvest, and attaining maturity before
the season again comes round for irrigating the lands. Nothing can
convey a higher idea of the richness of the soil of Java, and of the
advantages of its climate, than the fact, that during one half the year
the lands yield a rich and abundant crop of grain, more than sufficient
for the ordinary food of the population, and during the other half a
valuable staple, which affords the material for clothing them, and
opens in its manufacture a source of wealth and of continual domestic
industry through the year.
Enterprising individuals, merchants of Batavia, have not been wanting
to engage in the valuable fur trade, hitherto carried on principally
by the Americans, between Kamtschatka and China. Mr. Timmerman Thyssen,
an enlightened Dutch gentleman, whose name for honourable dealing
and extensive business has always stood high among the merchants of
Batavia, has entered into more than one speculation of this kind.
Vessels fitted out from Batavia took in furs at Kamtschatka, which were
intended to be exchanged in China for dollars; but the dangers of the
passage in one instance, and the informality of the papers in another,
rendered this bold and promising enterprize productive of but little
pecuniary advantage. Nothing, however, has occurred, to prove that the
adventure would not have fully answered its intention in time of peace,
the principal difficulties which attended and frustrated it ceasing
with the war.
Since the conquest a very extensive trade has been carried on by the
English country ships importing from Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay,
all kinds of piece goods, opium, and other articles, the returns for
which have been usually made by bills, gold-dust, bees'-wax, tin, Japan
camphor, sago, and teak timber.
The piece goods of Western India have always formed an extensive
article of import into Java, and the annual value of those latterly
imported cannot well be estimated at less than a million of dollars.
Those generally meet a ready sale, at an advance of from thirty to
forty per cent. upon the prime cost in India, and much more when the
supply is scanty.
In consequence of these heavy and valuable importations, the returns to
Bengal were till lately made principally by bills, obtainable either
from government, or individuals desirous of purchasing colonial produce
for the European market by means of funds in Western India. But there
are also several articles, which experience has proved well calculated
for making their returns direct to Bengal, particularly Japan copper
and teak timber. Java is known to abound with valuable teak forests,
and the quality of the wood has been considered as superior to that of
Pegu or the Malabar coast. The restrictions under which this export
was formerly placed as a government monopoly, prevented its finding
its way beyond the immediate Dutch dependencies; but the extent to
which it was even then sent to the Moluccas, to Malacca, and to the
Cape of Good Hope, where all the public buildings are constructed of
Javan teak, sufficiently attests the value and extent of the forests,
as well as the good quality and durability of the wood. This valuable,
but bulky article of export, is always in demand for ship-building
in Bengal, and has afforded to the merchant a very liberal profit on
exportation, after paying the present government prices, which are
calculated at something above ten per cent. upon the actual expence
of cutting and dragging the timber from the forests to the port of
exportation. During the last two years, large ships have taken cargoes
to Bengal, and afforded very handsome profits. From the neighbourhood
of _Rémbáng_, where permission has been given to individuals to cut the
timber, on paying a duty of ten per cent. on the estimated value when
worked up, it has not only been exported at a cheap rate to Bengal, but
several ships have been constructed of it, while along the whole line
of coast, from _Semárang_ to _Grésik_, small vessels and country craft
are launched every month.
But although the direct trade with Bengal has thus been always against
Java, the demand for sugar in the Bombay market always affords the
means of a circuitous return of capital. Large quantities of Javan
sugar have been exported to Bombay during the last four years,
principally on the returning ships in ballast touching at Batavia on
their way from China, and these cargoes have afforded considerable
profit. A lucrative trade in this article is also sometimes carried
on by the Arabs to the Red Sea, and particularly to Mocha; but Arab
traders, of sufficient capital for these extensive speculations, have,
by the effects of the former monopoly on Java, long been driven out of
the market, and sufficient time has not been given for them to return.
The extensive produce of this fine island in sugar and coffee of
superior quality, and the pepper and various other articles, either
yielded by it or collected from the neighbouring countries, such as
sago, tin, Japan copper, spices, elephants' teeth, sticklac, long
pepper, cubebs, tortoise-shell, gold, diamonds, Japan wood, ebony,
rattans, indigo, &c. present fine subjects for commercial speculation
to all parts of Europe and America, the Cape of Good Hope, and the
Mauritius; and the more so, as from the extensive native and European
population, a very considerable and constant demand exists for the
produce and manufactures of Europe, not only for the consumption and
use of the island itself, but to supply the neighbouring Malayan states
by way of barter.
The quantity of sugar seems to depend almost entirely upon the demand,
and is likely at all times to equal it, few countries affording equal
advantages for its manufacture. Owing to the want of a demand for this
kind of produce, for several years antecedent to the conquest, many
of the manufactories were discontinued; but since the trade has been
opened, and the demand renewed, many of them have again commenced
working, and the quantity produced in the year 1815 was not less than
twenty thousand _píkuls_.
The manufacturers being no longer compelled to deliver their produce
to government, can afford to sell the sugar at Batavia at from four to
six Spanish dollars (or from twenty to thirty shillings) per _píkul_,
the quality being distinguished into first, second, and third sorts,
of which the first may be bought in the market for exportation at
six Spanish dollars per _píkul_, or about twenty-five shillings the
hundred-weight. The quality of this sugar is altogether different from
the sugar in Bengal, and is said to be equal to that of Jamaica, being
manufactured in a great measure according to the same process. While
the European market is open for coffee and other light articles, the
sugar of Java is always in demand for dead weight, and large quantities
have recently been sold in the London market as high as ninety and one
hundred shillings per hundred-weight[62].
The quantity of coffee delivered to government in the year 1815,
exceeded seventy thousand _píkuls_; about thirty thousand _píkuls_ more
may have been exported by individuals, and the produce is greatly on
the increase[63].
The Batavian arrack is well known in the European market, and was at
one time imported in considerable quantities into the continent of
Europe. It is distilled in a great measure from molasses, in which
respect, as well as in the process employed, it differs so materially
from the arrack of continental India, that it cannot with propriety
be considered as the same spirit: it is in fact vastly superior to
it, and capable of competing in the European market with the rum of
the West Indies. Its price at Batavia, where any quantity can at all
times be procured, is for the first sort about sixty Spanish dollars,
for the second sort fifty, and for the third thirty Spanish dollars
the leaguer; the first sort, which is above proof, thus selling by
the leaguer of one hundred and sixty gallons, at the rate of about
twenty-pence the gallon. In consequence of the prohibitory duties
against the importation of this article into Great Britain or British
India, this branch of commerce has latterly declined, and many of the
distilleries have been discontinued.
The Dutch possessions of Ceylon, the Cape of Good Hope, and the
Moluccas, dependent on the government of Batavia, always received their
principal supplies of rice from Java, and considerable quantities have
of late been occasionally exported to those places, as well as the
Coromandel coast, with great advantage. During a scarcity of grain in
England, the Java rice has also found its way to that market[64].
From Europe the most important imports, and those in constant demand
for the native population, are iron, steel, copper, printed cottons
of a peculiar pattern, and woollens. Of iron, not less than from one
thousand to fifteen hundred tons are annually imported, which is worked
up into the implements of husbandry, and into the various instruments,
engines, and utensils, required in the towns and agricultural
districts. The price has varied, during the last four years, from six
to twelve Spanish dollars: the average has been about eight dollars
per hundred weight for the English, and about nine per hundred weight
for the Swedish iron. The small bar iron is always in demand in the
market, in consequence of its convenience for working up into the
different implements required. Steel is also in demand, to the extent
of two or three hundred tons annually.
English printed cottons, of peculiar patterns adapted to the taste of
the natives and Chinese, and white cotton sheeting cloth, always meet a
ready and extensive sale; but the great objection to the former is the
want of permanency in the colours, a disadvantage which all the English
printed cottons labour under. A very extensive and valuable assortment
of these cottons, imitated after the Javan and Malayan patterns, was
recently imported into Java by the East India Company, and on the first
sale produced very good prices; but before a second trial could be
made, the natives had discovered that the colours would not stand, and
the remainder were no longer in any demand. Would it not tend greatly
to the improvement of the British manufacture, and consequently greatly
extend the export, if the enquiries of scientific men in India were
directed, in a particular manner, to an observation of the different
dye-stuffs used in Asia, and to the manner followed by the natives in
different parts, for fixing the colours and rendering them permanent?
Broad-cloths, velvets, glass ware, wines, and in short all articles of
consumption and use among Europeans, may on Java be considered also,
in a great measure, in demand by the native population, who free from
those prejudices which preclude an expectation of the introduction of
European manufacture into Western India, generally indulge in them
according to their means. The climate of many parts of the Island
renders the broad-cloth, particularly at some seasons of the year, an
article of great comfort, and among the higher orders it is usually,
as with Europeans, worn as a jacket: sometimes this is of velvet. A
constant demand, limited only by the means of the purchaser, is also
daily increasing for gold-lace and the other European manufactures
used in dress, furniture, saddlery, &c.; it may therefore be easily
conceived, to what an extent the demand for these articles is likely to
be carried, among a native population of more than four millions and a
half of souls, advancing in wealth and intelligence.
It is unnecessary to notice the extent of the articles required from
Europe by the European population, as they are the same in all parts
of India. The demand is, of course, partially affected by the extent
of the military force, and by the wants of the officers; but where
there is a permanent resident European population, of not less than a
thousand souls, generally in good circumstances, it may be inferred
that the demand is always great.
A continual traffic is carried on between Batavia, the Isle of
France, and the Cape of Good Hope, by which the latter in particular
is supplied with timber, rice, oil, and a variety of articles of
consumption, the voyage being frequently effected in five weeks.
While the Bourbon coffee bore a higher price in the European market,
considerable quantities of coffee were sent from Java to that island,
and from thence re-exported as Bourbon coffee.
The American trade was carried to the greatest extent during the
existence of the anti-commercial system of the late French ruler, when
American traders purchased the Java coffee at the rate of eighteen
Spanish dollars the _píkul_ at Batavia, and by a circuitous route
imported it into France, at an advance of one hundred per cent. During
this period, the purchases of the Americans in the market of Batavia
amounted in some years to nearly a million sterling, for which they
obtained principally sugar, coffee, and spices.
Having thus given some account of the internal and external trade
of Java as it at present exists, of the advantages for an extensive
commerce which it enjoys, of the articles which it can supply for the
consumption of other countries, and those which it receives in return
for its own consumption, and of the places with which its dealings are
or might be most profitably conducted on both sides, I might now be
expected to enter into the history of that trade since the subjection
of the Island to the Dutch, the regulations enacted and enforced by
them, for restraining or directing it, and the fluctuations it has
undergone during two centuries of a rigid monopoly; but this inquiry
would lead me to swell this part of the work to a disproportionate
size. I shall now merely present my readers with a few extracts
from the orders made in 1767, and strictly enforced throughout the
Archipelago, for regulating the trade and navigation of the dominions
subject to Batavia, and with a brief abstract of the amount of exports
and imports during some of the subsequent years.
"All persons whatever," says the first article of those orders, "are
prohibited, under _pain of death_, from trading in the four fine kinds
of spices, unless such spices shall be first bought of the Company."
Opium was placed under the same restrictions, and enforced by the
same penalty. The exportation of pepper, tin, and Japan copper was
prohibited, unless bought for the Company; and the importation of them
not permitted, except for sale to the Company, under the penalty of
confiscation, and a fine of four times the value of the article. The
import and export of Surat silks and of India cloths, were strictly
prohibited under the same penalty. White cotton yarn and all other
sorts of it, _Semárang_ arrack, and unstamped gold, were prohibited
from being exported under the penalty of confiscation. No port was
open to any vessel coming from the northward or from the Moluccas,
except Batavia. No _práhu_ or vessel was to carry any greater quantity
of gunpowder and shot, than might be permitted, and regularly entered
in the pass given to the party, under penalty of confiscation of the
vessel, _and the infliction of a corporal punishment similar to that
inflicted for theft_. All persons belonging to the coast of Java were
strictly prohibited from sailing from any part of the coast where there
was not a Company's Resident. No navigation was allowed to be carried
on by the vessels of _Bánka_ and _Bíliton_, except to _Palémbang_.
All navigation from Celebes and _Sumbáwa_ was prohibited, under pain
of confiscation of the vessel and cargo. No vessel from the latter
place could pass Malacca, and the Company's pass to proceed to _Siak_
was given only once in a year to three vessels from Batavia, two
from the coast of Java, and one from Chéribon. The China junks were
only permitted to trade at Batavia and _Bánjer-másin_. No trade or
navigation whatever was permitted beyond the west point of Bantam,
without a pass from Batavia. Such are the most important of thirty-one
articles of restriction, serving to shackle every movement of commerce,
and to extinguish every spirit of enterprize, for the narrow selfish
purposes of what may be called the fanaticism of gain. After perusing
them, the reader will rather be inclined to think the following amount
of the trade too highly stated, than be surprised that it is so low.
The precious metals have always been a great article of import into
Java, as well as into the other regions of the East. In 1770 there was
imported into Java from Holland, cash and bullion to the amount of
2,862,176 Java rupees[65], and the sums imported from other quarters in
the same year, and raised by bills of exchange on Holland, amounted to
1,419,565 rupees, making in all 4,281,742, or more than half a million
sterling. The amount imported in that year was almost as great as that
in any subsequent year till 1803, when the importation of precious
metals was estimated at 7,617,122 rupees, or nearly a million sterling.
This period corresponds with that of the greatest exportation of sugar
by the Americans, who, no doubt, imported the precious metals in
exchange for their cargoes, as the quantity brought from Holland in the
same year amounted only to 448,370 rupees. In the following year (1804)
the quantity imported was 6,499,001 rupees, of which none at all came
from the mother-country. In forty years, from 1770 to 1810, the total
of the imported precious metals amounted to 118,607,472 Java rupees,
or nearly three millions annually upon an average. A great portion of
this was re-exported to India, China, and the Dutch possessions in
the Archipelago, to pay for the articles brought to Batavia for the
supply of the European demand. The quantity of goods imported from
all quarters of the globe, exclusive of cash and bullion, amounted
in the year 1770 to the value in Spanish dollars of 2,350,316, and
the exports to 3,318,161, leaving a balance in favour of the exports
of 867,845 Spanish dollars. A great part of the exports was destined
for Holland, and a great part of the imports came from Holland. The
imports from Holland were again re-exported to China, Japan, the
Spice Islands, &c. from which, and from Bengal, Ceylon, the coasts of
Coromandel and of Malabar, and the Cape of Good Hope and other eastern
countries, the other shipments came, and to which the other exports
proceeded. The profits on the sale of that portion of the imports of
1770, disposed of in the market of Batavia for the consumption of Java,
are stated at 7,895 Spanish dollars, so that, so far as the import
trade was concerned, Batavia only became the _entrepôt_ between the
mother-country and her other possessions or stations of commercial
resort in the Indian seas. The exports of Java almost every year
exceeded the imports, as will appear from official returns which follow.
-------+----------+----------+----------+----------
Years.| Exports.| Imports.| Excess of| Excess of
| | | Exports.| Imports.
-------+----------+----------+----------+----------
| Spanish | Spanish | Spanish | Spanish
| Dollars.| Dollars.| Dollars.| Dollars.
| | | |
1771 | 3,122,197| 3,116,374| 5,823| --
1772 | 2,909,371| 2,170,741| 738,630| --
1773 | 3,193,912| 2,789,869| 404,043| --
1774 | 3,184,641| 2,941,011| 243,630| --
1775 | 3,083,773| 2,692,420| 91,353| --
1776 | 3,319,070| 2,305,228| 1,013,842| --
1777 | 3,139,678| 2,006,561| 1,133,117| --
1778 | 2,440,042| 1,776,674| 663,368| --
1779 | 2,274,308| 2,075,022| --| 430,714
| | | |
1783 | 2,788,702| 1,914,202| 874,500| --
1784 | 2,921,274| 2,781,833| 139,441| --
1785 | 2,670,468| 2,654,687| 15,781| --
1786 | 2,495,038| 2,639,663| --| 144,624
1787 | 2,634,049| 2,506,267| 127,782| --
1788 | 3,700,209| 3,017,853| 682,356| --
1789 | 2,956,240| 2,840,127| 116,113| --
1790 | 3,011,040| 3,073,801| --| 62,761
1791 | 3,771,263| 3,098,849| 672,414| --
1792 | 1,172,670| 1,295,959| --| 123,289
-------+----------+----------+----------+----------
There was, of course, a lamentable falling off in the foreign trade
of Java after the commencement of the war of the French revolution:
some of the best markets were almost entirely closed to it, and the
intercourse with the mother-country was nearly destroyed. The total of
exports to Holland and her eastern possessions, from the year 1796 till
1806, amounted in value to only 7,097,963 Spanish dollars; the imports
to 3,073,894 Spanish dollars; leaving a surplus of exports of 4,024,069
Spanish dollars. The Americans began to frequent the market of Batavia
in 1798, and through them principally was the trade carried on till the
conquest of the Island by the British, except during the short interval
of the peace of Amiens. No specie (with which Holland chiefly paid for
her eastern commodities) was imported from the mother-country from
1795 downwards, except during 1802-3 and 1803-4, during which there
was only the very inconsiderable sum of about half a million of rupees
imported.
It is impossible to convey a just idea of the native or foreign trade
of Java, without adverting to the commercial and political state of the
other islands of the Archipelago. Of these it may be stated generally,
that the interior is possessed by the natives, collected under
leaders who have taken advantage of the great extent of the country,
in proportion to its population, to render themselves independent of
the lawful sovereign; that the coast is occupied, in many places,
either by pirates, by some of the ruder tribes whom it is dangerous
to invade, or by adventurous traders, chiefly _Maláyus_ and _Búgis_.
These traders arrive in well-armed vessels, which some of them remain
to protect; others travel up the country, not unfrequently to the
distance of a hundred miles, and at the change of the monsoon return
to their companions, charged either with plunder, or with the fruits
of a commerce carried on with the natives at an exorbitant profit.
The pirates, as they drive the peaceable and honest trader from the
coast, recruit their numbers from among the seafaring men to whom he
used to give employment. The decay of commerce is accelerated; and the
natives retreat into the interior, where, for want of a market, they
cease to collect the rich productions of their country, and rapidly
sink into poverty and barbarism. The sea and the coast remain a scene
of violence, rapine, and cruelty. The mouths of the rivers are held by
lawless banditti, who interrupt the trade of those who inhabit their
banks, and capture the vessels destined for the inland towns: the bays
and harbours are entirely within their power; and in these smooth seas
they are never driven a moment from their stations, or diverted by
danger from their predatory vigilance. The sovereigns of the country
have too little authority over their nominal subjects; and their
resources are too confined for them to oppose any effectual resistance
to these outrages. All restraints are withdrawn by the divisions and
weakness of the native governments; and men, rendered desperate by the
experience of lawless violence, are induced to join in the system of
plunder against which they can find no protection.
This extensive, rich, and beautiful cluster of islands is thus
deprived of all the advantages which it might derive from the sea
with which it is surrounded; its harbours become the retreats of
marauders, instead of the resort of peaceful commerce; its seafaring
people are reduced to a state of nature. Where force decides right,
no sovereign is possessed of paramount authority to sweep this pest
from his shores; no vessel is safe, no flag is respected. The trade is
thus confined to desperate adventurers only, to whom the existence of
piracy is more advantageous than the unmolested security of navigation,
as the danger which it creates drives away all competitors of a less
daring character, and gives them a monopoly of these ports. It is too
true, also, that European traders have materially contributed to the
strength of the pirates, by the supply of arms and ammunition. At the
port of _Sambas_, European vessels had not dared to touch openly for
twenty years; but such means of resistance as the pirates were found to
possess in two recent attacks upon it, could never have been collected
without large supplies from British traders.
The small colonial craft, so necessary for the prosperity of these
regions, cannot without great risk venture beyond the coast; while
armed Malayan and Bugis _práhus_, and a few European speculators,
engross most of the trade.
The above observations apply more particularly to the coasts of Borneo
and the adjacent islands; but they are, in a great measure, applicable
to many parts of Sumatra. The unfortunate king of Acheen, who has
long been intimately connected with the British establishments, is a
young man of estimable qualities, with a title ancient and undisputed,
though perhaps a weak prince. All his chiefs acknowledge his authority,
though none submit to his control. Native traders from the coast of
Coromandel, and Europeans from Pinang, frequent every river; and the
profit derived from their dealings furnishes the inhabitants with
inducements and means to throw off their allegiance. The king, too
feeble to reduce the revolters, is only able to keep up a state of
continual alarm and warfare, to which the mutual jealousies among the
petty usurpers themselves mainly contribute. The trade of his dominions
is in a great measure carried on like smuggling, by armed boats
running out at a favourable moment, hiding themselves from danger, or
fighting their way through opposition, as occasion may require, and
laying their account with making up for frequent losses by exorbitant
profits. In some places, these almost independent bands are commanded
by Malabar _chuliahs_; and, in most instances, the petty chiefs whom
they elevate to authority are foreign vagrants. Those places which,
from their vicinity to the residence of the king, are least able to
resist his power, are supported in their opposition by the interests of
the English traders; and it is not to be forgotten, that when he made
a partial attempt to regain his authority over all the neighbouring
country, they petitioned the European authority to prevent, by its
interference, his levying a duty upon his own subjects. The petition
was attended to; and the king was compelled, by the command of
strangers, to forego the only means by which he could have preserved
his dominions from anarchy and confusion. At the period, therefore,
when the resources of his kingdom would have been unfolding themselves,
by the improving industry of a well-regulated population, it is falling
into decay, through the personal imbecility and political weakness of
the monarch; and, breaking into detached fragments, is about to form
as many separate principalities, as formerly there were independent
governments throughout all the Archipelago[66].
That there has been, at some time, a more extensive commerce on the
shores of the Archipelago is highly probable, and that there might be
cannot be doubted. The great resources, vegetable and mineral, with
which they abound, such as spices, camphor, gold, and diamonds, and the
facilities which they enjoy for navigation, offer means and inducements
of the highest nature. The general character of the people, also, as
far as it can be ascertained, appears equally favourable to commercial
intercourse. They are represented as mild, inoffensive, not indisposed
to industry, free from any obstinate prejudices of superstition, and
altogether of a different temper from that of the few who remain in a
constant state of warfare on the coast.