Opium to Java

99
Opium Fann Chinese: Cabang Atas

given residency were held by members of the same kongsi or pa-
tronage constellation that controlled the opium farm. 51

The water-buffalo farmer (kerbau paclttn'), as the holder of the
cattle-slaughter monopoly was popularly known, collected a tax on
all cows, oxen, and water buffalo slaughtered within his residency.52
He was also charged with enforcing government restrictions on the

slaughter of several categories of protected animals and was ex-
pected to inform the authorities ofcases of cattle theft. In practice,
he and his ~drc of employees exercised surveillance over the cattle
population of the entire r:esidency. For this purpose, and for the
convenience oflhe fcc-paying population, the buffalo farmer main-
tained his officially sanctioned representatives everywhere in the
residency.s' The pig farmer either slaughtered pigs himself or re-
ceived a permit fee from individuals who slaughtered their own
animals.51 Like the water-buffalo farmer he was required to post at

least one representative in every district, a good indication of wide-
spread Chinese presence, since the Javanese eschew<.-d pork.55

Holders of the pawnhouse leases claimed the exclusive right to lend
money at pawn for sums under ftoo. Ordinarily leased to individ-

uals, from 1870 to t88o pawnhouses were farmed .as a monopoly.
Officially designated pawnhouses were scattered throughout every
residency. Of 922 in Netherlands India in 1874. 91 3 were held by
Chin ese.s6

'Finally, the monopoly of harvesting birds' nests from Java's lime-
stone caves was leased to the highest bidder in many pans ofJava.
The birds'-nest farmer made arrangements with local villages to
carry out the arduous task ofnest collecting. (Although not nearly as
pervasive as the other farms, the birds'-ncst farm had a Spt'Cial

5 1. For various ronfirmations of this point, see R~ident Banyumas to OF,July 8,

1867, L-K (Geheim)in V 7/ t2/ t87o/2; KVvNit875. p. 158; DF1oGC, May 3'· 1876,

no. 7364 in V t7/8/t876/74; TM to OF, October 4, 1888, no. 1387/12 in TMC
H4ua; and TM 10 OF, February t6, t89 1, no. tli9/t2 in Exh 9/8/t8g2/76.

52. For full-grown animals, t 50 copper pennies (duitcn); for cah•cs. too.
53· Sec de Waal. ltanudnzingm, pp. 239, 230, respectively.
54· From too to 200 copper penmes per animal.
55· De Waal, AanutAntingm, pp. 394-95. Until •864 pig farmers also monopo-
lized the sal< of pig Resh in their territury. See SvN I 1863, no. 137·
56. De Waal, Aantetlmingm, pp. 338-42. During the 1800$ there were thiny-
three offiCial pawnhouses in Madiun. fifty-five in Rcmbang. and thiny-sevcn in
Semarang. KVvNI t875, pp. t6-t-c65· See alsoJan T. M. van Laanen. "Between the
J ava Bank and the Chinese Moneylender: Banking and Credit in Colonial Indo-

nesia," in/ndon.sian Ectmolflic Hiswry in 1M Dukh CoWnial Era. cd. Anne Booth, W. J.

O'Malley. and Anna Weidemann (New Haven, 199<1).

100

Opium to Java

connection with the opium fann. Harvesting birds' nests required
ascending rickety bamboo ladders to pluck the valuable nests from
the walls and ceilings of the caves; opium was considered so neces-
sary to inducing courage to make the ascent that, even in areas where
the government controlled nest collecting directly, nest pluckers
were provided with free opium. Opium was also an essential part of
the ritual offering to the cave spirits which preceded each harvest.)S7

To their holders, the value of the minor revenue farms was mea-
sured not in terms of the revenue they actually produced but in
terms of the unhampered access to the interior e•1ioyed by farm

employees. This access increased the reach of the controlling group
and thus favored all its economic interests. At the same time it
brought greater security to the opium farm by helping to keep rival
Chinese out of the farm territory. "It has long been customary,"
wrote opium fanner Tio Siong Mo in t876, "that the opium fanner
take the cattle farm as well; this is absolutely necessary for the
unrestrained exploitation of the opium farm. An opium farm that
tolerates the presence of another farm , the cattle farm , in [its)
territory can be certain of its own demise. The authority, for in-
stance, tosearch homes,and the prestige the farm acquires from this
and similar [privileges) count for little if one finds beside oneself in
every desa another person with identical claims:•sa Tio knew from
experience. He lost the p ig farm to Be Biauw Tjoan's Hok Bie
kongsi in the 1875 farm term, and the cattle farm to Be in 1876.

57· lk Waal, Aanht A.tningm, pp. 433-!14•438, 44•· In the Priangan the regent of
Bandung paid f2750 for the monopoly, and in Bagclcn, Pacitan, and Yogyakarut the
Dutch held the privilege for themschoes. 1lu: conneaion of nests and opium was so
d0$C that when the g;)vernment auempt.ed 10 creal<' a Forbidden Area in TrTng-
gdak, Kediri, the birds'-nest farm there had to be abolished. On the subj«t of the
harvesting of birds' nests, see also C.J.P. Cartier, "8.-schrij,ing van de Vogdnestllip-
pen te Karang Bollong.'' 'J'ijdstlarift voorth JndiJtlat Tanl·, Land· m Vo/AmJtvn<k (1853),
304.

58. Tio Siong Mo, "Aan de Tweede Kamer," in V t7/8/ t876/74· The Dutch
rccognit.cd the 'complementary nature of the farms and alwa)'S held the minor
revenue farm auctions after those forthe opium farm , a tactic designed both to inflate
farm fees and In preserve tr~nquility in the countryside. They knew that lo.ing
kongsis at the opium farm auctions tried via the smaller franchise> to gain access to
their competitors' territories, and that opium farmers were extremely reluctant to let
them do this. See KVvN I •87!>• p. 158. 1l1is repon record• the unusual decision to
award the cattle farm to the opium fanner fo r a smalk r fee than bid by a competitor
kongsi, for the specific purpose of strengthening the opium farm and preventing
black-market competition within the territory.

101
Optum Fann Chinese: Cabang Atas

Possession of these farms made it all the easier for Be to bring down
Tio's Surakana opium farm later that year.59

Other investments highly favored by wealthy Chinese were gov.
ernmcnt contracts. These included contracts for transporting state-

controlled commodities, selling salt, pruning the state forests, and
provisioning government institutions such as army encampments,
jails, and schools. The Cabang Atas dominated the bidding for these
contracts, and even where European bidders won the contract-
frequently the case with coffee-transport and salt contracts-Chi-
nese undoubtedly subcontracted for the actual work. Uke the farms,
many of these contracts not only generated direct profits for their
holders but also put them in a position to penetrate .Java's agricul-
tural hea.nland. Employees of the coffee-transport contractor, for

example, carried government coffee from inland warehouses to the
coastal shipping centers; they thus enjoyed unhindered movement
along the interior traffic arteries. The salt-distribution contractor
presided over a network of Chinese-manned salt stores which criss-
crossed the island. Employees of the various contractors, like those
of the farmers, could engage in a plethora of auxiliary activities.
Acquisition of these contracts was therefore yet another aspect of the
"battle of the kings." It was important for the dominant opium farm

interests that few of these contracts fell into the hands of rivals.oo
The development of private commercial plantations following the

1870 Agrarian Law expanded possibilities for this kind of contract-
ing. Individual plantations now contracted for construction, trans-
port, and provisions. The Chinese were quick to take advantage of
such opportunities. Because exemptions from residence and travel
rules were granted in the interest of agriculture and industry as well
as the government revenue farms, such contr.tctors, though they
did not enjoy the same legal authority as the farms, enjoyed consid-
erable freedom of movement.61

In addition to revenue farming and contracting, wealthy Chinese
invested in a variety ofother enterprisesand, ~here it was permitted,

59· DF t.oCG, May 31, 1876, no. 7364 in V 17/8/ 1876/74. De l..Dt:qmo/irf, December

15, 1865, carried a story, for example, of the confiscation of sixty katis of black-

marl<et opium from an agent of the: cattle and pig fanns. ·

6o. For lists of the various go,oernrnent contractors, see the annual KVvNI. In

t88s. for example, the salt and coffee contracts are listed in Appendix PPP, the

forest-pruning contrdrts in ApJ"'ndix FFF.

61. SvNI t866, no. 57·

102

Opium to Java

real estate. For example. peranakans financed the manufacturing

and processing ofrice wine, bread,oil, leather, and, most important,

sugar.62 h i the 187os and 188os nearly halfofthe private sugar mills

in J ava were Chinese owned.63 Many ofJava's "private domains"-

large landed feudal estates dating from the time of Raffles- were in

Chinese hands; and after 1870 several wealthy Chinese, among

them the dominant opium farmers and their associates,joined Euro-

peans in taking advantage of the new opportunities offered by the

Agrarian Law ofthat year by investing directly in commercial planta-

tion agriculture. (Like the Europeans, they sometimes borrowed

from Dutch-owned banks to do so.)M Ho Yam Lo, for example, had

sugar lands and a mill in Probolinggo and held long-term leases on

indigo and cotton lands in Pekalongan and rice land in Semarang.65

Be Biauw -r:ioan, Tan Kok T ong, and Oei Tiong Ham were among

the other opium farmers who were known for their plantations and

sugar mills.&& ·

An 1871 statute permitting "non-natives" to rent smaller parcels

ofagricultural land from indigenous proprietors provided an addi-

tional investment opportunity for Chinese capital. Between 188o

and 1884, 470 Chinese (compared to 2611 Europeans) took advan-

tage of the opportunity.67 Finally, wealthy peranakans owned a

multitude of small properties-houses, shops, warehouses, and the

like. Many ofthese properties were in the island's Chinese neighbor-

hoods, but a substantial number lay outside. Farmers routinely

maintained permanent properties in the interior lo house their

agents. Perusing the government property-tax records in the 186os,

C. Castens discovered that Be Biauw Tjoan owned properties in

nearly every afdeling in centra1Java ,68 and a list of Tan Kok Tong's

62. See the compilation of Chinese commercial activiti.,. in Oudga.st, Onu OOJ!

(Amsterdam. 1897). p. 19.
63. KVvNI t885, Appendix BS8; KVvNJ t875. Appendix RR.
64. Djolr.o Suryo, ''Social and Econo.ruc Life in Rural Semarang," p. 178. See the

contracts in V u /o/tllgo/63. Among the bankl were Handels Verttniging. Amster-
dam; Koloniale Bank, Surabaya; and the lnternationale Crediet· en Handclsvercen-

iging, Rotterdam.
65. "Ecn pachtg=hiedenis; · IT, December 3, t88g.
66. TM to DF, February t6, t8gt , no. t 69/12 in Exh 9/8/tSgo/76; and KVvNI

1875, Appendix R. no. 19.
67. See KVvNI t88s. p. 77, forthe statistics; SvN I t871, no. 163, for the statute.
68. C'.asten•. " De Opiumpacht op J ava." C...tcns does not name Be specifically in

this artide; rather he speaks of"one of the brgest opium cntrepreneun in Javd." We
know from his private corre•pondence, however. thai it was Be Siauw Tjoan he was

investigating.

103
Opium Farm Otlncsc: Cabang Atas

real-estate holdings compiled in 1888 revealed that Tan owned an
imposing numberof properties in Mad.iun and Surabaya residencies
as well as in his home residency of Kediri. In Kediri he held the deed
to seventy-three properties, only seventeen of which were in the
official Chinese wards.69

Around and beneath the collective activities and investments of
the Cabang Atas-the opium and other revenue farms, government
and private contracts, commercial agriculture, and real estate-
there was a lively Chinese retail trade. In return for manufactured
goods (including opium) and credit. the Chinese brought village
produce, particularly rice, into the marketplace. This genentl pro-
cess was the sum ofa multitude ofsmall, discrete economic activities,
transactions betweenJavanese villagers and small traders on the one
side, and Chinese shopkeepers, moneylenders, and rice and pro-
duce dealers on the other. Copper pennies- both official cents and
the older, ubiquitous duits-and credit were the primary media of
exchange in this rural economy. The Chinese were essential to the
circulation of the first and to the availability of the second.70

The circulation of copper pennies was the commonest popular
manifestation of the gradual moneti7.ation of J ava's rural econ-
omy-a process begun centuries before, but an increasingly perva-
sive one in the nineteenth century after the introduction ofthe land-
rent tax and with the growth of wage labor. With copper pennies
Javanese peasants purchased necessities such as seed and farming
implements and other items of petty trdde; with pennies. too, they
bought the frills for their feasts and entertainments. The small
quantities of candu and tike which formed the base of the patungan
trade in opium were also bought and sold for pennies; likewise,
1·evenue fanners levied crossing tolls, slaughter fees, and all the
other petty exactions of the countryside in pennies.

Although Javanese peasants sent a wide variety of goods to mar-
ket-among them firewood, fruits and vegetables, and dry-season
crops (palawija such as cassava, maize, groundnuts, and soybeans)-

6g. Opgave: Property of Tan Kok Tong in Kediri: this is a ILu of sevent)'·thrce
properties including their location, date of deed. t.ax :wessment, and estimated real
market value. In V 23/ ttlt888/Ft7.

70. A duit was worth approximately fo.oo6 in the •88os. Sec M. T. H. l'erclacr,
BnOO. Dalirna (Dutch edition). 2:ggnuo8. The duit, though no longer minred aft~r

•8.!3· remained the prevailing and prcfcm::d currency in .the countl}'$ide of ccmr.tl

and east Java well into the twentieth century. See r. Creutzbcrg. "Geldwezcn in

lndonesic in de t!J<' en hcgin •oe Ecuw," unpublished manuscript. pp. 24-25.

104
Opium to Java

their fortunes were tied fundamentaliy to rice. Rice was the central

commodity of the rura l economy, and much Chinese activity in the

countryside was designed to bring it into the Chinese-dominated

marketplace. Chinese nee-gathering activities in Java had a long

history, but like the spread of cash and other aspects of the island's

economy, they intensified in the nineteenth century.71 It was no

accident that the growth ofthe rice trade, the partial monetization of

the rural economy, a nd the full-scale development of the opium

farm system occurred hand in hand. Indeed, as the strongest and

most pervasive arms of the peranakan patronage constellations and

their kongsis, opium farms were an invaluable asset in controlling

the Aow of rice in a given region; they also functioned as important

credit institutions in financing the trade in peasant-grown com-

modities. ·

In the village world the collection of rice and other produce by

Chinese was inextricably bound to moneylending and credit giving.

At the bottom of the peranakan patronage hierarchies stood the

rural Chinese trader-perhaps an employee ofthe opium, cattle, or
pig farms, or the transport contractor, or salt distributor.72 He may

have been a local opium farm store manager, a mata-mata, a part-

time patungan opium dealer, an itinerant craftsman, or one of the

thousands of Chinese who by right of precedent lived permanently

in one ofJava's rural villages.73 It was such individuals who entered

into commercial relationships with village chiefs and farmers. A g-ap

between expenses and cash income seems to have been an inescap-

able aspect of the peasant economy. J avane$C therefore borrowed

71. Although the produce and rice trddc in the interior was 'vinually a Chinese
monopoly. Arabs. Europe-.ons, and Eurasians also occ:uionally engaged in similar
middleman activities. Burger, Onl.duiling, pp. 74• 76, Sg.

72. A unique view of the internal structure of Chinese rural trade can be found in
Tien J u-k'ang, Tlu Chiru~se of Sm-au..,.: A Study of Socinl Stnuturt (London, t953).
Ticn's Chinese traders operated-in the late 1940s. the period of his fieldwork-in
an economic and demographic environment in many ways similar to Java of the
century before; Sarawalr. was. for instance, a lightly governed. economically under-
developed colony. Most interesting is Tien's discussion of the credit relationships
between members ofChinese pat.ronage chains that connected urban dooU/u (usually
Chinese captains) and petty rural traders. Tien's study of the Sarawaltian Chinese
suggests what may have been the internal commercial and social relationships within
nineteenth-century Java's opium-farm·based but economically d iverse parronagc
constellations. See esp. pp. 4~. 44· 65, 66, and chap. 9· '11le Problem of Power."

73· Witness SimJu Hing, a farm mata-mata who lived a.s a numpang-a classifica-
tion ofvillager who lives with another family, earning his keep by performing specific
duties for his hosts-on the desa propeny of J avanese Martodimejo in Ponorogo,
Mad iun. See Ongholr.ham, '111e Residency of Madiun." pp. t!}S, 241 .

105

Opium Farm Chinese: Cabang Atas

small sums from the Chinese-to pay their taxes and debts; to buy
seed or rent a draft animal; to hire someone to help prepare the
fields ; to sponsor a ritual celebration; or, for local hawkers and
roadside stall-keepers, to do a day's business in fruits, vegetables,
fish paste, sugar, and tobacco. Many of these loans took the form of
an advance (in money or goods) on a rice delivery promised at the

following harvest, or of a straight loan at high interest with unripe
rice offered as security.74 There were numerous variations, but the
result was nearly always the same: unable fully to pay off one loan
before needing another one, peasants found themselves committing
a steady flow of rice upward through the Chinese patronage con-
stellation.7.'1

A correspondent of the Soerabaja Courant provides us with an ex-

treme example. Although tainted by sinophobia, his story illustrates
a process that, to varying degrees, affected many rural villages. In
this vignette, a low-level employee ofthe opium farmer-perhaps a
servant or small-time patungan dealer-establishes himself in a
village. With farm backing and the cooperation of the village head-

man he begins buying up local produce. The village subsequently
becomes the site of an official opium store, complete with a local
bandar, a client ofthe residency opium farmer, and his helpers. The
opium store soon becomes the hub ofa growing local commerce, as
the bandar and his agents advance opium, cash, and goods against

74· Van Laanen. "Between the j ava Bank and the Chin<-se Moneylender"; Ojoko
Suryo, "Social and Econorruc Life in Rural Semar.mg." p. 179.

75· Comments about and observations of Chinese moneylending activities fre-
quendy appear in administrative corrc:spondc:nce dealing with opium affairs and
Chine.e problems in general. See, for example, Liem Hok Djien to MvK, August 25,
1889 (trans. L.W.C. van den Berg), in VKG t7IJ0/188g/GJ6: Assistant Resident
Malang to Resident Pa.•uruan, March 2 1. 18g1. no. 27/10 in MR 348/1891; and TM
to OF, February 16, 18g1, no. 16g/12 in Exh g/8l•8g2l76. Sec: also "Nadeclen door

de Chinezen in de dessa's opJava veroorl<lakt," TN/ ( •850), 2:217; "De Chinezen als
geldschietcnderJavanen bc:schouwd," TN/ (•8sg), 2:58-61; "DeChinezen opjava,"
Dt lndi.!clu! Mail (1886) 1:1 95-98; and "Besprelr.ing •·an de opium quaestie en de

invoering van het licentie-stelscl door de Blitarsche l.andbouwverceniging," TNLNI

(1888), 36:5•· The picture of Chinese domination of rural trade which emerges in
these sources was corroborated at the tum of the century by the findings of the

official commission assigned to investig-dle indigenous poverty in Ja•·a, the so-called
Wtlvaart OlukrzDtA. For a summary of the findings of the commi.uion regarding the
Chinese and rural trade, sec C. J . Hasselman, Algemun OvnUgt mn tiL ui/Nmutm mn
Ml Wtlvaart-Ondrnotkgtlwudm opjavatn Madotm in 1904-190J (The Hague, 1914),

PP· 12, 121, 1~4-~5. 321 ,338-39. Hereafter cited as Hasselman, WtiV<I4rt OlukrzDtA.

DJOko Suryo, "Social and Economic Life in Ru ral Semarang," p. 1g8. says that the
coming of rails helped Chinese to di•lodge remaining indigenous traders f rom the
rice trade. .





























































7

The Quest for the

Perfect Vice Tax

Java~In the Dutch never entirely abandoned the East india

Company's view of opium as a lucrative commercial product. Well
into the twentieth century revenues remained the dominant and
constant variable in opium policy decisions. M a result of the full
development of the opium farm system in the nineteenth century,
however, and in response to changing atti tudes regarding the aims
and responsibilities ofcolonialism, other concerns emerged. One of
these was the morality of the opium trade. Another was enforce-
ment; indeed, as the Dutch presence widened and deepened, the
problem of controlling the black market assumed an increasingly
dominant part in formulating policies about opium.

In 18o3, only nine years after the commissioners general of the
dying Dutch East India Company had pressed their servants in J ava
to expand their opium sales to the limit in the interests oftrade, the
first strong voice was raised against the exploitation of opium profits
in the Indies.• Speaking for the six commissioners whom the Dutch
government (Batavia Republic) appointed to consider the question
of colonial reform following the collapse of the VOC, Sebastiaan
Cornelius Nederburgh recommended that "all measures that local
circumstances permit be employed to lessen the use ofopium upon
the island of Java, and, if it is possible, to eliminate it altogether."2

1. Saud, ''l'roevc,'' p. 149·
2. "Rapport der Commissie tot de Oost·lndischc Zakcn," May 3 1. t 8o3, quoted in
Baud, "Proeve," I'· 135; D-Ay, Duuh in java, pp. 134-44; Bastin, Raffles, pp. 13-16.

136

137
Quest for the Penect Vice Tax:

Although war in Europe intervened before the recommendations of
the commissioners could be put into action, their condemnation of
opium, and their vision ofa government policy that addressed itself
to suppressing, if not eliminating, the opium habit, found adherents
throughout the rest of the century- in the Colonial Service, the
Indies Council, and in an occasional governor general, colonial
minister, or member of Parliament. These voices were never to be
the dominant ones, but the sentiment they expressed, a sentiment
that blended with a more general one that viewed native welfare as
one of Holland's colonial obligations, formed a constant counter-
point to the prevailing concern of the state, the quest for colonial
revenues and profit. As a result, the attempt to design an opium
farm system that was at once both lucrative and ethical was the goal
of generation after generation of Dutch colonial officials.

After 1848 colonial policy writ large was Parliament's respon-
sibility. Parliament provided the Indies with its first fundamental
law in 1854 in which it laid down the general principles and rules to
be followed in the governance of the colony. Funhermore, follow-
ing 1867, Parliament held the colonial purse strings, and in the
context of annual debates on fixing the colonial budget it took a
greater interest in some of the colony's more mundane affairs.
Colonial opium policy, however, seldom attracted their attention.
The opium farm system provided important revenues and contrib-
uted to the balig-slot, the annual contribution from Indies revenues
to the ho me Treasury. These revenues were simply taken for
granted, and an occasional raised eyebrow over a panicular practice
or abuse to the contrary, Parliament left the regulation ofthe opium
farms and the revision ofopium policy to the colonial minister.-' He

During his lieutenant governorship Raffles observed that the ··use of opium .. . has
struclr. deep roots into the habits. and extended its malignant influence to the morals
ofthe people." He aucmpted to restrict opium sales to the principalities and the cities
of Bata\ia, Semar.mg, a nd Surahaya, but was thwarted by his superiors in Calcutta.
See Baud. "l'roeve.• pp. 156-57. Sec also Carey, "ChangingJavanese Perceptions,"
p. gg, regarding opium farms and tollgates in the Yogyakarta sultanate.

g. An exception occurred in the late 185os and early 186os in rcsporuc to a
program of supplying opium farmers unlimited amounts of rebttively inexpensh·e
opium. This had been initiated by Governor General Duymaer van Twist (185 1-56)
in 1855 in the hope that it would encourage opium farmers to abandon th~ cbtn-
destinc trade. They did so, but when the sale ofofficial opium nearly doubled in five
years· time, critics of the system rallied and lobbied for its abandonment. Pahud de

Montanges, "Nota." folio •s: W. K. Baron van Dedem, Enu hijdragt tol tk studU der

~ op Java; tk Officiuk LittmJJuur (Amsterdam, 1881). p. 7: de Waal,
AantetW.ingtn. p p. 5-21.