The History of Java, v. 1-2Raffles, Thomas Stamford, Sir
History
The History of Java, v. 1-2
Raffles, Thomas Stamford, Sir
Java (Indonesia) -- History
When government wishes to raise supplies from particular districts, it
does not enquire how many rupees or dollars it can yield in taxes, but
what contribution of rice or maize it can furnish, and the impost is
assessed accordingly: the officer of revenue becomes a surveyor of land
or a measurer of produce, and the fruits of the harvest are brought
immediately into the ways and means of the treasury. When a chief gives
his assistance in the police or the magistracy, he is paid by so much
village land, or the rent of so much land realized in produce; and a
native prince has no other means of pensioning a favourite or rewarding
a useful servant. "Be it known to the high officers of my palace,
to my _Bopátis_ (regents), and to my _Mántris (petite noblesse)_,"
says a Javan patent of nobility granted by Sultan _Hamángku Búana_,
"that I have given this letter to my servant to raise him from the
earth, bestowing upon him, for his subsistence, lands to the amount of
eleven hundred _cháchas_, the labour of eleven hundred men." By the
population returns, and by the number of leases granted under the late
settlement, it appears, that sometimes there is not more than a tenth
part of the inhabitants employed in any other branch of industry. Out
of a population of 243,268 in the _Priáng'en_ regencies, 209,125 are
stated as employed in agriculture. In _Surabáya_, the proportion of
householders who are cultivators, is to the rest of the inhabitants as
32,618 to 634; in _Semárang_, as 58,206 to 21,404; in _Rembang_ it is
as 103,230 to 55,300; and in other districts there are considerable
variations: but it rarely happens, that the people employed in trade,
in manufactures, in handicrafts, or other avocations, amount to a half
of those engaged in agriculture, or a third of the whole population.
The proportion, on an average, may be stated as three and a half or
four to one. In England, it is well known, the ratio is reversed, its
agricultural population being to its general population as one to
three or two and a half. By the surveys lately made under the orders
of the British government, we are enabled to describe the processes
of Javan agriculture, and to state its results with more accuracy and
in greater detail, than can be attained on many subjects of superior
public interest. If we avail ourselves of these means pretty largely,
it is not so much in the hope of increasing the stock of agricultural
knowledge, as of assisting the reader to form an estimate of the
character, habits, wants, and resources of the Javan.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account