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
If such rates had been equitably fixed, after a deliberate estimate of
the proportion between the labour of the cultivator and his produce,
and if from the best kind of _sáwah_ no more than the half had been
required, with a scale of rents diminishing as labour increased or the
soil deteriorated, the peasant could have had no reason to complain of
the exactions of government A _jung_ of the best _sáwah_ lands will
produce between forty and fifty _ámats_ of _pári_, each _ámat_ weighing
about one thousand pounds. Suppose a cultivator occupied a quarter
of a _jung_ of such land, he would reap ten _ámats_, or ten thousand
pounds of _pári_, and allowing a half for the government deduction,
would still retain five thousand pounds, which is equal to about eight
quarters of wheat. The best _sáwah_ lands return about forty-fold;
_sáwah_ lands of the second quality yield from thirty to forty _ámats_
the _jung_; and they are considered of inferior quality when they yield
less than thirty. From these last, two-fifths or one-third was required
as the landlord's share. _Tégal_ lands were assessed at one-third, one
fourth, or one-fifth of their produce, according to their quality, and
their produce in value is about a fourth of _sáwah_ lands of the same
relative degree in the scale. In Bengal, according to Mr. Colebrooke's
excellent account of its husbandry, "the landlord's proportion of the
crop was one-half, two-fifths, and a third, according to the difference
of circumstances." The value in money of a crop of rice grown on a
_jung_ of the best land under the wet cultivation, may amount to one
hundred and sixty Spanish dollars; and on a _báhu_ (the space occupied
by an individual cultivator), forty dollars. I formerly stated the
price of the implements of husbandry, the price of buffaloes or oxen,
the expence of building a house, and providing it with the necessary
furniture. The whole farming stock of a villager may be purchased for
about fifteen or sixteen dollars, or for little more than a third part
of the produce of his land in one year. The price of labour, the price
of cattle and of grain, as well as the fertility of the soil, varies in
different parts of the island; but, in general, it may be laid down as
an indisputable proposition, that from the natural bounty of the soil,
the peasantry might derive all the means of subsistence and comfort,
without any great exertion of ingenuity, or any severity of toil, if
their government made no greater demand than the shares stated above.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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