The Emergence and Development of Indigenous Tea Plantations in West Java, 1875–1941

Alwi Alatas,Wan Suhana Wan Sulong

doi:10.21315/kajh2020.27.2.3

Alwi Alatas, Wan Suhana Wan Sulong

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.21315/kajh2020.27.2.3

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Abstract

Indigenous people in Java in the colonial era were often portrayed as a communal society, socially oriented and not in line with the market economy dominated by the Dutch administration. However, this over-simplifies the picture, especially with regard to the late colonial era, when a number of indigenous people voluntarily participated in the market economy, such as in the cultivation of export crops. This article examines the involvement of local farmers in West Java in tea cultivation for export. While this was mediated by their engagement with the colonial government and the European tea estates and infrastructure, the active willingness of local farmers to embrace market economy was also crucial for the emergence of local tea plantations in the region. Throughout the early 20th century until the end of the Dutch colonial era local tea production tended to continuously increase. In addition, several tea enterprises belonging to indigenous people emerged in the region and at least one of them had considerably expanded by the end of the period. This study shows that the indigenous people were actually willing and able to actively participate in the market economy when they had the chance to do so.

Highlights

In the colonial times, commerce in Java was mainly in the hands of the Europeans, while local people were marginalised from international and regional trade
Increasing calls for reform led to the colonial government acknowledging the detrimental impact of its policy on the local people and it admitted its responsibility to foster their economic development, reflected in the introduction of the Ethical Policy in the beginning of the 20th century, which moderately improved indigenous welfare, but without changing the fundamental structure and exclusivity of the colonial economy
It is interesting to note that the phenomenon of the emergence and development of indigenous tea plantations was not paralleled in British India, whose tea production was higher than that of the Netherlands East Indies, where cultivation was monopolised by large estates, at least up to 1930 (DC-DAIC 1930, 248)

Summary

Introduction

Commerce in Java was mainly in the hands of the Europeans, while local people were marginalised from international and regional trade. The indigenous populations were essentially considered backward and lacking in economic motives by Dutch colonial officials and scholars and their opinions varied on whether the indigenous situation should be seen as something inherent within the local society, or something shaped and iterated by historical circumstances and colonial policy and whether this was triggered by a rigid and vulnerable character among indigenous people who needed protection, or whether they could be changed and developed These two viewpoints in evaluating the purported characteristics of the local people engendered inconsistency in the colonial policy, especially in the first half of the 20th century. The policy proclaimed appropriate platitudes about benefitting the colonised society, but the underlying principle remained colonisation and profit for the European capitalists It materially helped in increasing the welfare and commercial involvement of local people, which subsequently enabled them to buy European imported products, making the Indies a Dutch consumer market in addition to a source of raw materials, further boosting the colonial economy. Such development could be observed among others in the existence of indigenous tea plantations in West Java, the particular case discussed in this article

Indigenous Tea Cultivation in West Java

Indigenous production purchased by estates

The Emergence of Indigenous Tea Cooperatives

Indigenous Planters and the Market Economy

Findings

Conclusion