1 Scott, James C., The moral economy of the peasant (New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 1976), p. 10Google Scholar. Ronald Seavoy says that Java was famine free because the Dutch colonial administration was efficient in distribution of rice in times of crop failures; Seavoy, Ronald E., Famine in peasant societies (New York: Greenwood Press, 1986), pp. 177–8Google Scholar. The Dutch colonial government's efforts to ensure Java's food supply after 1880 are presented through official records in Het ekonomisch beleid in Nederlandsch-Indie, vol. 2, ed. P. Creutzberg (Groningen: H.D. Tjeenk Willink, 1974), pp. 171–547.

2 Scott, Moral economy of the peasant, pp. 91–2.

3 Ibid., p. 1.

4 Huender, W., Overzicht van den economischen toestand der inheemsche bevolking van Java en Madoera ('s Gravenhage: Nijhoff, 1921), pp. 222–3Google Scholar. For a survey of famines in India under British rule, see Bhatia, B., Famines in India: A study in some aspects of the economic history of India (1860–1945) (London: Asia Publishing House, 1963)Google Scholar.

5 Dick, H., Houben, V.J.H., Lindblad, J.T. and Wee, Thee Kian, The emergence of a national economy: An economic history of Indonesia, 1800–2000 (Sydney: Allen & Unwin and University of Hawaii Press, 2002), p. 65Google Scholar.

6 For a resume of the conventional view on the subject of famines in Java in the mid-nineteenth century based on pre-1945 Dutch writings, see Hall, D.G.E., A history of Southeast Asia, 4^th edn (London: Macmillan, 1981), p. 590Google Scholar; Furnivall, J.S., Netherlands India. A study of plural economy (Amsterdam: Israel BV, 1976), pp. 137–8Google Scholar, and Day, Clive, The policy and administration of the Dutch in Java (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford, 1975), p. 315Google Scholar. The best conventional account of the subject is van Soest, G.H., Geschiedenis van het kultuurstelsel, vol. 3 (Rotterdam: H. Nijgh and van Ditmar, 1871), pp. 165–222Google Scholar. The political fallout, which arose from the publicity given to the two famines, is examined with aplomb by Fasseur, Cornelis, The politics of colonial exploitation: Java, the Dutch and the cultivation system, trans. Elson, R.E. and Kraal, Ary (Ithaca: Cornel University Press, 1992), pp. 74–85 and 102–25Google Scholar. The conventional view of the famines of Cirebon and Semarang is revised by modern studies mentioned below.

7 The famines in Lombok are examined by Brennan, Lance, Heathcote, Les and Lucas, Anton, ‘The causation of famine: A comparative analysis of Lombok and Bengal, 1891–1974’, South Asia, 7, 1 (1984): 1–26CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Alfons van der Kraan does not discuss the famines in his study of Lombok, but gives a detailed account of Lombok's worsening economic conditions; Lombok: Conquest, colonization and underdevelopment, 1870–1940 (Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong; Heinemann, 1980), pp. 129–73.

8 Geenough, Paul R., Prosperity and misery in modern Bengal: The famine of 1943–44 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1982)Google Scholar.

9 This revisionist view of Cirebon famine in the light of contemporary documents is presented in Fernando, M.R., Famine in Cirebon Residency in Java, 1844–1850: A new perspective on the cultivation system (Monash University, Centre of Southeast Asian Studies Working Papers no. 21, 1980)Google Scholar.

10 The Demak–Grobogan famine in 1848–50 is examined in detail by Elson, R.E., ‘The famine in Demak and Grobogan in 1848–1849: Its causes and circumstances’, Review of Indonesian and Malaysian Affairs, 19, 1 (1985): 39–85Google Scholar. Elson provides a brief analysis of Indramayu and Demak-Grobogan famines in his masterly study of economic changes in Java in the middle decades of the nineteenth century; Village Java under the cultivation system (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1994), pp. 108–14.

11 Davis, Mike, Late Victorian holocausts (London and New York: Verso, 2001), pp. 23–90Google Scholar.

12 This view was first expressed by Hendrik Berlage on the basis of his famous study of the Java tree rings; Berlage, , ‘Over het verband tusschen de dikte der jaarringen van djatibomen (Tectona Grandis) en de regenval op Java’, Tectona, 24 (1931): 939–53Google Scholar. The Berlage series of data has been enlarged and re-examined by Murphey, J. and Whetton, P., ‘A re-analysis of tree ring chronology from Java’, Proceedings of the Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, B92, no. 3 (1989): 241–57Google Scholar.

13 Davis, Late Victorian holocausts, p. 235.

14 Koloniaal Verslag (hereafter, KV) (1884): 161–2.

15 Fernando, M.R., ‘Growth of non-agricultural economic activities in Java in the middle decades of the nineteenth century’, Modern Asian Studies, 30, 1 (1996): 77–119CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

16 Sen, Amartya, Poverty and famines: An essay on entitlement and deprivation (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1981), pp. 45–51Google Scholar.

17 Ibid., p. 45.

18 Sen, Amartya, ‘Starvation and exchange entitlements: A general approach and its application to the great Bengal famine’, Cambridge Journal of Economics, 1 (1977): 55CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

19 For a critique of Sen's work in the context of criticism against it, see Devereux, Stephen, ‘Sen's entitlement approach: Critiques and counter-critiques’, Oxford Development Studies, 29, 3 (2001): 245–63CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Arnold, David, Famine: Social crisis and historical change (Oxford: Blackwell, 1988)Google Scholar. Utsa Patnaik has also made some critical comments on Sen's views and argued that ‘pre-famine conjuncture’ of identifying the classes and groups vulnerable to starvation in the event of an economic shock is necessary to understand the Bengal famine; ‘Food availability and famine: A longer view’, Journal of Peasant Studies, 19, 1 (1991): 1–25.

20 Davis, Late Victorian holocausts, pp. 8–11 and 20–1.

21 Ghose, Ajit Kumar, ‘Food supply and starvation: A study of famines with reference to the Indian sub-continent’, Oxford Economic papers, 34, 2 (1982): 373CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

22 This conclusion is amply supported by information on indigenous domestic economy in the so-called Diminishing Welfare (Mindere Welvaart) commission reports covering the period from the 1880s through to the early 1900s; M.R. Fernando, ‘Peasants and plantation economy: The social impact of the European plantation economy in Cirebon Residency from the cultivation system to the end of the first decade of the nineteenth century’ (Ph.D. diss., Monash University, 1982), pp. 338–63.

23 For a general survey of the history of private domains in Java, see Encyclopaedie van Nederlandsch Indie, 2^nd edn, vol. 3, ed. D.G. Stibbe ('s Gravenhage and Leiden: Nijhoff and Brill, 1919), pp. 345–50.

24 The sale of land in Java under Raffles' administration is dealt with in Gelpke, J.H.F. Sollewijn, De landerijen onder het Engelsche tusschenbestuur verkocht (Semarang, 1889)Google Scholar. Indramayu domain was 2,332 km in extent while Kandanghaur domain was smaller and 1,274 km in extent. The Javanese rulers of Cirebon leased villages to the Chinese in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in order to bolster their income; Burger, D.H., Het ontsluiting van Java's binnenland voor het wereldsverkeer (Wageningen: H. Veenman, 1939), pp. 15–17Google Scholar. The inhabitants of villages in Cirebon region leased out to the Chinese rebelled against the landlords towards the end of the eighteenth century; J.A. van der Brook, De Cheribonsche opstand 1806 (1891), and Stevens, Th., ‘Cheribon at the beginning of the nineteenth century: An analysis of reactions from a Javanese sultanate to the economic and political penetration of the colonial regime between 1797 and 1816’, in Papers of the Dutch-Indonesian historical conference held at Noordwijkerhout, The Netherlands, 19–22 May 1976 (Leiden and Jakarta: Bureau of Indonesian Studies, 1978), pp. 79–86Google Scholar. The practice of leasing villages to the Chinese was found elsewhere in Java as well, Bastin, J., ‘The Chinese estates in east Java during the British administration’, Indonesie, 7, 5 (1954): 433–9Google Scholar.

25 The famine in Indramayu–Kandanghaur private domains sparked a debate on repurchasing them, but it did not produce any results immediately. The government bought back both domains in 1910–11, marking the beginning of the end of private domains in Java in the wake of new ethical policy introduced in 1902, which emphasised the need to improve the well-being of indigenous people. For information on the repurchase of Indramayu and Kandanghaur private domains, see De Graaff, S. and Stibbe, D.G., eds., Encyclopaedie van Nederlandsch Indie, 2^nd edn, vol. 2 ('s Gravenhage and Leiden: Nijhoff and Brill, 1918), pp. 151 and 264Google Scholar.

26 Total population of the two domains amounted to 46,248 in 1828, which rose to 60,978 in 1840 and to 111,584 in 1880; ‘Statistiek van Cheribon 1835–1857’, Nationaal Archief, The Hague (hereafter, NA) aanwinsten 1963, no. 12, auctie Beyers.

27 ‘Statistiek van Cheribon 1835–1857’; Heyting, ‘Monographie Indramajoe west’, appendix ‘Staat aantoonende de geslagde en mislukte sawahs van 1879 t/m 1883’, and ‘Monographie Kandang Haoer’, appendix ‘Staat aantoonende de geslagde en mislukte velden van 1879 t/m 1883’.

28 For a description of the land tenure systems in Java in the nineteenth century, see Kano, Hiroyoshi, Land tenure system and the desa community in nineteenth-century Java, IDE Special Papers, no. 5 (Tokyo: Institute of Developing Economics, 1977)Google Scholar, and Boomgaard, P., Between sovereign domain and servile tenure: The development of rights to land in Java, 1780–1870 (Amsterdam: Free University Press, 1977)Google Scholar.

29 Boomgaard, P., Children of the colonial state (Amsterdam: Free University Press, 1989), pp. 116–35Google Scholar; R.E. Elson, Village Java under the cultivation system, 1830–1870, pp. 251–77, and M.R. Fernando, ‘Growth of non-agricultural economic activities in Java in the middle decades of the nineteenth century’.

30 Letter, Resident of Cirebon to Governor-General, 14 May 1883, no. 3791/62, NA, Archief Ministerie van Koloniën (hereafter, MvK) Mail Rapport (hereafter, MR) 1883 no. 604, Verbaal (hereafter, V) 3 Sept. 1883, kabinet F 14.

31 Mr Schiff, who acted on behalf of the administrators of the two private domains, told some senior officials in Batavia that Faes' warning of a crop failure had no factual basis: letter, Director of Internal Administration (D. Ples) to Governor-General, 25 June 1883, no. 4299, ‘Commissoriaal van den 18 Junij 1883 no. 11767’, and letter, Secretary General to Resident of Cirebon, 5 July 1883, no. 1093, MR 1883, no. 604.

32 Letter, F. Jellinghaus, administrator of Indramayu, to Assistant Resident of Indramayu, 10 May 1883, and letter, C.H. van der Veen, administrator of Kandanghaur, to Assistant Resident of Indramayu, 25 Apr. 1883, MR 1883, no. 604.

33 Letter, Jellinghaus to Director of Internal Administration, 15 July 1883, NA, MvK, MR 1883, no. 747, V 3 Sept. 1883, F 14 kabinet.

34 The estimated rice harvest in Indramayu amounted to 744 ton of paddy in 1883 against 1,364 ton of paddy in 1881, a fall of nearly half, while in Kandanghaur the decline in production was equally great, from 1,736 ton of paddy in 1881 to 1,054 ton of paddy in 1883; letter, Assistant Resident of Indramayu to Resident of Cirebon, 27 July 1883, no. 1180/62, MR 1883, no. 747.

35 Letter, Assistant Resident of Indramayu to Resident of Cirebon, 27 July 1883, no. 1180/62.

36 Letter, Assistant Resident of Indramayu to Resident of Cirebon, 27 July 1883, no. 1180/62.

37 The administrators conveyed their earlier optimistic views of the situation in order to discredit the local officials. Some senior officials in Batavia trusted the administrators' optimistic reports and admonished the local officials for their hasty reports of crop failure. Referring to the senior officials' reaction to his early reports on the crop failure, Faes wrote that ‘the administrator (of Indramayu) regards my view of the state of well-being of people being alarming is exaggerated, but he does not deny it altogether. His own information and comments are not free from exaggeration either, because otherwise the government would not have admonished me without a further inquiry’; letter, Faes to Governor-General, 1 Aug. 1883, no. 4609/62, ‘Consideratien en advies van den Resident van Cheribon over commissoriaal van den 21 July 1883, no. 14053 (marginaal renvooi)’, MR 1883, no. 747.

38 L.G.A. Graaf (Count) van Limburg Stirum (1802–84) was one of the landlords of Indramayu until his death in August 1884 and the Countess van Limburg Stirum took his place after her husband's death. In 1885, the owners of Indramayu private domain were J.H. Tiedeman, S.G.F. Gevers, Countess van Limburg Stirum, J.H. Gevers, A.J. van der Niepoort, J. Roomswinkel, E.A.C. Roomswinkel, J.H. Roomswinkel, A.R. Roomswinkel, G.C.C. Wiggers van Kerchem, G.A. de Lange, D. Jannette Walen and J.A. van den Brugh. The landlords of Kandanghaur domain in 1885 were A.H. den Texgeb, W.G. Vriese and F.A. Vriese; Regeringsalmanak 1885, vol. 1 (Batavia, Landsdrukkerij, 1886), appendix BB, p. 208.

39 NA MvK, Besluit, 3 Sept. 1883, no. 17.

40 Heyting published a noteworthy study of the domestic economy of Javanese peasants based on his close observation of three peasant families; Heyting, G.H., ‘Het budget van een Javaansche landbouwer’, Indische Gids, 11, 2 (1889): 1685–721Google Scholar, 1805–917 and 2149–86.

41 The first part of Heyting's report is entitled ‘Rapport omtrent den toestand, vooral der particuliere landerijen Kandanghauer en Indramajoe west in het algemeen, als omtrent de aldaar aanwezige voedingsmiddelen in het bijzonder.’ The second part of the report consists of two detailed reports entitled ‘Monographie Indramajoe west’ and ‘Monographie Kandanghaur’. The third part of the report consists of Heyting's extensive notes on the condition of individual peasant households he investigated, organised into two dossiers entitled ‘Desa onderzoekingen op het particuliere land Indramajoe west’ and ‘Desa onderzoekingen op het particuliere land Kandang Hauer’. The entire report can be found in NA, MvK, V 7 Mar. 1884, no. 2, ‘Resultaten van het onderzoek ingesteld nopens den toestand op de landen Kandanghaoer en Indramajoe’. The general report was also filed in Arsip Nasional Republik Indonesia, Jakarta (hereafter, ANRI) Algemeene Secretarie, MGS 2-1-1884-3.

42 ‘Rapport omtrent den toestand, vooral der particuliere landerijen Kandang Hauer en Indramajoe west in het algemeen, als omtrent de aldaar aanwezige voedingsmiddelen in het bijzonder’, appendix A ‘Aantooning der aanwezige hoeveelheden rijst bij de bevolking der landen Kandanghauer en Indramajoe west’.

43 The landlords' stores contained 930 ton of rice and 992 ton of paddy, all collected from peasants; Heyting, ‘Rapport omtrent den toestand, vooral der particuliere landerijen Kandang Hauer en Indramajoe west in het algemeen, als omtrent de aldaar aanwezige voedingsmiddelen in het bijzonder’, appendix B ‘Aantooning der aanwezige hoeveelheden padie en rijst bij de bevolking en handelars in de afdeeling Indramajoe’.

44 Rice exports from Java to the Netherlands, which came from west Indramayu, had fallen in 1881–82, but rose in 1883, attesting to the assiduous conduct of the administrators of private domains; Changing economy in Indonesia, vol. 4, Rice prices, ed. P. Creutzberg (The Hague: Nijhoff, 1978), pp. 67–8.

45 Heyting, ‘Rapport omtrent den toestand, vooral der particuliere landerijen Kandang Hauer en Indramajoe west in het algemeen, als omtrent de aldaar aanwezige voedingsmiddelen in het bijzonder’, appendix B ‘Aantooning der aanwezige hoeveelheden padie en rijst bij de bevolking en handelars in de afdeeling Indramajoe’, marginal notes.

46 According to Heyting's estimates, 9,648 ton of rice was required to feed the entire population of 104,900 at the rate of 45.5 ton of rice per day from the 1 Oct. 1883 to the 1 June 1884. The stocks of rice in villages amounted to 5,398 ton so another 4,250 ton of rice was required to meet the deficit; Heyting, ‘Rapport omtrent den toestand, vooral der particuliere landerijen Kandang Hauer en Indramajoe west in het algemeen, als omtrent de aldaar aanwezige voedingsmiddelen in het bijzonder’.

47 Traders in the adjacent Indramayu town across the river had 2,127 ton of rice and 2,521 ton of paddy for sale; Heyting, ‘Rapport omtrent den toestand, vooral der particuliere landerijen Kandang Hauer en Indramajoe west in het algemeen, als omtrent de aldaar aanwezige voedingsmiddelen in het bijzonder’ and appendix B ‘Aantooning der aanwezige hoeveelheden padie en rijst bij de bevolking en handelaren in de afdeeling Indramajoe’.

48 Heyting, ‘Rapport omtrent den toestand, vooral der particuliere landerijen Kandang Hauer en Indramajoe west en in het algemeen, als omtrent de aldaar aanwezige voedingsmiddelen in het bijzonder’, appendix A, marginal notes.

49 Heyting, ‘Monographie Kandang Hauer’, appendix ‘Particuliere land Kandang Hauer: Staat aantoonende de geoogste en mislukte velden van 1879 t/m 1883’.

50 Heyting, ‘Desa onderzoekingen op het particuliere land Indramajoe west’, entry no. 120.

51 Heyting, ‘Desa onderzoekingen op het particuliere land Kandang Hauer’, entry no. 92.

52 Ibid., entry no. 94.

53 Heyting, ‘Desa onderzoekingen op het particuliere land Indramajoe west’, entry no. 1.

54 Ibid., entry no. 6.

55 Ibid., entry no. 11.

56 Ibid., entry no. 47 (for 49).

57 Heyting, ‘Desa onderzoekingen op het particuliere land Kandanghaur’, entry no. 47.

58 Ibid., entry no. 42.

59 Ibid., entry no. 16.

60 Ibid., entry no. 38.

61 Heyting, ‘Desa onderzoekingen op het particuliere land Indramajoe west’, entry no. 68.

62 Ibid., entry no. 47 (for 49).

63 Ibid., entry no. 13.

64 When Faes returned to the Netherlands in November 1883, he met the previous Minister of Colonies, F.G. van Bloomen Waanders, with whom he was on friendly terms. The latter told Faes that he had received a communication from the Governor-General about removing him from the office of Resident of Cirebon in view of his meddling in the affairs of the private domains. Despite the minister's protest, the Governor-General forced Faes to retire; Faes, ‘De landen Kandanghauer en Indramajoe west in de residentie Cheribon en het land Tjiomas in de afdeeling Buitenzorg’, p. 1348. Faes' official records on the subject make it clear that he encountered hostility from the Director of Internal Administration (Binnenlandsch Bestuur) and the Secretary General (Algemeen Secretarie). They ignored or minimised the gravity of the crisis depicted by Faes on the basis of information made available to them by the representative of the managers of two private domains.

65 In 1848, s'Jacob established one of the first sugar mills to be built without government subsidy, Krembon sugar mill in Surabaya Residency, and ran it for 10 years. This contract was awarded by J.J. Rochussen (Governor-General, 1845–51), who reportedly provided s'Jacob with money for the undertaking; Fasseur, C., Kultuurstelsel en koloniale baten (Leiden: Universitaire Pers, 1975), p. 154Google Scholar. 's Jacob was also the director of Maatschappij tot Exploitatie van Staatsspoorwegen from 1867 to 1879. He wrote a pamphlet on the issue of ‘free’ labour, Gedwongen en vrije suiker cultuur op Java (Rotterdam: van Baalen, 1859), at a time when the liberal critics were waging a fierce battle against the state monopoly of commercial agriculture in Java.

66 Letter, Assistant Resident of Indramayu to Resident of Cirebon, 4 May 1883, no. 772/62, MR 1883, no. 604.

67 Letter, van der Veen, Administrator of Kandanghaur, to Secretary General, 25 July 1883, and letter, Jellinghaus, Administrator of Indramayu, to Secretary General, 15 July 1883, MR 1883, no. 747.

68 Koninklijk Magnetisch en Meterologisch Observatorium te Batavia, Verhandelingen no. 24, Regenval in Nederlandsch-Indie, vol. 1, gemiddelen van den regenval voor 3293 waarnemingsplaatsen in Nederlandsch-Indie, berekend uit waarnemingen verricht in het tijdvak 1879–1928 (Batavia: Landsdrukkerij, 1931), pp. 24–5.

69 Heyting, ‘Monographie Indramajoe west’.

70 On the cattle disease in west Java, see van der Kemp, P.H., ‘Een terugblik op de over west-Java gewoed hebbende runder-epizoothie van 1879 t/m 1882’, Tijdschrift voor Indisch Taal, Land en Volkenkunde, 30 (1885): 194–200Google Scholar. The rinderpest was reportedly widespread in Sumatra in the early 1880s, being brought in by the cattle imported from India, Thailand and the Straits Settlements; Encyclopaedie van Nederlandsch-Indie, 2^nd edn, vol. 4, p. 522. For a lengthy discussion on the nature and spread of rinderpest, see Driessen, D., ‘Bijdrage tot de runderpest-geographie’, Geneeskundige Tijdschrift voor Nederlndsch-Indë, 31 (1881): 309–510Google Scholar. The official guidelines on the cattle disease are given in Bijblad van het Statsblad 2464 and 2905.

71 KV 1880, p. 106; KV 1881, p. 113.

72 Letter, Resident of Krawang (J. de Blaauw) to Director of Education, Religious Affairs and Industry, 28 Dec. 1879, no. 3,008/19, NA, MvK, MR 1880, no. 64; KV 1881, p. 114; ‘Verslag omtrent den stand der veepest in de districten Losarang en Lelea (gedeeltelijk) van den 13 tot en met den 19 Februarij 1881’, enclosure, letter, Resident of Krawang to Director of Education, Religious Affairs and Industry, 5 Mar. 1881, 534/19, NA, MvK, MR 1881, no. 251.

73 Letter, Assistant Resident in Charge of Cattle Disease (Engelbronner) to Resident of Cirebon, 2 Apr. 1881, litt J³⁸, NA, MvK, MR 1881, no. 343.

74 Letter, Assistant Resident in Charge of Cattle Disease (Engelbronner) to Resident of Cirebon, 2 Apr. 1881, itt J³⁸.

75 ‘Weekrapport van en met 4 tot en met 9 Maart over den toestand der veeziekte in de vrije landen Indramajoe west en Kandanghauer’, enclosure, letter Assistant Resident in charge of the affairs of cattle disease (Morris) to Resident of Cirebon, 12 Mar. 1881, no. xiii, NA, MvK, MR 1881, no. 286 and ‘Weekrapport besmette kring Indramajoe west en Kandanghauer’, enclosure, letter, Controleur Indramajoe to Resident of Cirebon, 16 July 1881, enclosure, letter, Resident of Cirebon to Director, Education, Religious Affairs and Industry, 10 July 1881, litt A 81, NA, MvK, MR 1881, no. 681.

76 Heyting, ‘Rapport omtrent den toestand, vooral der particuliere landerijen Kandang Hauer en Indramajoe west in het algemeen, als omtrent de aldaar aanwezige voedingsmiddelen in het bijzonder’; ‘Monographie Indramajoe West’, appendix ‘Staat aantoonende de geslagde en mislukte sawahs van 1879 t/m 1883’, and ‘Monographie Kandang Hauer’, appendix ‘Staat aantoonende de geslagde en mislukte sawahs van 1879 t/m 1883’.

77 Rice production declined considerably in other areas heavily affected by the cattle disease, such as the Residencies of Banten and Krawang in west Java. In Krawang, which suffered heavily from the cattle disease, rice production was insufficient for local consumption let alone for export in 1881. The situation in Banten, where physically weak peasants without cattle could hardly keep up with cultivating rice, production plummeted from 160,800 ton of paddy in 1879 to 89,000 ton of paddy in 1881; Changing economy in Indonesia, vol. 10, Food crops and arable lands, Java 1815–1942, ed. Boomgaard and Zanden, pp. 116 and 118.

78 ‘Verslag betreffende de particuliere landerijen Indramajoe west en Kandanghauer’, ANRI, Arsip Daerah (hereafter, AD) Cirebon 5.10, and Heyting, ‘Rapport omtrent den toestand, vooral der particuliere landerijen Kandang Hauer en Indramajoe west in het algemeen, als omtrent de aldaar aanwezige voedingsmiddelen in het bijzonder’.

79 For a well-informed if somewhat argumentative discussion on Java's population growth in the nineteenth century, see Children of the colonial state, pp. 165–98. For a review of the field of historical demography of Java, see Fernando, M.R., ‘The Malthusian narrative of Java's demographic paradigm revisited’, Review of Indonesian and Malaysian Affairs, 40, 1 (2006): 85–112Google Scholar.

80 Children of colonial state, pp. 143 and 176.

81 Schmalhausen, H.E.B., Over Java en de Javanen (Amsterdam: P.N. Kampen, 1909), pp. 54–5Google Scholar.

82 In east Indramayu, the mean household size was 4.6 persons per household in the 1880s; Onderzoek naar de mindere welvaart der inheemsche bevolking op Java en Madoera: Samentreking van de afdeelngsverslagen over de uitkomsten der onderzoekingen naar de ekonomie van de desa in de Residentie Cheribon (Weltevreden: 1907), appendix 1. The flourishing rice trade in east Indramayu, which probably enabled even peasants with smallholdings of wet-rice land to earn a modest money income, may account for this slightly larger average household size.

83 Household and family in past time, ed. P. Laslett and R. Wall (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1972), pp. 97–100, 115–17, 147–8.

84 Calculated from statistics in annual general reports of Residency Cirebon for 1855, 1860, 1865 and 1870, ANRI, AD Cirebon, 3.12, 4.5, 4.11 and 5.5.

85 Heyting's survey records a few householders of non-agricultural workers: four traders, one carpenter, nine labourers and one person engaged in some other activity. Two men, Abdullah, a trader, and Amid, a carpenter, appear to have been engaged in non-agricultural activity on a part-time basis; they had holdings of wet-rice land cultivated by others. The private domains in the environs of Batavia produced 3,392 ton of sugar, 512 ton of coffee, 48,872 ton of tea and 93 ton of quinine in addition to cocoa, nutmeg, mace, cloves and indigo in small amounts in 1880; KV 1881, pp. 182–3.

86 Ibid., pp. 9 and 17.

87 A detailed study of economic conditions in Purworejo Regency reveals an interesting picture of economic prospects of people who did not produce agricultural crops for sale in Europe and yet achieved a degree of prosperity; van Doorn, C.L., Schets van de economische ontwikkeling der afdeeling Poerworedjo (residentie Kedoe) (Weltevreden: Kolff, 1926), pp.16–59Google Scholar. A similar state of affairs was found in other remote parts of central Java; Carey, P., ‘Waiting for the “Just King”: The agrarian world of south-central Java from Giyanti (1755) to Java War (1825–30)’, Modern Asian Studies, 20, 1 (1986): 59–137CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

88 Letter, Resident of Cirebon to Governor-General, 14 June 1883, no. 3791/62, MR 1883 no. 604.

89 Writing to the central government in May 1821, the Resident of Cirebon said that ‘there was no rice or paddy for sale in the entire residency, except in Indramayu and Kandanghaur’; Kemp, , Bijdragen tot de wordingsgeschiedenis van het reglement op de particuliere landerijen bewesten de Tji-Manoek (Batavia: Ogilvie & Co., 1889), p. 48Google Scholar.

90 Information on rice prices before the mid-1830s are far from satisfactory, but the figures show a steady increase from 59 guilders per koyang (1,667 kg) in 1818 to 123 guilders per koyang in 1836; Changing economy in Indonesia, vol. 4, Rice prices, pp. 48–52.

91 Ibid., pp. 16–17 and 65–7.

92 P.H. van der Kemp, Bijdragen tot de wordingsgeschiedenis van het reglement op de particuliere landerijen bewesten de Tji-Manoek, appendix E, p. 114 and Sollewijn Gelpke, De landerijen, pp. 4–5.

93 Sollewijn Gelpke, De landerijen, p. 17.

94 Statsblad 1817 no. 43, article 1.

95 van der Kemp, P.H., ‘Rapport van J.M. Beuschem en D.J.W. Pietermaat over de particuliere landerijen bewesten de Tjimanoek’, Tjdschrift voor Nijverheid en Landbouw in Nedelandsch Indie, 9 (1869) : 258Google Scholar.

96 Statsblad 1836 no. 19, articles 8–11.

97 G. Vriese, a co-owner of Kandanghaur, reportedly introduced this method of estimating and collecting the rent in 1818; Anonymous, ‘Het belastingstelsel van Indramajoe en Kandanghaoer’, Tijdschrift voor Nederlandsch Indie, 13, 2 (1851): 70–2.

98 In Kandanghaur, where 0.7 hectare of wet-rice land produced 1.5 ton of paddy on average, the rent should be 5 pikul (310 kg) of paddy, which yielded 2.5 pikul (155 kg) of rice, according to the regulations. To obtain polished rice as insisted on by the landlords, however, over 496 kg of paddy was required, which amounted to one-third of the average rice crop. In fact, the peasants used 744 kg of paddy for the purpose, because the landlords insisted on being paid in rice of full grain; J. Faes, ‘De landen Kandanghauer en Indramajoe west in de Residentie Cheribon en het land Tjiomas in de afdeeling Buitenzorg’, pp. 1334–5. Much of this article is devoted to examining the ways in which the landlords deviated from the laws concerning land rent and compulsory public labour services. Prior to going public over these issues, Faes made similar observations in his correspondence dealing with the subsistence crisis, notably in his letter to the Governor-General, 14 June 1883, no. 3791/62. The Secretary General, J.H. Bergsma, rejected his views in his advice on the matter to the Governor-General. Faes bitterly criticised Bergsma's position in his correspondence and in the article mentioned above. Heyting also notes the practice of collecting the rent in superior quality rice of full grain; letter, Secretary General to Governor-General, 25 June 1883, no. 4299, MR 1883 no. 604.

99 Faes, ‘De landen Kandanghauer en Indramajoe west’, p. 1336; letter, Faes to Governor-General, 25 Aug. 1883, no. 4833/62, MR 1883 no. 747.

100 The central government ordered local officials of Cirebon Residency not to act against collecting the land rent in rice instead of paddy as long as the landlord did not exact over one-fifth of the rice crop in the private domains of Ciasam and Pamanukan in the adjacent Krawang Residency; NA, MvK, Besluit 16 Mar. 1837, no. 10. This injunction was considered to apply to Indramayu and Kandanghaur private domains as well.

101 Smissaert, J.W.H., Een woord over de nota van den heer Sloet tot Oldhuis (Leiden, 1850), pp. 19–22Google Scholar. Faes was very critical of the conduct of local officials as well as the central government, which had embraced liberal principles after 1848 but refused to rectify abuses in collecting the land rent in the private domains; Faes, ‘De landen Kandanghauer en Indramajoe west in de Residentie Cheribon en het land Tjiomas in de afdeeling Buitenzorg’, pp. 1335–9.

102 In 1868, according to Faes, the inhabitants of Kandanghaur hired an educated Ambonese at the considerable expense of f.500 to make their complaints about the land rent known to the local government headed by S.C.H. Nederburgh. The following year, some 300 peasants met Nederburgh when he visited the area, again with the Ambonese friend as their spokesman, and obtained a promise from the resident to investigate their complaints. Instead, Nederburgh took punitive measures against the leader of the complaining peasants; Faes, ‘De landen Kandanghauer en Indramajoe west in de Residentie Cheribon en het land Tjiomas in de afdeeling Buitenzorg’, pp. 1354–6.

103 J.H. Bergsma, the Secretary-General, was displeased with Faes for his critical stance regarding the ways in which the regulations of private domains of 1817 and of 1836 should be interpreted. Faes was equally critical of what he saw as Bergsma's incompetence; Faes, ‘De landen Kandanghauer en Indramajoe west in de Residentie Cheribon en het land Tjiomas in de afdeeling Buitenzorg’, pp. 1338–9.

104 The position of senior officials over this issue is set forth in a letter, Secretary-General to Governor-General, 25 Sept. 1883, no. 4299, ‘Last om te dienen van consideratien en advies omtrent vreezen gebrek van voedingsmiddelen en de ongunstigen staat der bevolking op de particuliere landen Kandanghaoer en Indramajoe west in de residentie Cheribon, dd. 14 Junij 1883, no. 3791/62’, MR 1883 no. 604. The Secretary-General was relying on information he received from Mr Schiff, who represented the administrators of the two private domains, in refuting the stance of local officials. The Secretary-General admitted that the land rent was collected in rice, but it did not contravene the law because the 1837 amendments allowed it, while stating that the peasants were allowed to pay the rent partly in broken rice as well.

105 Anonymous, ‘Het belastingstelsel van Indramajoe en Kandanghaoer’; Heyting's ‘Rapport omtrent den toestand, vooral der particuliere landerijen Kandang Hauer en Indramajoe west in het algemeen, als omtrent de aldaar aanwezige voedingsmiddelen in het bijzonder’; and Mersen Senn van Basel, F.J.L., Nota betreffende rijstheffing op de particuliere landen Indramaijoe-west en Kandanghauer (Weltevreden, 1904), pp. 2–3Google Scholar.

106 Letter from G. Vriese to A. De Wilde, 26 Oct. 1847; Baron Nahuys van Burgst, , Beschouwingen over Nederlandsch Indie gevolgd door eene nadere toelichting ('s Gravenhage: Belinfante, 1848), pp. 122–4Google Scholar.

107 Heyting, ‘Monographie Indramajoe West’.

108 Heyting, ‘Desa onderzoekingen op het particuliere land Indrmajoe west’, entry nos. 29 and no. 33.

109 Ibid., entry no. 54 and no. 56.

110 Ibid., entry no. 72 and no. 73.

111 Heyting, ‘Rapport omtrent den toestand, vooral der particuliere landerijen Kandang Hauer en Indramajoe west in het algemeen, als omtrent de aldaar aanwezige voedingsmiddelen in het bijzonder’.

112 Heyting, ‘Monographie Indramajoe west’ and ‘Monographie Kandanghauer’.

113 This payment varied from place to place depending on the distance. Thus people transporting rice from Bangaduwa received 7 cents a day while those from Lobener received only half that amount.

114 The figures for rent on rice crop are from a statement in NA, MvK, V 15 Aug. 1910, no. 10.

115 In 1879, rice from Indramayu and Kandanghaur was sold at f.19 per 100 kg; even the best quality rice sold in local markets was a great deal cheaper, nearly f.12 per 100 kg for no. 1 quality rice in Jakarta; Changing economy in Indonesia, vol. 4, Rice prices, pp. 44 and 57.

116 Wybrands, K., ‘Schaarschte en rapporten’, Het Nieuws van den dag voor Nederlandsch-Indie, 31 May 1903Google Scholar.