The Cultuurstelsel — the Cultivation System — was the Dutch colonial forced-crop system imposed on the indigenous population of Java from 1830 (formally 1831) to c. 1870 under which a portion of village land and labour was set aside for the cultivation of export crops (sugar, coffee, indigo) for government account. The system is, in the Vermeulen retrospective, the principal source of the batig slot — the surplus extracted from the Nederlandsch-Indische archipelago — and accordingly the principal object of the ereschuld doctrine of Van Deventer.
The 700-million figure
The total surplus extracted from the Indies during the cultuurstelsel period — from 1831 to 1877 inclusive — was, in the round figure given by minister De Waal and preserved by Vermeulen, “rondom 700 millioen” — about 700 million guilders. The figure is the canonical ereschuld reference-point. The “van 1831 af” formula — “from 1831 onward” — is preserved by Vermeulen with the gloss: “Dus sedert de invoering van het cultuurstelsel” — that is, since the introduction of the cultivation system.
The dismantling
The cultuurstelsel was progressively dismantled in the Vermeulen-predecessor period. The Suikerwet of 1891, the Koffiewet of 1891 and the Indische Mijnwet of 1899 (see Mijnwet) are the principal legislative acts of the dismantling; the abolition of the bijdrage of Nederlandsch-Indië to the finances of the realm by the Comptabiliteitswet amendment of 26 June 1903 is the formal closure of the cultuurstelsel-batig slot era.
Significance for Atjeh
The cultuurstelsel bears on Atjeh indirectly. The surplus it generated — the batig slot — funded the Dutch colonial state that undertook the Atjeh-oorlog ([[1873-1904)|Atjeh-oorlog]] of 1873-1904; the ereschuld doctrine that the surplus provoked was the principal liberal self-criticism of that colonial state; and the ethical-policy proclamation of 1901 was, in part, the political response to that self-criticism.
See Also
- Batig Slot
- Ereschuld
- Indische Comptabiliteitswet amendment (26 June 1903)
- Ethische Politiek
- C. Th. van Deventer
- De Waal
- Atjeh-oorlog (1873-1904)
- 1831
- 1870
- 1877
- 1891
- 1901
- 1903
Source
Schets eener parlementaire geschiedenis van Nederland van 1849 tot 1901, by Mr W. J. van Welderen baron Rengers, 4th rev. ed., Vol. IV: Oost-Indië 1891-1918 by Dr W. H. Vermeulen (‘s-Gravenhage: Martinus Nijhoff, 1955), pp. 284, 294.