Meudoewa laba (“the dividing of the profit in two”) was the Atjehnese contractual formula under which the yield of a planting was shared equally between the supplier of capital and the planter.
In the pepper economy
Two applications are recorded by D. W. N. de Boer. First, as a hedge against bad pepper prices and against the failure of the planting, the pangkaj-giver often stipulated that the aneu’ seuneubô should plant an intercrop alongside the pepper, or ficus elastica or hevea along the edge of the pepper garden, half the yield of which was then to be ceded to him — meudoewa laba.
Second, where a pepper planter defaulted on his contract and was ousted, the oeléëbalang could give the garden out in deelbouw to other planters on much more favourable terms for himself, namely against delivery of half the total yield: meudoewa laba, or mawaih asoë, or mawaih boh (boh, Malay boeah, fruit).
See Also
Source
Het recht op den grond in Atjeh, by D. W. N. de Boer, dated Scheveningen, November 1931, pp. 59-80. Offprint DLP-141, Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, ‘s-Gravenhage; Bibliotheek KITLV accession 0060 4460 60 081470 428.