Pepper cultivation and trade in Atjeh — the ancient people’s culture (volkscultuur) of the West, North and East Coasts and of Poelò We, drawing thousands of Groot-Atjehers and Pidireezen to the East Coast gardens, and the article par excellence of the harbours Idi, Sigli and Oelèë Lheue — runs as the central thread of Joh. Langhout’s economic account, from the pepper-hidden coasts of the blockade years to the export of 200,000 picols in 1920 and the price-collapse which thereafter turned the planters to pinang.
Before 1873
Since the beginnings of the Company’s dealings the pepper was the stake of the Atjehnese connections: the De Houtman voyage (1599) sought the pepper ports; the treaty of 1651 and the occupation of Indrapoera, Padang and Tikoe turned the West Coast pepper trade toward Padang; and in the generation before the war the pepper harbours of the West Coast were frequented by the Frenchman Roura of the Patty, while the produce of East and West Coasts alike was bought up for account of traders at Penang — to which also the taxes of the sultans’ government, the hacil on pepper and rice, attached (see Taxation in Atjeh).
The war and the regulation years
The blockade broke the old relations between the pepper harbours and Penang; in the submitted landscapes considerable masses of pepper — the harvests of a couple of years — lay waiting, and great was the need of import articles. The government-subsidized steam service to Rigaih (June 1877) opened the West Coast via Meulaboh and Padang to Dutch-flag transport of “peper, koffie, rottan”; the lowering of the hacil from f 50 to f 35 per picol on the East Coast “benefited trade most highly”. Yet the Dutch merchants “remained behind”: the West Coast pepper trade passed largely to a Chinese kongsi of Batavia with an assured take of all pepper for some years; from several West Coast harbours cargoes went directly to Europe by a French ship; and most pepper, also after 1882, continued to be bought up for the account of traders at Penang. The pepper culture flourished in the security of the early 1890s: the harvest on Poeloe We and on the East Coast turned out very well, the East Coast export amounting in 1889–1891 to 5,742, 5,853 and 7,620 kojangs — thousands of Groot-Atjehers and Pidireezen travelling that year to the East Coast gardens “to work in the pepper plantations and to return home with a well-filled purse”, the fruits of what Langhout calls the Atjehnese farmer’s remarkable spirit of enterprise. The slump of 1896 (lower imports, dropped prices) and the continuing low prices curbed the profits: the wages nearly doubled for want of experienced labour, and the winners of 1891 remained behind those of earlier years.
Revival and decline, 1898–1922
The shipping regulation and the canals of trade stabilized the exports; the Deli-Atjeh and NHM offices and the pepper-washing establishment at Koeta Radja (f 6 to f 7 a picol in 1920) served the marketing; the interest-free advances of Governors Van Daalen and Swart freed the planters from usurers; and the pepper export of the Dependencies rose from 70,000 picols in 1901 to 200,000 picols in 1920. The First World War and the long price-decline then did their work: “De pepercultuur bleef, niettegenstaande de aan de peperplanters verstrekte voorschotten, een kwijnend bestaan lijden, omdat de peperprijzen meestal laag waren” — the advances were difficult to recover; the export, 4,340,000 KG in 1919, dropped to 2,658,000 KG in 1920; “the great love for the pepper appeared to cool”, and the people turned to pinang-nuts and patchouli. Director N. van Zalinge (1922): “De peper wordt minder aangeplant. De teruggang van dit vroegere uitvoerartikel bij uitnemendheid vindt zijn oorzaak in den belangrijk gedaalden prijs aan den Overwal en op de wereldmarkt.”
See Also
Source
Vijftig jaren economische staatkunde in Atjeh, by Joh. Langhout (The Hague: N.V. Boekhandel v/h W. P. van Stockum & Zoon, 1923), pp. 36–37, 39–41, 48–49, 61, 64–66, 73–74, 89, 106, 120, 126, 181–182.