The submission of the Radja of Gigiëng on 20 April 1874 — the hoisting of the Dutch flag on the passar of Gigiëng before a great multitude, the presentation of an act of recognition and confirmation to the Radja, and the payment of 10,000 rijksdaalders by the Netherlands Indian Government — was the first such submission of the war years to be rewarded with the immediate reopening of trade.
The act
In how far the contents of the Government’s first trade proclamation — circulated among the Atjehnese chiefs by the commandant of the steamship Sumatra and by Controller R. C. Kroesen during the blockade — influenced the signing of the act of submission by the Radja of Gigiëng, author Joh. Langhout leaves in the middle. The submission came about on 20 April 1874: “toen, in tegenwoordigheid van een groote volksmenigte, de Nederlandsche vlag werd geheschen op den passar te Gigièng, waarbij den Radja een acte van erkenning en bevestiging uitgereikt en hem door het Nederlandsche Indische gouvernement een bedrag van 10.000 rijksdaalders uitgekeerd werd” — when, in the presence of a great crowd of people, the Dutch flag was hoisted on the market at Gigiëng, while the Radja was presented with an act of recognition and confirmation and was paid a sum of 10,000 rijksdaalders by the Netherlands Indian Government.
The trade reward
Meanwhile the merchants of Penang awaited with impatience the moment at which the blockade of Atjeh would be lifted for the submitted landscapes. “De Nederlandsche Regeering bleef haar gelofte getrouw en veroorloofde, onmiddellijk na de onderwerping, den handel op Gigieng, met het gevolg dat reeds zeer spoedig een groot aantal handelsschepen te Penang voor dit gedeelte van Atjeh werd uitgeklaard” — the Netherlands Government remained faithful to its promise and permitted, immediately after the submission, the trade on Gigiëng, with the result that very soon a great number of trading vessels were cleared at Penang for this part of Atjeh. The pattern — submission, reward, reopening — was repeated in the following years in the Dependencies, a model of which act Captain E. Roura carried along the West Coast.
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. 28–29.