The Billiton Maatschappij — the Billiton (Banka-Billiton) Tin Company — is the mining company whose 1852 40-year concession on Billiton (Banka-Billiton), extended for 35 years in the 1882 suppletoire overeenkomst with governor-general s’Jacob and the subject of the 1892 contract that set the cijns (royalty) on tin extraction, is the principal reference-point for the Rengers-era Mijnwet debates of the 1899-1910 period. The Billiton precedents reached, by direct implication, into the Atjeh oilfields.
The 1852 concession
The Billiton Maatschappij had obtained its original 40-year concession in 1852 under the Nederlandsch-Indisch Mijnreglement of 1850. The concession covered the tin deposits of Billiton — the island east of Sumatra.
The 1873 regulation
In 1873 the Nederlandsch-Indisch Mijnreglement was tightened: extensions of concessions now required, as a rule, open public competition; royal authorisation was reserved as the exception.
The 1882 suppletoire overeenkomst
In 1882 the Billiton Maatschappij and the governor-general s’Jacob nevertheless signed a suppletoire overeenkomst — supplementary agreement — extending the concession by 35 years without public competition — a procedure later cited in the Tweede Kamer as the precedent the Rengers-era Mijnwet of 1899 was meant to prevent.
The 1892 contract
In 1892 the Billiton Maatschappij and the Indies government concluded a contract setting the cijns on tin extraction at a level higher than the 2 % of gross yield that Cremer would later propose in his Rengers-era Mijnwet. The contrast is repeatedly cited by Vermeulen as the yardstick against which the generosity (or parsimony) of subsequent Atjeh oil concessions — including the Koninklijke/Perlak arrangement exposed by Van Heutsz — was measured.
The connexion to Atjeh
The Billiton precedents reached, by direct implication, into the Atjeh oilfields. The Rengers-era Mijnwet of 1899 was the legislative response to the Billiton irregularities; the Article 5a amendment of 1910 was the legislative response to the Koninklijke/Perlak disclosure. Both enactments governed the subsequent exploitation of the Atjeh north-coast oilfields.
See Also
- Mijnwet
- Mijnwet art. 5a (1910)
- J. T. Cremer
- J. B. van Heutsz
- Koninklijke Petroleum Maatschappij
- Perlak Petroleum Maatschappij
- s’Jacob
- H. B. van Kol
- 1850
- 1852
- 1873
- 1882
- 1892
- 1899
- 1910
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. 303-306.