Deli Planters Vereeniging (D.P.V., Deli Planters Association) was the principal trade and welfare organisation of the tobacco-planting industry on Sumatra’s East Coast, founded on 23 April 1879 on the initiative of J. T. Cremer, with an original board comprising J. T. Cremer, A. Breker, and Jhr. H. J. L. Leyssius. From its foundation the Vereeniging’s history was, in the words of Dr. T. Volker, “one with that of the cultures and of the gewest” — its labour regulations, quarantine infrastructure, immigrant welfare provisions, and charitable programmes shaped the entire developmental arc of what became the most productive plantation district in the Dutch East Indies.
Founding and primary purpose
The Vereeniging was established when the tobacco boom of the 1870s had already drawn thousands of Chinese and Javanese contract labourers to the region but left their welfare and the regulation of their contracts largely to individual planters and the informal authority of the Sultans. Its foundational purpose was twofold: to bring unity to the treatment of the werkvolke (labour force) and to achieve cooperation in labour regulation and the import of workers. Without the organisation, Volker judged, the East Coast “would never in later years have reached the heights it now occupies in so many spheres.”
Chinese immigration and the 1874 China mission
The importation of Chinese workers — the dominant labour force in the early decades — was organised under the Vereeniging’s auspices. Already in 1874, J. T. Cremer undertook a mission to China specifically to make the necessary arrangements for regulated emigration to Deli. The system introduced by the Vereeniging relied on existing workers to recruit acquaintances and family members from their home villages, giving the recruitment network a high degree of internal accountability. Between 1888, when direct emigration from China began, and 1927, some 5,000 Chinese newcomers arrived annually in typical years, with the total Chinese workforce on 31 December 1927 standing at approximately 28,000, alongside 59,500 Javanese workers and 7,700 workers of other origins.
Quarantine infrastructure
To manage the health risks of mass immigration, the Vereeniging established a private quarantine station on Pulau Berhala in 1899, with 20 barracks. This having proved inadequate, in 1914 it constructed a much larger stone Quarantine Station at Gloegoer comprising 10 barracks of 100 persons each, two hospital wards, and a doctor’s house with pharmacy — all of which were offered to the colonial government at no cost in 1914.
Labour regulation and welfare
The Vereeniging’s labour-regulatory work interacted closely with successive koelie-ordonnanties (coolie ordinances). The first such ordinance, introduced in 1880, established the mutual obligations of employer and employee; subsequent revisions reflected changing conditions and the judgements of the Arbeidsinspectie (labour inspection service), established in 1907. The Vereeniging also ran a workers’ asylum (Immigranten Asyl), established in 1883 by its members, housing approximately 160 invalid former plantation workers unable to return to their home countries. These were supported partly by small earnings from light work — mat-, basket-, and mattress-making — and partly by a small daily allowance from a shared fund. The colonial government refused an initial subsidy request; the planters funded the asylum entirely from their own resources.
Remittances and savings
The Vereeniging served as a conduit for substantial financial flows between the East Coast and workers’ home regions. Between 1888 and 1927, it facilitated the transfer by repatriating Chinese workers of a cumulative total of ƒ7,716,000 in saved wages via money orders. In more recent years (by 1927), the average annual transfer was approximately ƒ96,000 by older workers and ƒ100,000 by newcomers. Javanese workers sent approximately ƒ21,000 per year in savings, plus an average of 48,000 letters annually to their families in Java over the preceding three years.
Charitable and social expenditures
By 1927 the Vereeniging’s annual budget for charitable purposes amounted to between ƒ70,000 and ƒ90,000, including: ƒ15,000 to the Bataksche Vereeniging, ƒ10,000 to the Batak Hospital, ƒ10,000 to the Leproserie Poelau Sitjanang of the Salvation Army near Belawan (annual contribution since 1913), and ƒ3,000 to the Vereeniging tot Bevordering van Inlandsche Ziekenverpleging.
Research and publications
The Vereeniging published the book Van Oerbosch tot Cultuurgebied by Dr. T. Volker in 1928, a foundational study of the economic history of the East Coast of Sumatra from 1863 to 1927.
See Also
- J. T. Cremer
- Deli Maatschappij
- Gouvernement Oostkust van Sumatra
- Jacobus Nienhuys
- Van Oerbosch tot Cultuurgebied
- Pulau Berhala
- Gloegoer
- Belawan
- Acehnese raids on East Sumatra
- 1879
- 1883
- 1899
- 1914
Source
Van Oerbosch tot Cultuurgebied: Een Schets van de Beteekenis van de Tabak, de Andere Cultures en de Industrie ter Oostkust van Sumatra, by Dr. T. Volker (Medan: Deli Planters Vereeniging, 1928), pp. 22–35. Delpher Digital Library, reference DLP-76. Universiteitsbibliotheek Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, shelfmark 09383.