The Handelsvereeniging Amsterdam — the H.V.A., the Trading Association of Amsterdam — was a major Dutch planting-company active in the Gouvernement Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden in the post-war period. Its principal Atjeh-estate was Boeloeh Blang Ara in the onderafdeeling Lho’ Seumawé of the afdeeling Noordkust van Atjeh, opened in 1920 and given up as failed in 1922 after the H.V.A. had spent eight tons of gold on it. The H.V.A. also held the estate Aloer Djamboe in Tamiang, wholly obtained from graftings.
The Handelsvereeniging Amsterdam was the Dutch commercial company under whose management stood the estates Aloer Djamboe in Tamiang and Alas Peurba south of Lho Seumawe, on which the bird skins described in Over eene collectie vogelhuiden van Oost-Atjeh by F. C. van Heurn and R. C. E. G. J. Snouckaert van Schauburg were collected.
The Boeloeh Blang Ara Failure
The H.V.A. opened Boeloeh Blang Ara in 1920 with a coffee-planting of 240 bouw and a rubber-planting of 330 bouw. The estate had all the buildings properly erected. The failure was, in Broersma’s judgement, ultimately the H.V.A.’s own fault: the soil was full of large stones and the rainfall was below 2.000 mm a year — facts that should have been known before the planting was begun. The H.V.A. gave as reasons to the Atjeh government: disappointment through the state of the soil, of the climate, through unfavourable health-conditions, and through the slight cooperation of the government. To those reasons were added, on a second plane, the coming assistant-regulation and the threatened curtailment of the penal sanction. The government proved not to accept the imputation of slight cooperation, and the H.V.A. withdrew it. After the H.V.A.’s retreat the land was given back to the landschap, and new applicants had already come to look, attracted especially by the presence of the gardens and buildings.
Significance
The Handelsvereeniging Amsterdam is the type-case of the major Dutch planting-company in the post-war period in Atjeh, and the failure of its Boeloeh Blang Ara estate is the type-case of the disappointments of the post-war planting-period. The H.V.A.’s retreat from Boeloeh Blang Ara is one of the great disappointments of the post-war planting-period in Atjeh, and the principal case of a major Dutch company’s retreat from the gewest.
Patronage of the collection
The authors recorded their debt in explicit terms. Collecting on these particularly suitable places would certainly have been extremely difficult, if not impossible, indien het Agentschap van de “Handelsvereeniging Amsterdam” onder wier beheer genoemde ondernemingen staan, daartoe niet vergunning verleend, en alle gevraagde faciliteiten verstrekt had — had the agency of the Handelsvereeniging Amsterdam, under whose management the said estates stood, not granted permission for it and provided all requested facilities.
They added the judgement: Dit bewijs van belangstelling van een commercieel lichaam in zuiver wetenschappelijk werk verdient zeker hooge waardeering — this proof of the interest of a commercial body in purely scientific work certainly deserves high appreciation.
Context
The company’s estates lay at the boundary of plantation and original forest, the transitional zone the authors held most productive for collecting; the European cultures on the east coast had, in their description, struck eenige diepe bressen in het oerbosch — some deep breaches into the primeval forest — from the coastal districts inland. The paper is thus a record both of Dutch plantation expansion in East Atjeh and of the scientific opportunity that expansion incidentally created.
Account from Vijftig jaren economische staatkunde in Atjeh (1923)
The Handelsvereeniging Amsterdam (H.V.A.; “Amsterdam”) was the great Dutch trading-plantation company which, from 1917, made the first rubber plantations of Atjeh itself at the southern border of the province near the East Coast, and whose subsequent decision to abandon the enterprise — closing the estate Boeloe Belang Ara near Lho Seumawè in consequence of the announced abolition of the penal sanction — was for author Joh. Langhout a warning example of what the “arbeidsonzekerheid” (labour insecurity) threatened to do to Atjeh.
Reclamation in Atjeh, 1917
The Handelsvereeniging Amsterdam, which had long possessed “cultuurrecht” in the neighbouring residency East Coast of Sumatra where it managed a large number of enterprises and had brought a proportionally large part of Sumatra into culture, set in 1917 “de eerste schrede op het cultuurterrein van Atjeh” (“the first step on the culture terrain of Atjeh”), reclaiming at the southern border, in the immediate neighbourhood of the East Coast, a number of hectares of wilderness — for the greatest part forest grounds — for the planting of rubber. The initial success of these first attempts brought the company to extend the terrain to be cultivated in Atjeh: the enterprise Boeloe Belang Ara, lying more northerly in the neighbourhood of Lhō Seumawè, was founded, after here also a costly and difficult reclamation of the hill- and forest-terrains had taken place. The book devotes three photographs to the estate: the assistant’s dwelling and passanggrahan, the planting with sand-bedding and provisional emplacement, and the full emplacement.
The closure
“It is undoubtedly highly to be regretted,” Langhout writes, that the company “korten tijd geleden” (a short time before 1923) had to take a decision excluding every thought of extension of the cultures in Atjeh and even entailing the closing of Boeloe Belang Ara — that is: the already partly reclaimed and planted terrains had to be left again to their fate. The decision, meaning for the company a financial failure of f 800,000, was bound up with the “absolute labour-insecurity in the Outer Possessions” which would be created by the execution of the Government’s uttered intention to abolish, within the foreseeable future — at least from 1 January 1926, on the renewal-engagements — the penal sanction on the labour contracts. Langhout regrets the closure not in the first place for the money: “omdat met dien maatregel een stuk Atjeh, dat binnen afzienbaren tijd een produceerend gebied had kunnen zijn, tot zijn oorspronkelijken staat van chaos en woestenij zal zijn teruggekeerd” (“because by that measure a piece of Atjeh, which within foreseeable time could have been a producing region, will have returned to its original state of chaos and wilderness”); during the reclamation the company had built pondoks, European dwellings for her administrators and assistants, and a hospital, and the closure inflicted on the province, and especially on the hinterlands attached to that culture, a great moral loss.
The penal-sanction debate
The book places the H.V.A. case within the debate then raging: Governor Westenenk of East Sumatra had recently, in a conference of chiefs of administration in the Outer Possessions, pleaded for the retention of the penal sanction as a factor for the development of the Outer Possessions, for order and regularity and for better hygienic conditions among the coolie population — with the unanimous assent of all chiefs of territorial administration; Mr. Fock answered that the Indian Government would seriously reckon with the judgement unanimously expressed by the chiefs. And the Soerabaiasch Handelsblad and the Java Bode, on the occasion of the retention of the heer De Graaff as Minister of Colonies, had jointly concluded that “from this statesman no inconsiderate deeds need be feared toward the cultures in Netherlands India”.
Account from Atjeh als land voor handel en bedrijf (1925)
Handelsvereeniging Amsterdam (H.V.A.) was major trading and plantation association.
Estates
Temiang: enterprise Aloer Djamboe wholly from graftings obtained.
Lho Seumawe: enterprise Boeloeh Blang Ara opened 1920 and gave up 1922 as failed after spending 8 tons gold. Must have seen abandoned enterprise to know sad impression closing would have escaped general attention if not reports about reasons HVA would have withdrawn fearing restriction penal sanctions labour contract. Though could feel not true reason statement found belief. Otherwise reasons given HVA to bestuur Atjeh: disappointment soil climate unfavorable health condition little cooperation bestuur. Added second plan assistentenregeling threatening shrinkage penale sanctie. Bestuur not lay down with one reason little cooperation bestuur HVA withdrew accusation claimed disappointments soil climate after 2 years overcome but before second spending equally big amount chose retreat Then through reports about return more or less disgraceful. Fact coffee terrains Boeloeh Blang Ara full big stones rainfall below 2000 mm yearly. Coffee gardens looked few months ago still favorable because soil loose clean lamtoro intercrop same high as coffee rubber gardens less favorable Other terrains concession HVA tried oilpalm tea. Thought big plans realize. When started coffee rubber height 150-200m appeared soil obstacles many stones low rainfall. Faced choice progress two enterprises large expansion or stopping all activities loss 8 ton latter chosen But if fault big in game then found nobody else than HVA itself. Ground with all buildings end 1922 returned to land other bidders came look attracted presence gardens buildings per info concession already reissued.
Significance
Example of risky big agriculture in Atjeh one big misery deterrent per Broersma.
See Also
- Boeloeh Blang Ara
- Aloer Djamboe
- Lho Seumawe
- Tamiang
- Noordkust van Atjeh
- Verkenningen in Atjeh (1923)
- 1920
- 1922
- Over eene collectie vogelhuiden van Oost-Atjeh
- Alas Peurba
- F. C. van Heurn
- R. C. E. G. J. Snouckaert van Schauburg
- Oost-Atjeh
- Poenale sanctie
- Lho Seumawè
- Foreign capital in Atjeh
- Temiang
- Atjeh Tram
Source
Verkenningen in Atjeh, by Dr. R. Broersma (De Locomotief, October 1923), chapters II, IX, ‘Tamiang’ and ‘In het oude rijk Samoedra’, pp. 7, 63–65. Verkenningen in Atjeh, by Dr. R. Broersma (De Locomotief, October 1923), passim; Atjeh Patchouli-Olie, by Ir. W. Spoon (1932), for the Koloniaal Instituut and Handelsmuseum. Over eene collectie vogelhuiden van Oost-Atjeh, door Ir. Jhr. F. C. van Heurn en Mr. Dr. Baron R. C. E. G. J. Snouckaert van Schauburg, in Jaarberichten (Koloniaal Instituut). Koninklijk Instituut voor de Tropen, Br N 95-1210 Acknowledgement of sources. The material in this article derives from Over eene collectie vogelhuiden van Oost-Atjeh by Ir. Jhr. F. C. van Heurn and Mr. Dr. Baron R. C. E. G. J. Snouckaert van Schauburg (Koloniaal Instituut, Jaarberichten). Dutch passages are quoted in the original with an English rendering. Vijftig jaren economische staatkunde in Atjeh, by Joh. Langhout (The Hague: N.V. Boekhandel v/h W. P. van Stockum & Zoon, 1923), pp. 172–175 (chapter “Rubberaanplant op Atjeh’s Oostkust”), illustration captions pp. 172–175. Atjeh als land voor handel en bedrijf, by Dr. R. Broersma, Gebrs. Cohen, Utrecht, 1925, pp. 8, 57-59.