The Java-Bosch-Exploitatie-Mij — the Java Forest-Exploitation Company — was the Dutch timber concern whose uitgebreide fabrieks-installatie’s and sleepspoor at Sinabang on the island of Simeuloë constituted, by 1917, the most substantial industrial plant in the western part of the Gouvernement Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden and the first of the three large-scale Europeesche industrie undertakings named in the closing chapter of De Buitenbezittingen, alongside the Sabang Maatschappij and the petroleum-nijverheid of the Bataafsche Petroleum Maatschappij. With a permanent workforce of 700–800 men — “bijna alle Javaansche en Chineesche contractkoelies” — and capital installations valued at 2–3 million guilders, the Company extracted the tropical hardwoods of Simeuloë’s forests for shipment to the markets of the archipelago.
Foundations at Sinabang
The Company’s bedrijf was located at Sinabang, the principal haven of Simeuloë, an island whose forests De Buitenbezittingen describes as among the most promising in the gewest for systematic timber extraction. The island’s boschproducten had been worked fitfully for centuries — benzoe, kamfer, and the houtaankap of the Westkust generally — but the Java-Bosch-Exploitatie-Mij represented a wholly different scale of operation: a permanent industrial establishment, with mechanical conversion of felled timber on the spot and a sleepspoor — a light railway for the haulage of logs — connecting the forest coupen to the harbour of shipment.
Installations and labour
De Buitenbezittingen describes the installations as “uitgebreide fabrieks-installatie’s en sleepspoor, welke reeds een waarde van 2 á 3 millioen gulden vertegenwoordigen en nog steeds uitbreiding ondergaan.” The accompanying Plate 17 — Emplacement der Java-Bosch-Exploitatie-Mij. te Sinabang (Simeuloë) — gives a visual record of the works. The labour-force of 700–800 was drawn almost entirely from Java and China under the contract-koelie system that governed the Europeesche cultures and industrie of the gewest; the koelie-cijfers in Bijlage VIII of the handbook place the establishment among the largest single concentrations of contract-labour in Atjeh, comparable to the Sabang-Maatschappij (747–763 koelies in the years 1913–1915) and to the principal rubber-ondernemingen of Langsa.
Significance
The Java-Bosch-Exploitatie-Mij represented, for De Buitenbezittingen, the model of the large-scale European industrial undertaking in the western gewest: capital-intensive, mechanised, and dependent on imported labour rather than the Atjeher, who was “over ‘t algemeen slechts bij uitzondering te vinden voor regelmatigen koelie-arbeid.” Its success at Sinabang was offered as evidence that the great forest-wealth of the Westkust — including the houtaankap of Singkel and Tjalang — could, with sufficient kapitaalkrachtig investment, be made to yield returns comparable to those of the plantation belt of the Oostkust. The Bedrijfsuitkomsten of the Company, however, are not detailed in the volume; the reader is referred forward to the section on Boschexploitatie in the larger work.
See Also
Source
De Buitenbezittingen, Deel II, Aflevering 2: Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden, bewerkt door het Encyclopaedisch Bureau, Mededeelingen van het Bureau voor de Bestuurszaken der Buitenbezittingen (Weltevreden: Landsdrukkerij, 1917), pp. 178, 239, 242–243, Bijlage VIII.
The Java-Bosch-Exploitatie-Mij — the Java Forest-Exploitation Company — was the Dutch timber concern whose uitgebreide fabrieks-installatie’s and sleepspoor at Sinabang on the island of Simeuloë constituted, by 1917, the most substantial industrial plant in the western part of the Gouvernement Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden and the first of the three large-scale Europeesche industrie undertakings named in the closing chapter of De Buitenbezittingen, alongside the Sabang Maatschappij and the petroleum-nijverheid of the Bataafsche Petroleum Maatschappij. With a permanent workforce of 700–800 men — “bijna alle Javaansche en Chineesche contractkoelies” — and capital installations valued at 2–3 million guilders, the Company extracted the tropical hardwoods of Simeuloë’s forests for shipment to the markets of the archipelago.
Foundations at Sinabang
The Company’s bedrijf was located at Sinabang, the principal haven of Simeuloë, an island whose forests De Buitenbezittingen describes as among the most promising in the gewest for systematic timber extraction. The island’s boschproducten had been worked fitfully for centuries — benzoe, kamfer, and the houtaankap of the Westkust generally — but the Java-Bosch-Exploitatie-Mij represented a wholly different scale of operation: a permanent industrial establishment, with mechanical conversion of felled timber on the spot and a sleepspoor — a light railway for the haulage of logs — connecting the forest coupen to the harbour of shipment.
Installations and labour
De Buitenbezittingen describes the installations as “uitgebreide fabrieks-installatie’s en sleepspoor, welke reeds een waarde van 2 á 3 millioen gulden vertegenwoordigen en nog steeds uitbreiding ondergaan.” The accompanying Plate 17 — Emplacement der Java-Bosch-Exploitatie-Mij. te Sinabang (Simeuloë) — gives a visual record of the works. The labour-force of 700–800 was drawn almost entirely from Java and China under the contract-koelie system that governed the Europeesche cultures and industrie of the gewest; the koelie-cijfers in Bijlage VIII of the handbook place the establishment among the largest single concentrations of contract-labour in Atjeh, comparable to the Sabang-Maatschappij (747–763 koelies in the years 1913–1915) and to the principal rubber-ondernemingen of Langsa.
Significance
The Java-Bosch-Exploitatie-Mij represented, for De Buitenbezittingen, the model of the large-scale European industrial undertaking in the western gewest: capital-intensive, mechanised, and dependent on imported labour rather than the Atjeher, who was “over ‘t algemeen slechts bij uitzondering te vinden voor regelmatigen koelie-arbeid.” Its success at Sinabang was offered as evidence that the great forest-wealth of the Westkust — including the houtaankap of Singkel and Tjalang — could, with sufficient kapitaalkrachtig investment, be made to yield returns comparable to those of the plantation belt of the Oostkust. The Bedrijfsuitkomsten of the Company, however, are not detailed in the volume; the reader is referred forward to the section on Boschexploitatie in the larger work.
See Also
Source
De Buitenbezittingen, Deel II, Aflevering 2: Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden, bewerkt door het Encyclopaedisch Bureau, Mededeelingen van het Bureau voor de Bestuurszaken der Buitenbezittingen (Weltevreden: Landsdrukkerij, 1917), pp. 178, 239, 242–243, Bijlage VIII.