G. J. van Hall — published as Dr. G. J. van Hall — was a Dutch agricultural scientist who, in 1946, contributed the chapter De landbouw (“Agriculture”) to the volume Wat Indië Ontving en Schonk edited by Dr. Wormser (pp. 204–230). His chapter surveys the principal crops of the Dutch East Indies — rice, sugar, tobacco, coffee, rubber, cassava, cotton, coconut, pepper, nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon — and gives Atjeh a small but specific place as one of the historic pepper-growing regions.
Treatment of Atjeh
Van Hall’s chapter identifies Atjeh, alongside the Lampongsche Districten (the southernmost part of Sumatra), as one of the two great pepper regions of Sumatra, and notes that “the culture was then [in the 16th century], as it still is today, of importance” in Atjeh. The full passage — describing the geographical spread of pepper (Piper nigrum) cultivation in the Indies — runs: “Already in the sixteenth century, when the Portuguese were still the buyers and brought the Indian products to Europe, the Lampongsche Districten, the most southern part of Sumatra, were the great pepper district, and that is still the case today. Also in Atjeh the culture was then, as it still is today, of importance. Besides in the Lampongsche Districten and in Atjeh, we now find it in Benkoelen, in Palembang, on Banda and on Borneo. On Java, however, it has no more significance, neither in Bantam nor in Middle Java, where in earlier times quite a few pepper vines were grown against the dadap trees.”
Van Hall further notes that the pepper produced by the smallholder sector of the Lampongsche Districten, Atjeh, the Sumatra East Coast, Palembang and Borneo is processed by a very simple method: “the ripe or half-ripe berries are thrown on a heap and left to ferment for about a week; the colour then becomes black. They are then laid in the sun to dry and after a few days the grains are loosened from the stalks by treading with the feet” — producing zwarte peper (black pepper). White pepper, by contrast, is produced by soaking exclusively fully-ripe clusters in sacks or baskets under water for some ten days, after which the husk is easily removed and the pale kernel is quickly sun-dried.
Significance
For the Atjeh-focused reader, Van Hall’s chief significance is the long durée he gives to Atjeh pepper: his chapter places Atjehnese pepper cultivation in a continuous line from the sixteenth-century Portuguese trade to the eve of Indonesian independence in 1946. This continuity is the more striking for being set against the sharp decline of pepper cultivation in Java over the same period.
Dutch terms used in this article
- Wat Indië Ontving en Schonk — What the Indies Received and Gave
- Wereldbibliotheek N.V. — World Library Ltd.
- Nederlandsch-Indië — Netherlands Indies
- landbouw — agriculture
- pen — open/wide (Atjeh concept)
- Atjeh — Aceh
- Acheh — Aceh
- Deli — Deli
- Palembang — Palembang
- Benkoelen — Bengkulu
- Lampong — Lampong
- Lampongsche Districten — Lampong Districts
- Borneo — Borneo
- Java — Java
- Sumatra — Sumatra
- Banda — Banda
- Dr. — Doctor
See Also
- Wat Indië Ontving en Schonk
- C. W. Wormser
- F. P. C. S. van der Ploeg
- W. J. Utermark
- Acheh
- Lampong
- Benkoelen
- Palembang
- Banda
- Deli
Source
Wat Indië Ontving en Schonk, onder leiding van Dr. C. W. Wormser (Amsterdam: Wereldbibliotheek N.V., 1946), pp. 204–230 (chapter De landbouw door Dr. G. J. van Hall), with the Atjeh pepper reference on p. 225.