Dutch Commerce and Chinese Merchants in Java Verhandelingen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde Edited by Rosemarijn Hoefte KITLV, Leiden Henk Schulte Nordholt KITLV, Leiden Editorial Board Michael Laffan Princeton University Adrian Vickers Sydney University Anna Tsing University of California Santa Cruz VOLUME 291 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/vki Dutch Commerce and Chinese Merchants in Java Colonial Relationships in Trade and Finance, 1800–1942 By Alexander Claver LEIDEN • BOSTON 2014 This is an open access title distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution‐ Noncommercial‐NonDerivative 3.0 Unported (CC‐BY‐NC‐ND 3.0) License, which permits any noncommercial use, and distribution, provided no alterations are made and the original author(s) and source are credited. The realization of this publication was made possible by the support of KITLV (Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies). Front cover illustration: Sugar godown of the sugar enterprise ‘Assem Bagoes’ in Sitoebondo, East Java, ca. 1900. Collection Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde (KITLV), Leiden (image code: 6017). Back cover illustration: Five guilder banknote of De Javasche Bank, 1934. Front side showing a male dancer of the Wayang Wong theatre of Central Java. Back side showing batik motives and a text in Dutch, Chinese, Arabic and Javanese script warning against counterfeiting. Design by the Dutch artist C.A. Lion Cachet. Printed by Joh. Enschedé en Zonen. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Claver, Alexander. Dutch commerce and Chinese merchants in Java : colonial relationships in trade and finance, 1800-1942 / by Alexander Claver. pages cm. -- (Verhandelingen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land en Volkenkunde, ISSN 1572-1892; volume 291) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-90-04-25657-6 (hardback : acid-free paper) -- ISBN 978-90-04-26323-9 (e-book) 1. Java (Indonesia)-- Commerce--History--19th century. 2. Java (Indonesia)--Commerce--History--20th century. 3. Netherlands-- Commerce--History. 4. China--Commerce--History. 5. Dutch--Indonesia--Java--History. 6. Chinese--Indonesia-- Java--History. 7. Merchants--Indonesia--Java--History. 8. Netherlands--Colonies--Asia--Economic conditions. 9. Netherlands--Foreign economic relations--China. 10. China--Foreign economic relations--Netherlands. I. Title. HF3809.J4C55 2014 330.9598’2022--dc23 2013040518 This publication has been typeset in the multilingual “Brill” typeface. With over 5,100 characters covering Latin, IPA, Greek, and Cyrillic, this typeface is especially suitable for use in the humanities. For more information, please see www.brill.com/brill-typeface. ISSN 1572-1892 ISBN 978-90-04-25657-6 (hardback) ISBN 978-90-04-26323-9 (e-book) Copyright 2014 by Alexander Claver This work is published by Koninklijke Brill NV. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Nijhoff, Global Oriental and Hotei Publishing. Koninklijke Brill NV reserves the right to protect the publication against unauthorized use and to authorize dissemination by means of offprints, legitimate photocopies, microform editions, reprints, translations, and secondary information sources, such as abstracting and indexing services including databases. Requests for commercial re‐use, use of parts of the publication, and/or translations must be addressed to Koninklijke Brill NV. This book is printed on acid-free paper. <UN> <UN> CONTENTS List of Maps, Tables, Figures, and Boxes ...........................................................vii Acknowledgements ................................................................................................. xi Abbreviations ..........................................................................................................xiii Glossary ..................................................................................................................... xv Conventions ............................................................................................................xix Maps ..........................................................................................................................xxi 1. Introduction ......................................................................................................... 1 Research Outline ............................................................................................ 1 Access to Capital, Information and Security .......................................... 3 The Indonesian Case ..................................................................................... 7 Sources .............................................................................................................. 9 Research Method .........................................................................................10 2. Prelude to Rapid Expansion (1800–1884) ................................................13 The Colonial State and the Economy .....................................................13 The Resilience of Private Enterprise .......................................................25 Entrepreneurship under the Cultivation System: Djauw Adjiem and Ho Kong Sing .......................................................34 Finance in Transition: Internatio and De Javasche Bank ..................49 Wholesalers and Retailers: Van Beek, Reineke & Co. - HVA .............65 3. Crisis and Adaptation (1884–1890s) ..........................................................73 Economic Policy and Political Expansion .............................................73 The Organization of Trade ........................................................................76 The Onset of the Crisis: Sugar and Coffee .............................................86 Beginning of the Crisis ...............................................................................91 The Crisis Experienced: Internatio and Dorrepaal & Co. .................96 The Crisis Prolonged: Sing Liong & Co. .............................................. 120 4. Redefining Dutch-Chinese Commercial Relations (1890s–1910) .................................................................................................. 133 An Awkward Alliance: The Interdependence of Dutch and Chinese Business ......................................................................... 133 The Economic Position of the Chinese under Scrutiny ................. 149 A Wave of Failures: Surabaya in the Late 1890s ............................... 172 The Chinese Boycott of the HVA........................................................... 189 <UN> <UN> vi contents 5. The Road to Expansion (1910–1930) ...................................................... 241 The Late Colonial State: Consolidation and Conflict ...................... 241 The Colonial Economy before 1914: The HVA in Trade and Agriculture ..................................................................................... 247 The Lure of Sugar in Trade and Banking ............................................ 260 De Javasche Bank and the Outbreak of the First World War ........ 268 The Colonial Economy after 1914 ........................................................ 275 The Kwik Hoo Tong Handelmaatschappij: A Prominent Chinese in Sugar ................................................................................... 283 6. Economic Crisis and Commercial Resilience (1930–1942) .............. 349 The Economic Experience of the 1930s ............................................. 349 The Incidence of Failure: Bankruptcy Cases and Business Fraud .............................................................................. 358 Commercial Resilience and Crisis Management: Internatio and Margo-Redjo ............................................................. 371 7. Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 393 A Bird’s-Eye View of Colonial Trade..................................................... 393 Trade Dynamics ......................................................................................... 402 Sources .................................................................................................................... 405 Bibliography .......................................................................................................... 407 Index ........................................................................................................................ 431 <UN> <UN> LIST OF MAPS, TABLES, FIGURES AND BOXES Maps 1. Southeast Asia and the Indonesian archipelago. ....................................xxi 2. The islands of Java and Madura. .................................................................xxii 3. Regions of origin in South China of Chinese migrants represented in Southeast Asia. .................................................................. xxiii 4. Main emigration areas and corresponding dialect groups in South China. ...............................................................................................xxiv Tables 2.1. Trading companies in Batavia, 1817–1828............................................28 2.2. Trading companies in Batavia, 1829–1840............................................28 2.3. Trading companies in Semarang, 1829–1840. ......................................29 2.4. Trading companies in Surabaya, 1829–1840. .......................................29 2.5. Customer