Along
With Each Assistant Resident Is A Controller, A Kind Of Inspector
Of All The Lower Native Rulers, Who Periodically Visits Every
Village In The District, Examines The Proceedings Of The Native
Courts, Hears Complaints Against The Head-Men Or Other Native
Chiefs, And Superintends The Government Plantations.
This brings
us to the "culture system," which is the source of all the wealth
the Dutch derive from
Java, and is the subject of much abuse in
this country because it is the reverse of "free trade." To
understand its uses and beneficial effects, it is necessary first
to sketch the common results of free European trade with
uncivilized peoples.
Natives of tropical climates have few wants, and, when these are
supplied, are disinclined to work for superfluities without some
strong incitement. With such a people the introduction of any new
or systematic cultivation is almost impossible, except by the
despotic orders of chiefs whom they have been accustomed to obey,
as children obey their parents. The free competition of European
traders, however introduces two powerful inducements to exertion.
Spirits or opium is a temptation too strong for most savages to
resist, and to obtain these he will sell whatever he has, and
will work to get more. Another temptation he cannot resist, is
goods on credit. The trader offers him bay cloths, knives, gongs,
guns, and gunpowder, to be paid for by some crop perhaps not yet
planted, or some product yet in the forest. He has not sufficient
forethought to take only a moderate quantity, and not enough
energy to work early and late in order to get out of debt; and
the consequence is that he accumulates debt upon debt, and often
remains for years, or for life, a debtor and almost a slave.
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