ジャワ島プリアンガン地方におけるコーヒー輸送と現地人首長レヘント : 18世初め～19世紀初め

Abstract

This article tries to outline the diminishing role of Priangan regents in coffee collection and transportation. Their activities are examined in four periods. In the first period (early 1720s-early 1740s), the regents monopolized coffee collection in their regencies, and organized coffee transportation to Batavia/Cirebon. The VOC government in Batavia could not secure coffee without their activities. In the second period (mid-1740s-mid-1770s), the government started to develop the Batavian hinterland. Priangan regents enjoyed facilities offered by the government, such as coffee loans, and, at the same time, started loosing their independence in coffee transportation. In the third period (late 1770s-1799), the government dissolved the regents' monopoly of coffee collection in West Priangan. Transporters in the Batavian hinterland, together with middlemen and inhabitants in West Priangan, began to join in coffee collection and transportation, while the regents reduced their role and tended to gain parasitic profits in this field. In the fourth period (1800-1811), the government also dissolved the regents' monopoly of coffee collection in Central Priangan. Petty chiefs and inhabitants under the regents joined in the collection and transportation. Furthermore, in all regencies, the government transferred the power of financial management of coffee from regents to European officials. During the 1820s the Dutch government confirmed these policies. Thus, in 100 years, the regents' role diminished from the monopolistic organizers of coffee transportation to Batavia/Cirebon, to middlemen who merely transported coffee to the government's transport centers in Priangan. This change seems to be part of the regents' reaction to a new transport and commercial environment, which was created by the government and transporters in the colonial cities. From the mid-18th century, the regents started to shift their main economic activities, from brokerage trade and transportation to agricultural development and exploitation.