Indonesia In the 19th Century

Under the pressure of other more powerful powers of Holland, it was necessary to refuse from the exclusive right to state exploitation of Indonesia's mineral resources, coal deposits, and oil. Private Dutch and non-Dutch capital gained access to the mining industry.

Forced policy of "open doors" contributed to the penetration of the colony of Dutch capital of various countries. English capital, following the Dutch, penetrated the plantation economy and the mining industry. Large British shipping companies played a more prominent role in the export of Indonesian raw materials. The links between English and Dutch financial capital became more and more intimate, and mixed Anglo-Dutch enterprises arose which far exceeded Indonesia. It was here, in Indonesia, that the Royal Dutch Shell, which later became one of the world's most powerful oil trusts, became a rival to the American oil monopolies originated and began operating. Indonesia In the 19th Century ...

The merged company, headed by Deterding, subdued all the smaller oil production enterprises and until the end of the First World War was the undisputed monopoly in Indonesia, where its positions were unshakable.

In Java, there were large plantations of sugar cane, tobacco, coffee, tea, cinchona, which occupied hundreds of thousands of hectares of the best land. In the first decade of the XX century. The first plantations of Hevea, exported to Southeast Asia from Brazil, appeared and gave excellent results here. Subsequently, rubber has become the most important export culture of Indonesia.

Following Java, foreign capital rushed to other islands of the archipelago. Foreign companies sought from the rulers of self-governing territories and principalities of beneficial land concessions. The sultans and rulers interested in the monetary receipts gave foreigners for pennies vast territories of the best land located on the coast and along the rivers, from where it was convenient to export plantation products to foreign markets. The Dutch government, worried about the penetration of non-Dutch capital into the Overseas Possessions, hastened to extend the "agrarian law" introduced in Java in 1870 to the rest of Indonesia. From the sultans and rulers, the right to self-lease land and concessions was taken away. This was aimed at establishing Dutch control over the penetration of foreign capital. In large areas, large plantations of tobacco, coffee, rubber appeared. The regions of the eastern coast of Sumatra have become the largest suppliers of raw materials to the world market.

Indonesia In the 19th Century