Commodities and colonialism : the story of Big Sugar in Indonesia, 1880-1942 / G. Roger Knight.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Knight, G. R.

Series:

Verhandelingen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 286.

Verhandelingen Van Het Koninklijk Instituut Voor Taal- en land- en Volkenkunde ; 286

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Sugar trade--Indonesia.

Sugar trade.

Sugar--Indonesia.

Sugar.

Indonesia.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (303 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 2013.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Sugar yesterday was what oil is today: a commodity of immense global importance whose tentacles reached deep into politics, society and economy. Indonesia’s colonial-era sugar industry is largely forgotten today, except by a small number of regional specialists writing for a specialist audience. During the period 1880-1942 covered by this book, however, the then Netherlands Indies was one of the world’s very greatest producer-exporters of the commodity. How it contrived to do so is the story presented in this book. Author G. Roger Knight, associate professor of history in the University of Adelaide, has researched the history of Indonesia’s sugar industry for more than twenty-five years, using unpublished archival sources in both the Netherlands and Indonesia. His search has taken him into government records, family histories and – above all – the extensive surviving papers of the Dutch sugar companies who operated in Indonesia during the late colonial era. The result is a picture of the industry that offers important new insights into its history and its place in the framework of global commodity production over a period extending over three quarters of a century.

Contents:

Preliminary Material

Introduction: Java Sugar and the Age of Mass Production

A New Epoch: The Asian Connection

A Precocious Appetite: Fertilizer, Horticulture and Agro-Industry in the Field

Bureaucracy Versus Plantocracy: The Colonial State and ‘Big Sugar’

No Business Like Sugar Business: From Profit To Investment

Enmeshed In Lilliput: Constraints On Growth

No Escape: The HVA and The Djatiroto Project

Making The Best Of It: The Twenties and the Apogee of Big Sugar

Commercial Nemesis: Java, Japan and the Raj

Conclusion and Postscript: The Story of ‘Big Sugar’ in Indonesia

Appendix 1. Various Data, Circa 1880-1940

Appendix 2. Main Export Destinations Java Sugar, Circa 1880-1940

Appendix 3. Productions Costs at the Modjo Agoeng Sugar Factory, Surabaya Residency, East Java, 1905-1940

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

90-04-25109-X

OCLC:

830161955