Cultivation System
The Dutch East Indies was formed from the nationalised colonies of the VOC, which came under the administration of the Dutch government in 1800. The economic history of the colony was closely related to the economic health of the Netherlands. Despite increasing returns from the Dutch system of land tax, Dutch finances had been severely affected by the cost of the Java War and the Padri War, and the loss of Belgium in 1830 brought the Netherlands to the brink of bankruptcy. In 1830, a new Governor-General, Johannes van den Bosch, was appointed to make the Indies pay their way through the Dutch exploitation of its resources. With the Dutch achieving political domination throughout Java for the first time in 1830, it was possible to introduce an agricultural policy of government-controlled forced cultivation. Termed "cultuurstelsel" (cultivation system) in Dutch and "tanam paksa" (forced plantation) in Indonesian, farmers were required to deliver fixed amounts of specified crops such as sugar or coffee as a form of tax. Much of Java eventually became a Dutch plantation and revenue rose continually through the 19th century which were reinvested into the Netherlands to save it from bankruptcy. Between 1830 and 1870, one billion guilders were taken from the archipelago, which on average, making 25% of the annual Dutch government budget. The Cultivation System, however, brought much economic hardship to the Javanese peasants who suffered famine and epidemics in the 1840s.