71
N* Deerr, The History of Sugar, London 1949-50, 1, p.551* 72
See note 71*
75
Output was but one aspect of Java sugar production
in the years 1812-54• Another was the manner of production* In comparison with the sugar industry of the West Indies
and even of Mauritius, that of Java, was technologically backward in the early nineteenth century, as even the High
74
Commission for Agriculture was prepared to admit; The
sugar mills in most common use on the island throughout the period were those of the Chinese type. These mills, some times large and permanent, sometimes so small that they
could be carried from one cane field to the next, were basically made up of two stone or wooden cylinders set up vertically, between which the cane was crushed. The power came from a pair of oxen, which worked in teams right round the clock at the height of the sugar malting season. There was a great deal to be said against this methodoof operation.
It was above all else slow and wasteful. The cane had to be passed through the crushers at least twice, and even then
a good deal less than the maximum amount of ;juice
extracted. Chinese mills were not well adapted to large scale production.- The best of them prodLiced no more than ten pikuls of sugar per day. G-rouped, such mills demanded
74
I f
75
a large and costly number of oxen to work them; Mills of advanced design, which allowed more cane to be crushed with greater efficiency, and which had been introduced on
the West Indies sugar plantations in the course of the eighteenth century, were slow in coming to Java, at least in significant numbers* The most important of these advances was the evolvement of a metal three cylinder
76
horizontal-*set millj usually referred to in contemporary accounts as mills constructed in the *West Indian* or
*American1 manner* According to De Haan there was a mill at Tanjong West in the Batavia Hinterland built in the American style but with stone instead of metal cylinders
77
as early as 1785♦ A report of 1812 mentions a mill in the Japara Residency, said to have been built by Resident Dirk van Hogendorp in the seventeen-nineties, which was
"constructed after the West Indian manner, with brass ••*
75
A contempory description of a Chinese-style sugar mill
will be found in J* Hoyrnan, Tegenwoordige Staat den Landbouw in de Bataviaasche Ommelanden, V.B.Ct* , 1, 1779, p.205-5.
Other information about these mills is to be found in
Teissiere, V «B ♦ G-♦, 5*1790, p. 125 and Encvcloneadie. 4, p.165* 76
Deerr, Sugar, 2, p.557* 77
iqz
cylinders and put into motion by w a t e r . T h e s e appear to have been isolated examples* As late as 1829 the High Commission for Agriculture reported that there were only five sugar works on the whole island which used horizontal- set three cylinder mills, two of them in West Java and
79
three in East Java* Another improvement which was only slowly introduced was the replacement of ox-power by water or steam power* As early as 1779 it had been recommended that water-power should be used in the Hinterland?^ but even by the eighteen-twenties there is little evidence of its widespread use* In some cases local circumstances
made the introduction of water-power difficult* The Indies government were informed in 1819 that the water-mill which
the East Java sugar makers Poulter and Grieve proposed to erect in the Besuki area could only be operated to the
detriment of the adjacent irrigation system. There was not O ’]
enough water for both. As for steam-driven mills, there
were only two operating in Java on the eve of the Culti vation System* Working in conjunction with TWest Indian* cane crushing equipment, they were said to be capable of
78
Doornik's Report on Japara, 1812, Mackenzie Coll (Private 7, p.173.
79
Agriculture Commission 1829* P*4* Bn Bus Coll 371* 80
Hoyman, V.B.G., 1, 1779, p.260.
81
82
of triple the output of the best Chinese mills.
Sugar Production on the West Java Estates.
Sugar was cultivated and manufactured in West Java on the great estates of Tjikandi Ilir, Pamanukan and Tjiassem, Indramaju and Kandanghauer and Sumadangan and legal Waru. It was also produced by the firm of Jessen Trail and Company on their lands at Bekasi, in the Hinterland, and at Tjikandi Udek on the borders of Bantam, as well as by a number of
smaller Hinterland landowners.
At Tjikandi Ilir, to the west of the hinterland, sugar was produced between 1819 and 1825? after which It appears
83
to have been abandoned. The sugar-making equipment on the estate was imported and included a sugar mill, (presumably of the horizontal-set, three cylinder variety) boiling pans and other unspecified apparatus. According to the
importers, this machinery came from Mauritius on the ships Lady Sophia and Rosalie in the course of 1820. Whether it was second-hand and formerly used in the sugar industry of
that latter island is not made clear?^ This was not
82
Annual General Report Batavia 1824, 3? p.23. Schneither Coll 84| J.Loman, Het Eiland Java in Yerband Beechouwd met Wederlands Handel, Zeevaart en Pabrieken, Amsterdam 1828, p.41. 83
Palmer to Brownrigg, 28.2.1823, Eng.Lett. c.95, p.136, 84
G-.G-. in Rade 7.1.1820 no. 13 and 25.12.1820 no. 18, Min.v.Kol 2772.
Tjikandi Ilir’s only connection with Mauritius* One of the two Europeans operating the sugar works in 1820,
Antoine he Marchand, had arrived in Java from Mauritius in 1816* A rum distillery was also set up. ho record
appears to exist of how much sugar was produced at the Ijikandi Ilir works, hut according to the report of the Resident of Bantam the total output of this mill and that at the neighbouring fjikandi Udek, the only other sugar mill in his Residency, was in the region of 2,500 pikttls
in 1820?^ At l^ikandi Udek, the Batavia firm of Jessen frail and Oompany started to make sugar in 1819, and v/ere still doing so ten years later in 1829, when production
88
amounted to 6,000 pikqls annually* The equipment at the works arrived on the English ship Stirling in 1819, and included "one set of cylinders for a large sugar mill," as well as "one complete set of Sutherlands sugar pans, with all that belongs to them*" As at fjikandi Ilir, this machinery came from Mauritius where it had either been in
85
Antoine Le Marchand was sadd to have been born on Bourbon (Reunion), but came to Java in 1816 from Mauritius.
Min.v.Kol* 5107, 85
Statistics of Bantam 1820, Lett.B. no*2* Schneither Qoll 85. 87
G-.E* Meijlan .to Yan de G-raaff, 10.8*1819, in P.H.v.d.Kemp, (ed*), Brieven van en a an H* J.v.d .G-raaff, Batavia 1901,
2, p.72-5* 88
w
89
use or h a d b e e n trans-shipped. A c c o r d i n g to another 90
source it h a d b e e n sent out from london. W h e n the senior
g o v e r n m e n t offi c i a l W i l l e m v a n H o g e n d o r p v i s i t e d the
Tjikandi a r e a in 1826 he f ound that the m i l l s at the U d e k
w orks we r e o p e r a t e d b y oxen, althoiigh there w a s some talk 91