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Selayar and the Green Gold: The Development of the Coconut Trade on an Indonesian Island (1820–1950)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 August 2009

Christiaan G. Heersink
Christiaan G. Heersink
Affiliation:
Centre for Asian Studies Amsterdam
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Extract

In the colonial period many Europeans considered coconuts a lazy man's crop. For the Indonesian population, however, they were a profitable form of cultivation, especially from the 1880s when the European oil and fats industry increasingly started to use copra, the dried kernel of the coconut, as a raw material for the production of soap and later also for margarine. Around one-third of world copra exports originated in the Netherlands Indies (Table 1), and copra was especially important for the economy of East Indonesia, where in 1939 it constituted 80 per cent of the total volume and 60 per cent of the total value of exports. In some parts of Indonesia copra even received the nickname of “green gold”. European involvement in coconut cultivation and the coconut trade nonetheless was limited. In the first half of this century, coconut growing was dominated by the indigenous population, which accounted for 94 per cent of Indonesian production, while Chinese merchants dominated the intermediate trade in copra.

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Articles
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Journal of Southeast Asian Studies , Volume 25 , Issue 1 , March 1994 , pp. 47 - 69
Copyright
Copyright © The National University of Singapore 1994

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References

This article has been realized thanks to financial assistance of the Netherlands Foundation for the Advancement of Tropical Research (WOTRO). I would like to thank Prof. Dr. H.A. Sutherland and Dr. P. Post for their comments on an earlier draft, the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) for their support of the field-work in Indonesia and all those Indonesians who collaborated with me as assistants or informants.

1 Illustrative for Selayar are remarks like: “where Selayar has proven to be particularly suitable for coconut growing, making the native rich by being idle”; ANRI Ujung Pandang, arsip Selayar (hereafter S) b (box number) 52/r (registration number) 428 5/7/1919. See for another example: Schouten, M.J.C., “Minahasan Metamorphoses. Leadership and Social Mobility in a Southeast Asian Society, c. 1680–1983” (Ph.D. diss., Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam 1993), p. 167Google Scholar.

2 Bacon, L.C. and Schloemer, F.C., World Trade in Agricultural Products, its Growth, its Crisis and the New Trade Politics (Rome: International Institute of Agriculture, 1940), p. 295Google Scholar; Dol, J., “Copra en Coprafonds in Oost-Indonesië”, Landbouw 21 (1949): 85Google Scholar.

3 Indonesian daily newspaper Kompas, 3 02 1991Google Scholar.

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5 Tripang (seaslug, sea cucumber) is a delicacy in the Chinese kitchen.

6 Sutherland, H.A., “Power and Politics in South Sulawesi, 1860–1880”, Review of Indonesian and Malaysian Affairs 17 (1983): 161Google Scholar.

7 The origin of this title is not clear, but it may have derived from Luwu, the cradle of South Sulawesian civilization, where chiefs were also called opu.

8 In 1867, 145 people were counted as local leaders, 1810 as religious officials from a total population of 57,538. In 1875, 3,014 persons (5.4 per cent of the population) were registered as slaves by the Dutch. M 9.14 Kultuur Verslag 1867; Engelhard, H.E.D., “De staatkundige en economische toestand van het eiland Saleijer”, Indische Gids 6, no. 1 (1884): 139Google Scholar; van der Stok, N.P., “Het eiland Saleijer”, Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 15 (1866): 427Google Scholar; S r146-No.99 25/3/1865.

9 Errington, Shelly, “Embodied Sumange' in Luwu”, Journal of Asian Studies 42, no. 3 (1983): 545CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

10 For example in case of a repeated crop failure they consulted the opu; interview Sultan Adduh 19/5/1991 Pariangan, Selayar.

11 Sutherland, , “Power and Politics”, p. 161Google Scholar.

12 S r146-No.380 31/12/1865; Sutherland, H.A., “Slavery and Slave Trade in South-Sulawesi, 1660s-1800s”, in Slavery, Bondage and Dependency in Southeast Asia, ed. Reid, A. (St. Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1983), pp. 263–85Google Scholar; Engelhard, , “Staatkundige en economische toestand van het eiland Saleijer”, p. 141Google Scholar; Tillema, H.F., “Reisbrieven van den Heer H.F. Tillema” (Het eiland Saleijer) Koloniaal Weekblad No. 34, 20 08 1925Google Scholar.

13 In the 20th century the European Moreaux tried to run a coconut plantation on Jampea (an island south of Selayar), but the company lingered on troubled by capital and labour supply problems. S b21/r91 and b58/r458 coconut plantation Moreaux 1920, 1932, 1937.

14 ARA, archief NHM 9468-No. 42 L.M.F. Plate over Makassar en Bandjermassing 1849, p. 37; Reyne, A., “De cocospalm” in De Landbouw in de Indische Archipel, 2a Voedingsgewassen en geneesmiddelen, ed. Van Hall, C.J.J. and Van de Koppel, C. (Den Haag: Van Hoeve, 1948), pp. 469, 470Google Scholar; Bree, L. De, Nederlandsch-Indië in de Twintigste Eeuw (Batavia: Kolff, 1916), p. 111Google Scholar; van Hall, C.J.J., “De cocospalm”, Insulinde, de inheemse landbouw (Deventer: Van Hoeve, ca. 1939), p. 125Google Scholar. A more modern treatise on coconut palms as a flexible ecological crop is given by Brookfield, H.C. and Hart, D., Melanesia, A Geographical Interpretation of an Island World (London: Methuen, 1971), pp. 135–50Google Scholar.

15 ANRI Jakarta, arsip daerah Makassar (hereafter M) 362.9 Beschrijving van het eiland Saleijer onder het Gouvernement Makassar in Nederlandsch Oost-Indie, 26 Jan. 1837 and S b24/r145 W. De Lanoy and J. Vosmaer, “Rapport over het eilan Saleijer en hare veertien omliggende regentschappen”, 3 Jan. 1855.

16 K 429 Verbaal (Vb) 22/1/1825 No. 49/46 and K 1206 Vb 16/6/1862 No. 13/677; S r146-No. 32 10/7/1826.

17 Modala fits in the wider tradition of financing trade in pre-capitalist societies normally called after the Italian example commenda. See Braudel, F., Civilization and Capitalism 15th-18th century, 2, The Wheels of Commerce (London: Fontana Press, 1985), p. 122Google Scholar, and Van Leur, J.C., Indonesian Trade and Society. Essays in Asian Social and Economic History (The Hague: Van Hoeve 1955), p. 201Google Scholar.

18 M 362.9 Beschrijving Saleijer 1837; S b24/r145 Rapport Saleijer 1855; S r146-No.204 31/12/1854; Engelhard, H.E.D., “Mededeelingen over het eiland Saleijer”, Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 8 (1884): 319, 320Google Scholar.

19 Engelhard, , “Mededeelingen Saleijer”, p. 325Google Scholar.

20 K 429 Vb 22/1/1825 No. 49/46; Temminck, C.J., “The Geographical Group of Celebes”, Journal of the Indian Archipelago and Eastern Asia 4 (1850): 686Google Scholar; Zollinger, H. “Verslag van eene reis naar Bima en Soembawa, en naar eenige plaatsen op Celebes, Saleijer en Flores”, Verhandelingen van het Bataviaasch Genootschap 23, no. 1 (1850): 10Google Scholar.

21 It is remarkable that Minahassa (North Sulawesi), in the 20th century the most important coconut producer in the Indonesian archipelago, relied on imports of coconut oil from the Sangihe archipelago in the 1860s. Nuts were not processed into oil and had such a low value that people considered it wasted effort to harvest them; Koloniaal Verslag (KV) 1862 ('s-Gravenhage: Landsdrukkerij, 1863), p. 218Google Scholar.

22 KV 1850–1880; M 9.4 Kultuur verslag 1860.

23 “Saleier”, in Encyclopaedie van Nederlandsch-Indië (ENI) ('s-Gravenhage: Martinus Nijhoff, 1919), 3, p. 678Google Scholar. In 1850 people with 500 to 600 trees were reported, in 1884 there were people who claimed 10,000 to 20,000 palms; Zollinger, , “Verslag van eene reis” p. 10Google Scholar, and Engelhard, , “Staatkundige en economische toestand”, p. 311Google Scholar.

24 It is a common phenomenon in the Archipelago that people tended to perceive a ladang, on which they had planted perennial crops, as their property. Unlike in shifting cultivation where labour control has a more decisive influence, perennial crops provided opportunities for accumulation of land.

25 Kriebel, D.J.C., “Grond- en waterrechten in de onderafdeeling Saleier”, Koloniaal Tijdschrift 8 (1919): 1107Google Scholar.

26 The concept of contest state has been introduced by Michael Adas to characterize the precolonial Southeast Asian state with its constant struggle between the ruler's centralizing policies and several countervailing forces in local society; Adas, M., “From Avoidance to Confrontation: Peasant Protest in Precolonial and Colonial Southeast Asia”, Comparative Studies in Society and History 23 (1981): 218CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

27 M 348.10 memorie voor residenten Selayar 1819, S b24/r145 Rapport Saleijer 1855, the best example of curtailing of extortions happened to the opu of Mare Mare in 1855 S b32/r303. In the reports for 1850–70 in the Selayar archive in UP there is a constant mention of tension in almost all regencies between the opu and the nobility.

28 Sixty per cent of the total number of Selayarese haji (179) lived in the coastal village Batamata-Bara in the regency Batangmata in 1879; Engelhard, , “Mededeelingen”, pp. 364, 365Google Scholar.

29 S b24/r145 14/10/1879; Engelhard, , “Staatkundige en economische toestand”, pp. 142–44Google Scholar.

30 See for discussion of this topic Kathirithamby-Wells, J., “Restraints on the Development of Merchant Capitalism in Southeast Asia before c. 1800”, in Southeast Asia in the Early Modern Era. Trade, Power and Belief, ed. Reid, A. (Ithaca/London: Cornell University Press, 1993), pp. 133–35Google Scholar.

31 In 1865 there were 54 Chinese, mainly male, on Selayar, S r146-No.332 — /11/1865; Engelhard, , “Mededeelingen”, pp. 322, 323, 325Google Scholar; S b24/r145 14/10/1879; S b44/r365 5/5/1884.

32 Maude, H.E., “The Coconut Oil Trade of the Gilbert Islands”, in Maude, H.E., Of Islands and Men: Studies in Pacific History (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1968), p. 282Google Scholar.

33 KV 1880–1900; K/Memorie van overgave (MvO) onderafdeeling Saleier, MMK 297, C. Nooteboom 1937, p. 14.

34 This took place during both world wars and the economic depression of the 1930s.

35 KV 1880; Engelhard, , “Mededeelingen”, pp. 334, 335Google Scholar.

36 Thomas, K.D. and Panglaykim, J., “The Chinese in the South Sumatran Rubber Industry: A Case Study in Economic Nationalism”, in The Chinese in Indonesia; Five Essays, ed. Mackie, J.A.C. (Melbourne: Thomas Nelson, 1976), p. 139Google Scholar.

37 Cited in Ding, Chiang Hai, A History of Straits Settlements Foreign Trade 1870–1915 (Singapore: National Museum, 1978), p. 49Google Scholar.

38 Vleming, J.L. Jr, Het Chineesche Zakenleven in Nederlandsch-Indie (Weltevreden: Landsdrukkerij, 1926), p. 275Google Scholar; “Saleijer”, ENI, p. 678. The KPM enjoyed a virtual monopoly in steam shipping in the Indonesian Archipelago.

39 Bank notes were unpopular because they were often difficult to change and could be destroyed by water and fire; interviews with Muh. Kasim, 19/5/1991, Pariangan, Selayar and Arifin, 15/5/1991, Benteng, Selayar; S b14/r41 afvloeiing zilvergeld 22/11/1928.

40 K/MvO Nooteboom p. 30. Lack of up-to-date information on prices made copra purchase in the periphery a rather risky business, sometimes even typified as “gambling”; Holtus, W., Celebes. Onbekende gebieden en volken (Amsterdam: Scheltema and Holkema, 1926), p. 156Google Scholar; Broersma, R., “Gorontalo een handelscentrum van Noord Selebes”, Tijdschrift Koninklijk Nederlandsch Aardrijkskundig Genootschap 48 (1931): 226Google Scholar.

41 S b52/r420 invoering metrieke stelsel, 12/5/1927; S b22/r134 Maandverslag (MV) Sep. 1927.

42 S r812 Bijlage circulaire 108 10/4/1947.

43 van Setten, D.J.G., Een en ander over de volksklappercultuur in de Minahassa (Weltevreden: Departement van Landbouw, Nijverheid en Handel, afd. Landbouw, 1927), pp. 23–26Google Scholar.

44 S b22/r134 MV aug. 1925; S b7/r32 MvO P.J.M. Baden 1919; S b14/r41 29/9/1928; Van Hall, , Insulinde, inheemse landbouw, p. 124Google Scholar.

45 Engelhard, , “Mededeelingen”, p. 359Google Scholar; S b18/r76 MV 16–31 Jan. 1938; Pattiselanno, “Jodoh di Pohon Kelapa, Suatu Studi tentang Prilaku dalam Siklus Hidup Masyarakat Bontomate'na di Selayar” (Ujung Pandang: Pusat Latihan Penelitian Ilmu Ilmu Social, 1986), pp. 45, 46.

46 K, aanvullende MvO onderafdeeling Saleier, KIT 1117, J.W. Dimonti, 16 Feb. 1936, p. 15.

47 See for the Luha family or the kankergezwel (cancer) of Bukit, bundle S b15/r58; S b22/r134 MV Feb. 1925; interview Much Idris 19/5/1991 Pariangan, Selayar.

48 In 1923 133 Selayarese earned more than f 1200 in a year. This group was largely composed of copra traders, but also of owners of coconut gardens, for example the opu of Bonea, Muhamad Daeng Malewa, who owned the largest number of coconut trees on Selayar; S bll/r35 opgave inlanders met inkomen boven inlandsche bevolking, 1924, 2 (Weltevreden: Landsdrukkerij, 1926), p. 268Google Scholar.

49 See the lawsuits on coconut gardens in the Selayar archive, for example in b35/r318.

50 These two men had close relations with the Major (chief) of the Chinese in Makassar, Thoeng Liong Hoei, son of the prosperous Ting Tjam, who in 1902 possessed a capital of between one and three million guilders, one hundred thirty houses, six large vessels and a share in the steamboat Wilhelmus; interview Chandra 1/10/1991 Ujung Pandang; NHM 9472-No. 95 v. Rossum over Makassar, 1902. Unfortunately, Makassar's Chinese community has been little studied in comparison with that on Java.

51 For example in Donggala: Nio Bio Tjioe, Menado: Liem Boen Djak, Gorontalo: Kho Peng Hoei; interview with Chandra, 6/10/1991, at Ujung Pandang.

52 Baka Oto means in the Selayarese language “Big Head”; his Chinese name could not be assessed with certainty.

53 The reasons for this bankruptcy are not clear; archival sources provide no explanations, and in interviews people offered nothing more than rather unreliable suggestions. Interview Lie Hui Kie 4/10/1991 Ujung Pandang; S b21/r93 MV maart 1992; Jaarverslag Handelsvereeniging Makassar 1992 and 1928 (Makassar, 1923 and 1930); S b9/r35 13/2/1918 No. 674/H6; Tillema, H.F., “Reisbrieven van den Heer H.F. Tillema”, (Het eiland Saleijer), Koloniaal Weekblad No. 33, 13 08 1925Google Scholar; S b22/r134 MV Sep. 1924 and 1927–29.

54 Baba Lihong had also a Chinese wife, Sa, and several other women in a couple of trading places in Selayar; interview with Sappiin, 8/9/1991, Parak, Selayar.

55 Interview with Tunggeng, 6/9/1991, Bitombang, Selayar. The former papalele, Sapiin, stated that Kwee Liem Hong even gave the opu a car.

56 It was estimated that Kwee Liem Hong received 18 per cent interest in this way; S b51/r419 bijlage MV, Aug. 1926.

57 Vingerhoets, H.J., “Coprahcontracten in de Minahassa”, Koloniaal Tijdschrift 22 (1933): 302Google Scholar.

58 In the register of private deeds (onderhandse acten) 1916–24, most contracts between Chinese creditors and indigenous owners of coconut palms took the form of an exchange of credit for copra delivery till the debt was repaid (S b35/r318 and b4/r21).

59 This becomes clear during the depression of the 1930s when export of smallholder rubber was heavily taxed in favour of plantations while a similar duty on copra was cancelled temporarily (1931–36); Clemens, A.H.P., “De inheemse rubbercultuur in Jambi en Palembang tijdens het Interbellum”, in Het belong van de Buitengewesten. Economische expansie en koloniale staatsvorming in de Buitengewesten van Nederlands-Indië 1870–1942, ed. Clemens, A.H.P. and Lindblad, J.Th. (Amsterdam: NEHA, 1989), pp. 213–37Google Scholar; Jaarverslag Handelsvereeniging Makassar, 1920–38.

60 Swart, H.N.A., “De klappercultuur op Zuid-Celebes”, Indische Mercuur 25 (18 06 1906): 415Google Scholar.

61 S b56/r450 Rapport landbouwconsulent Ten Oever 1929; S b18/r76 MV, 16–31 Jan. 1938.

62 Reyne, , “De cocospalm”, p. 509Google Scholar. The colonial government was eager to support any initiative that would provide a better copra product because they were afraid that Western importers might boycott copra from the Netherlands Indies if its quality remained poor.

63 Van Hall, , Insulinde, inheemse landbouw, pp. 129, 130Google Scholar.

64 MS b32/r303 Algemeen Verslag 1918, interview with Muh. Kasim; Swart, , “De klapperkultuur”, p. 414Google Scholar.

65 For example, in March 1925 one of Selayar's controleurs expressed his disappointment with regard to the coprakeur: “The coprakeur is enforced by the opu in a rather good way, yet it is comprehensible that a lot of inferior product escapes attention, because ripe and green is paid with the same price. Not everything can be controlled by the government.” The Assistant-Resident of Bantaeng concluded: “The traders also have to participate”; S b22/r134 MV mrt 1925. De Groot, J.H.C., “Eenige beschouwingen over de copracontractenordonanties”, Koloniale Studien 25 (1941): 99Google Scholar; Vingerhoets, , “Coprahcontracten Minahassa”, pp. 301–310Google Scholar.

66 S b22/r134 MV 1927; S b54/r443 3/4/1918 and 2/5/1918. The monthly reports for 1927–29 contained small pieces of paper with market information on Selayar's copra trade which derived from Kwee Liem Hong and Go Ke Hong. In the 1930s copra prices were sent by telegram to the controleur, who spread them to the population via the opu; S b49/r400 telegrams, K, MvO Nooteboom, p. 29.

67 Gemeente Archief Amsterdam/archief Oliefabrieken Insulinde, Rapport Swets 17/8/1918.

68 In 1938, 33,049 picul copra was exported by the KPM and 8,250 picul by prahus; S b18/r76 MV 16–31 Dec. 1938. For additional information consult Dick, H.W., “Prahu Shipping in Eastern Indonesia in the Interwar Period”, Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies 23, 1 (1987): 104–121CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

69 S b22/r134 MV mei 1924; S b22/r133 Algemeen Verslag over 1922; interview with Daeng Malolo 1/10/1991 Batangmata, Selayar.

70 Besides these two pests (Brontispa frogatti selebensis and Aleurodicus destructor) there was also the normal destruction of thousands of nuts by bajing (coconut squirrel — Sciurus notatus) which within South Sulawesi were only endemic on Selayar; K/MvO Celebes and Onderhoorigheden, MMK 284, Th.A.L. Heyting, 3 Jan. 1916, p. 94.

71 K, MvO afdeeling Bonthain, MMK 292, C. Boterhoven De Haan, 1932, p. 14; S b56/b450 Rapport Ten Oever 1929 and Schuitemaker 1931; K, MvO, Dimonti p. 5.

72 In 1937 a group of 60 people, mainly family of the Selayarese chiefs, largely owned Selayar's coconut groves; S b55/r445 MV landbouw consulent 3/4/1937.

73 Register of private deeds S b35/r318 and b4/r21; family tree opu Bonea 1929 S b43/r386; interview with Masariki, 1/10/1991, Parak, Selayar; interview with Lihing, 29/9/1991, Barugaya, Selayar.

74 K, MvO Nooteboom 1937, pp. 7–9.

75 Ance is a Makassarese title for singkeh (newcomer) Chinese, and also means uncle in the Chinese-Makassarese dialect. The term is often combined with a striking physical feature of a Chinese newcomer or with a corruption of his original Chinese name; Cense, A.A., Makassaars-Nederlands Woordenboek ('s-Gravenhage: Martinus Nijhoff, 1979), p. 23Google Scholar; interview with Mariam (Liem Soang Tjiu), 4/9/1991, Benteng, Selayar.

76 Oei Ek Tjoan had a monopoly on the import of cigarettes and petroleum. Interviews with Mariam and Lie Hui Kie; K, MvO Nooteboom 1937, p. 31.

77 The most important papaleles were Amal, the Samado family, Lihing, Masariki, Tanri.

78 Interviews with Masariki and Lihing.

79 Ance Poa received capital from Tiong Seng. Loen Boen Thoeng, who started his copra export in 1931/32, had connections with some Chinese from Hongkong. Interview with Lie Hui Kie.

80 This Ance Poa was not the same as the Ance Poa mentioned above. Any suggestions I made in that direction were vehemently denied during interviews.

81 In Tile Tile (south Selayar) resided Ance Bangko, Ance Kuno and Ance Ganjo; interviews Masariki and Lie Hui Kie.

82 Brookfield, H.C., Colonialism, Development and Independence. The Case of the Melanesian Islands in the South Pacific (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1972), p. 78Google Scholar.

83 Reyne, , “Cocospalm”, p. 521Google Scholar.

84 Ibid., p. 519; Dol, , “Coprafonds”, pp. 86–91Google Scholar; S r812 No.1309/15 13/3/1947.

85 In North Sulawesi the trading position of the Chinese was less affected by the installation of the Coprafonds; Dol, , “Coprafonds”, p. 89Google Scholar. Interviews with H. Mas'Oed Abdaoe, 7/1/1991, and Abd. Muluk, 30/5/1991, both at Ujung Pandang.