Note 62 — Chapter V

By an official statement of the quantity of sugar manufactured at Batavia and the various residencies of the island of Java, from the year 1779 to the year 1808, it appears that

In the year 1779 it was 30,131 píkuls.

In the year 1800 106,513

In the year 1801 107,498

In the year 1808 94,903

that during the first fourteen of these years, the quantity made and delivered over to the Company for export to Holland, Persia, &c. amounted to 642,234 píkuls, or to an average of 47,874 annually, two of these years being almost entirely unproductive, on account of the non-payment to the manufacturers of money, to enable them to carry on their business. During the latter half of the period, or from 1794 to 1808, the quantity manufactured and delivered over to the Company amounted to 917,598 píkuls, averaging 65,542 annually. All the sugar for export, during this period, as stated in the text, was delivered over at fixed rates to the government, and was placed under laws of the strictest monopoly. To shew the great practicability of an increase to almost any extent, we may adduce the sudden start in the supply occasioned by the American demand in 1800. In no preceding year had this article of produce been delivered over to the Company to a greater amount than 67,552 píkuls, and in that year the quantity sold at Batavia to Americans alone, amounted to 91,554, and for the subsequent years averaged 100,000 píkuls, and sold for 900,000 Java rupees, or 11,000l. sterling. The principal part of this was manufactured at Batavia, the quantity supplied by Jawâna, Japâra, Chéribon, Surabáya, and Semárang, being but proportionally small till 1803, when Japára contributed to the exports of the island in this article 12,219. In 1804, the same province supplied 21,175 píkuls. The disadvantage under which the manufacturer laboured, by forced deliveries at inadequate rates, need not be here insisted on, though it must be taken into the account in any estimate of the attainable increase of the manufacture.