ABSTRACT
THE JAVA SUGAR INDUSTRY WESTERN enterprise showed skill and versatility in adjusting itself to the structure of the native economy. It was alert in detecting in the traditional agricultural and social systems those characteristics which were susceptible of use in the interests of new-types of production, and because Westerners made the laws when necessary they could modify the older forms of village organisation in the service of the industries which they were striving to promote. The forms of organisation and the relationship of Western enterprise with the native economy varied widely from one type of production to another. This variation was attributable to the nature of the crop, the peculiarities of the region where its cultivation occurred and the period in history when it was introduced. From this point of view sugar is of special interest. It was one of the oldest and most important commodities with which Western traders and producers concerned themselves in the East Indies. Its production was closely integrated with native agriculture, and through their sugar interests the Westerners made their deepest penetration into the life of the villagers. The organisation of the industry was peculiar and differed from that of the main plantation crops. Even today the sugar industry retains vestiges of systems of long ago.
