ABSTRACT
This essay attempts to place certain economic aspects of the internal peasant marketing systems of Java into a wider social context. Thus it will be suggested that the causes of the shortage of capital-one of the characteristics of an under-developed country-are not narrowly economic, but stem partly from prevailing social patterns, which affect the form in which savings are held and the goals towards which they are used. It will also be shown that larger-scale trade is usually financed and handled by Chinese who are more capable than the Javanese: the larger capital resources as well as certain advantages in trading organization and methods enjoyed by the Chinese are largely the result of their social organization; Javanese social organization, in contrast, inhibits similar developments among Javanese traders. These problems, and other inter-related problems, will be considered in the light of both the economic and the social forces operating on the peasant economy.
