ABSTRACT
The comparative study of colonial labor regimes is as old as colonialism itself. In the age of formal imperialism colonial powers were looking for ways of mobilizing the resources of the areas conquered in Asia and Africa to their own benefit. Specialists of the time were on the lookout for successful examples in neighboring European colonies and sometimes their findings resulted in books which are still well known (Day 1904; Furnivall 1948). To what extent colonial states were really successful in extracting surplus from their ventures overseas is a matter still discussed by historians today (Vanthemsche 2007; Maddison 1989). The long-term consequences of colonial rule, especially in the form of structural deficiencies leading to enduring poverty, have also been a topic of continuous expert debate (Rodney 1981; Austin 2008; Booth 1998). As part of the recent upsurge of world history or history of interconnectedness and entanglement, questions of how colonial states mobilized labor have reemerged (van der Linden 2008). Within the framework of global labor history a comparison between the Netherlands Indies and colonial Congo seems particularly promising, since the two are genealogically connected. It is a matter of fact that King Leopold II of Belgium got his inspiration for exploiting the Congo from the Netherlands Indies. The book by J.W.B. Money, published in 1861, on the Cultivation System in Java inspired him to set up a system of agricultural extraction in the Congo too (Stengers 1977; Wesseling 1991: 106).
