ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an overview of an economic approach to the Dutch East Indies colonial problem. It point outs the profits accruing to the Dutch government and people as a result of their political control over the East Indies. A first and no mean item is the maintenance of the Civil Service in so far as it is recruited in the Netherlands and is a charge on the East Indian budget. During the three decades previous to the depression the Dutch had built up an intensive administration. This called for a large corps of highly trained civil servants. In addition to the Netherlanders in the Civil Service there are a number in the military and naval branches of the East Indian government. Western enterprises, with their greater productivity, did something to raise the native income but they did more to furnish the tax resources for a greatly intensified and expanded governmental administration.
