ABSTRACT
The Dutch introduced the caffea arabica into Java at the end of the seventeenth century, and the natives quickly took up the cultivation of what proved to be a remunerative product. In the nineteenth century coffee was one of the most important crops to which the cultuurstelsel was applied, and it came to be known as the successartikel of the system. 1 Since the beans, unlike sugar cane, required comparatively little preparation before export, the government was not obliged to employ contractors to deal with the cultivators, and the organisation of the industry therefore remained simple. The cultuurstelsel in this industry was soon extended beyond Java; for example, from 1847 onwards the chieftains in parts of Sumatra were compelled to supply the government annually with fixed quantities of the commodity," Coffee cultivation was also introduced into the Celebes and there the government had a monopoly of its export. In Java the coffee was never grown exclusively for government account. In 1830 it was produced on the P. and T. Lands," and even at the time when the cultuurstelsel was the normal system for the production of export crops, coffee was grown by private concerns either on land leased from the government or on estates in the princely territories. In 1870 exports of estate-grown coffee amounted to 13 million florins compared with 31 million florins of exports on government account.'
