Social Control and Influence in Nineteenth Century Indonesia: Opium Farms and the Chinese of Java

No theory in particular informed the evolution of Dutch administrative institu tions in Java. Government emerged willy-nilly in response to immediate needs; one ad hoc arrangement followed another until precedents were established and past practice came to inform the nature of each successive elaboration. The process oc curred over centuries. This slow evolution of institutions of authority in Dutch Java encouraged collaboration with indigenous elites and a gradual adjustment to their patterns of governance. Thus, a fundamental characteristic of the colonial state in Java as it had emerged by the mid-nineteenth century was Dutch depen dence upon elite indigenous intermediaries for the day-to-day maintenance of social control and authority. As students of Java are well aware, the Dutch Colonial Ser vice was an administrative head which was fitted upon the broad shoulders of the Javanese priyayi, who continued to govern their provinces and districts under Dutch command. In a similar fashion Java’s leading Chinese watched over their people, maintaining cohesiveness and order, and in both formal and informal ways helping to maintain the calm orderliness ( rust en orde) which the Dutch so valued.