American Business Interests in the Indonesian Republic, 1946-1949

Americans had little knowledge of prewar Indonesia, and most of the contempo rary literature on that far-flung archipelago consisted of some travelogues and a few scholarly articles.1 Yet, many Americans were aware of the strategic and eco nomic significance of this rich Dutch colonial possession. Thus American corpora tions, such as Standard Oil of New Jersey and US Rubber, had invested heavily in Sumatra, while General Motors and Goodyear had established factories on Java. Total American investments in prewar Indonesia amounted to about 7 percent of all foreign investments, a not inconsiderable amount although small in comparison with British and Dutch investments. Furthermore, Americans purchased a large number of valuable commodities from Indonesia in the late 1930s, such as rubber, tea, qui nine, etc. Thus, the United States received 48.7 percent of its latex, almost all of its quinine, 90 percent of its kapok, 84 percent of its palm oil, 80 percent of its its cigar wrappers, 96 percent of its tea, 74 percent of its copra, 81 percent of its raw green coffee, and some 8 percent of its tin from the Netherlands Indies. In 1939 the United States took about 20 percent of total Indonesian exports, a figure that increased to about 30 percent during the first two years of World War II. Total value of Indonesian export to the United States in 1939 was $92,971,000; in 1941 this figure was $241,638,000. 2