Labor Transformation in Javanese Society in the 19

– Century

Erlina Wiyanarti

Faculty of Social Science Education,Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Bandung, Indonesia

erlina_w@upi.edu

Keywords: Free labor, social change, Javanese society in 19th - century, welfare.

Abstract: The economic history of Indonesia in the 19th - century along with the social transformations that follow it,

is important to be studied carefully. The expansion of the colonial government with the monetary economy

and the arrival of private entrepreneurs have an impact on economic development. The emerging trend of the

situation is the strengthening of interdependence between industrial and raw material producing countries;

first party political domination over the second party; the subsystem colonized country from the economy of

the colonial state. The studies regarding the history of labor development are still scarce, especially related to

the issue of free labor around the 19th - century. The research problem is generally formulated in the form of

question “how free labor developed within the economic structure of Java in the 19th - century”. The

conclusion is that the understanding of Javanese society in the 19th - century on the status of free labor has

changed gradually; the accumulation of occupation and the arrival of private entrepreneurs in the 19th -

century strengthened the emerge of the free labor group; dualistic on Javanese's economy in the 19th - century

had an effect on the position of free labor in society; the change on the political economy policy of the colonial

government in the 19th - century, regarding the labouring system did not make a significant contribution to

improving the welfare of free labor.

1 INTRODUCTION

The scarcity of studies on labor issues in Java in the

19th – century, is one of the driving factors to

undertake a more in-depth study. The focused study

is more on the development of free labor in Java.

Western penetration into Indonesian people life,

especially the island of Java in the 19th – century, has

increased along with the implementation of the

economic policy of the colonial government. The

tendency of colonial economic relations pattern is

colored by the interdependence between the industrial

and the raw material producing countries, the

political domination of the colonizing parties over

their colonies, and the growth of the colonial

economic system into the economic subsystem of the

colonies (Sartono, 1992:137). This condition affects

people's lives including in Java.

During the 19th – century, along with the

deepening influence of the West, new contracting

organizations and social forms of money-based

households have been established. If the labor in the

feudal Javanese society before the 19th – century had

no commercial economic value and was more viewed

as the completeness of devotion system, then with the

intense penetration of the Western economy after the

enactment of Agrarian Law 1870, labor gradually

entered into a market economy that has an economic

bargaining position.

The main problem of this study is “How did free

labor develop in the economic structure of Javanese

society in the 19th – century?” which described in

several research questions as follows: (1) How is the

development of the employment of Javanese society

in 19th - century? (2) How is the development of labor

in a liberal political-economic era in the 19th -

century?

2 RESEARCH METHODS

This research focuses on the imaginative

reconstruction of the historical phenomena of the

economic development of Javanese society in the

19th - century, in particular, the issue of free labor

critically and analytically based on historical sources

and using the historical method. The design

developed in six stages as follows: (1) Select a topic,

(2) Investigate all relevant evidence; (3) Make a note;

(4) Evaluate critically all evidences (source

264

Wiyanarti, E.

Labor Transformation in Javanese Society in the 19th – Century.

In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Sociology Education (ICSE 2017) - Volume 1, pages 264-268

ISBN: 978-989-758-316-2

criticism); (5) Construct the results of research into a

correct and meaningful pattern; (6) Presents in a way

that can attract attention and communicate it to the

readers (Wood Gray in Sjamsuddin, 2007, p. 89).

Data collection techniques, in the form of document

study, while the instruments being used is the

researcher itself. Data analysis techniques using

internal and external criticism as the basis of

historiography.

3 LABOR IN A SOCIAL-

ECONOMICS HISTORICAL

PERSPECTIVE OF JAVANESE

SOCIETY IN THE 19TH

CENTURY

In general, relations in colonial society are based on a

class system and racial distinctions (Sartono, 1990).

The structure of Javanese society before Western

penetration can be distinguished on four levels,

namely: kings, heads of regions (regent), village

chiefs and ordinary people consists of villagers

(Burger, 1983: 11). The colonial politics that

undertaken during the 19th - century have made the

social structure of Javanese society change from four

to two layers, the first is the white class and the

second is the colored group.

In the 19th - century, Java island gradually began

to enter the stage of the forming process of a market

society that serves the economy of the colonial

country. Western capitalism which relatively modern,

young and aggressive - specially built in the big cities

- coexists with pre - capitalist traditions which are old,

wise and rooted in the villages. If the Western

perspective sees work as being paid for wages, it is

not so with feudal Javanese society. The Javanese

peasant’s society perspective in the 19th - century

regarding “work” was more influenced by social

rather than economic aspects. The system of devotion

in this feudalist-despotic society is the meaning of

work, that manifested as part of devotion to its master.

So the measure of well-being is not measured by how

much income, but how much satisfaction their

masters have for their devotion, other than that

working for wages is seen as a dishonorable activity

(Boeke, 1983). On that perspective condition, it is

obvious that a wage labor is a less honorable position.

The economic structure of Javanese society, in

1800 to 1900, was marked by the increasing

penetration of Western economies based on the

modern economic joints on the economy of the

population based on traditional economic patterns.

According to Boeke (1983: 11) and affirmed by

Sartono (1992), such economies are called dualistic

economies. The features of dualistic economy

include: (a) The small mobility of production factors

in the lower layers (the mass of indigenous peasants)

that manifests itself in the limping equation between

prices and wages at the same time; (b) The difference

between city and village; (c) Penetration of household

money to household goods. The necessity of

indigenous people for money have been significantly

encouraged by taxation policies that established by

the colonial government; (d) The gradual

disappearance of village household authorities and

replaced by the centralization of the governing

economic policies of the government; (e) The

development of a mechanical life principle coexisting

with the organic life principle (often identified

inappropriately with adolescence, fatalism and

laziness). This process gradually diminishes meaning

and even destructs the organic life principle that has

diminished the meaning of the “sideline” company of

indigenous people.

The labor structure in Java until the first quarter

of the 19th - century could not be separated from the

land ownership pattern. Everything concerning

employment appears to be more clearly oriented

towards compulsory submission forms for both land

and labor, as a result of an agreement with local

rulers. Correlation of labor and land can be seen from

the way of labor mobilization by utilizing the easiness

of use rights on land and corvee labor to be used for

public and private interests of the rulers. Formal

arrangement of employment in Java started in 1818,

in the form of a prohibition of slave trade, followed

by 10 years later, in 1829 the government issued a

regulation on the freedom of the indigenous people to

grow export crops that can be sold in the international

market. Through the policy, indigenous people have

an income and will eventually increase the power to

purchase goods imported from Europe (Sartono K,

1987: 332). The concept is similar to Raffles point of

view, that with the increases in people's purchasing

power, the demand for imported goods from Europe

will rise as well. However, the regulation did not take

place clearly, because of the arrival of new Governor-

General Van Den Bosch with the concept of

cuultuurstelsel (Cultivation System).

The growing phenomenon of labor issues between

1830 and 1870 is characterized by an imbalance

between the availability of land for compulsory

planting and the availability of labor. This conditions

is especially felt in the cultivation of sugarcane

plantations and the establishment of sugar factories

that require more labor than other plants. To

Labor Transformation in Javanese Society in the 19th – Century

265

overcome these difficulties, a compulsory labor

system is implemented, and only a small portion of

the work is completed by wage labor. The

establishment of sugar cane processing factories and

the transport of plants from fields to factories can no

longer be carried out by forced labor, because of

compulsory workloads are already burdensome.

Kartodirdjo (1987) asserted that if the “gugur

gunung” or mutual cooperation of road construction

work was built, then the planting and processing was

done by compulsory labor, thus making it impossible

for them to carry out transportation and processing

work at the factory. On such circumstances, the wage

labor is known, even with relatively small wage rates.

In subsequent years, the production is increasing and

the demand for wage labor is higher. The composition

of the compulsory labor begins to displaced by the

position of the wage labor who is working with a

mutually agreed wage system. The number of

compulsory labor or forced work gradually

diminished, and was finally banned along with the

gradual implementation of the Cultivation System at

the pressure of the Humanist group in the

Netherlands. According to Burger (1954), the

abolition of Cultivation System became the beginning

of the de-feudalization process in Javanese the social

life of Javanese society, and after 1870 there was a

condition in which people were dragged into the

capitalist mode of production by the power

mechanism over labor and land.

If Cultivation System has utilized the traditional

or feudal system, and it is strongly disliked by

liberals, then to build a new political economic

policy, it is necessary to establish a system that gives

constitutional authority to private entrepreneurs to

develop their investment in Indonesia. The growing

power of Dutch private entrepreneurs and

industrialization led to the growth of financial

capitalism that focused on the necessity of the

colonial state as an investment region. So since 1870,

the need for capital investment to seek distribution in

Indonesia directed to plantation companies. For these

specifics of interest the Agrarian Law was issued in

1870 (Kartodirdjo and Surjo, 1991:80).

The enactment of the Agrarian Law 1870 means

that land liberalization as the main factor of

production and the policy has an impact on other

equally important factors of production namely labor.

The private plantation system has encouraged the

increasing demand for labor and land, as well as an

increase in the need for money so that indirectly

began to develop habits in society providing

compensation for any work in the form of money.

Thus, according to Heilbroner (1994:6), the condition

becomes an indicator of optimizing the mobilization

of labor as a dynamiter factor in the forming of market

society, in other words, the emergence of free wage

labor, according to Sartono (1987) is a logical

consequence of the forming process of market

society. The complete abolition of compulsory labor

after 1882, there is no alternative for plantation

entrepreneurs to look for wage labor in the free labor

market.

At first, labor issue is not formally regulated

because there is a presumption that in Java with

higher population density than other regions in

Indonesia, the assurance of labor availability will be

fulfilled by itself. A labor policy since 1830-1870

contained in the rules of implementing Cultivation

System which is often identified with the exploitation

of labor in Java (Mubyarto,1992:107). The

government policy on labor after 1870 is more an

anticipation of various issues that arise from capital

penetration of private plantation entrepreneurs. In

1872 the government reintroduced the Police

Punishment Regulations that impose sanctions on

termination of labor contracts (Kartodirdjo, 87: 332).

Another rule was issued in 1880 known as “Koeli

Ordonantie”, which was followed by gradual changes

in 1889, 1911 and 1915 (Tauchid, 1952:93).

The emergence of free wage labor in Java actually

began to grow since the implementation of

Cultivation System. This circumstance is more due to

the government's inability to manage the

transportation and production sector in sugar

factories. And to overcome these issues, the

government has no choice but to employ the wage

labor provision (Breman, 1983). So as with the

increase in export production, that would also

increase the need for wage labor until the end of

Cultivation System implementation. Likewise, the

needs of private plantations in Java and in the newly

opened East Sumatra also experienced difficulties in

the provision of the work force, and for that reason,

they recruited wage labor which largely from Java

(Day,1972).

The free labor group that worked with wage

system in Java in the 19th - century, in sociologically-

historically can not be separated from the pattern of

social life of the society at that time. The reason to

become free wage labor is certainly not a

generalizable reason, because of the social conditions

of society that also different. However, it can

generally be categorized into wage labor groups as

forced by circumstances, and volunteer wage labor

groups.

The free labor group that forced by circumstances,

come from landowners who are inadequate because

ICSE 2017 - 2nd International Conference on Sociology Education

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part of the land is sold or leased to the planters.

According to Kohlberg in his book published in 1909,

the income of landowners from rent or sale of land is

often not sufficient for life, take into account of the

lifestyle of some of them that likes to waste money on

non-productive activities, so to cultivate their own

land they do not have the medium, either agricultural

tools and animal for towing. Therefore they

reluctantly become wage labors on plantations. This

group is called gogol (Kohlbruge in Breman, 1987).

The second group, voluntary free wage labor that

is more liberal in scope, they will move to the area

that needs them, from densely populated areas to less

populated plantations. The plantation for the

smoothness of the production process required

moonson labor which is free to roam with the daily

wage system (dagloon). They are the so-called

traveler’s people or can be called Javanese gypsies

that remain the people without a home and nomadic

from one village to another, even from one plantation

to another. They live unattached to any village, nor do

they cling to any habits and often commit fraud

(Haselman, 1962:31-32). They originally came from

landless peasants, who later formed a community in

centralizing the barracks of settlements and uprooted

from the life of their village societies. Usually, these

groups are not permanent peasants, the coolie

barracks who are responsible for transporting,

typically employing such people. Millard in 1862

found that it was from this group that most European

entrepreneurs actually meet their needs for labor. Of

course, it must be understood if they are often absent

and screw up on their works (Breman, 1987).

4 CONCLUSION

The government's economic policy between 1830 and

1870 forced the socio-economic structure of the

village to open itself wider to the development money

economy and the capitalization of land and labor

became more apparent and the increasing power of

the European bureaucracy supported by the village

bureaucracy. Javanese economy in 19th - century had

a dualistic characteristic that characterized by the

socio-political structure of traditional and semi-

feudal society, alongside with new economic

principles which built on the more open and free

socio-political structure of society. The development

of a private plantation economy under the enactment

of Agrarian Act 1870 has gradually created free labor

market and a decrease in the use of compulsory labor.

Complete abolition of compulsory labor after 1882

forced entrepreneurs to seek wage labor in the free

labor market.

The term of free labor in Javanese society during the

19th - century underwent changing process from the

placement as a less respectable profession within the

old tradition, significantly changing into a developing

promising profession. Nevertheless, what has not

changed significantly is not in the view point of the

term free labor as a profession, but in the aspect of

motivation or encouragement to become free labor.

Until the end of the 19th – century, the urge to become

free labor was more motivated by the helplessness of

the labors in choosing and determining work. The

emergence of moonson labor provides big

opportunity for the growth of free wage labor. The

increasing of opportunity to become free labor did not

run parallel with the increase of Javanese peasant's

welfare. Yet, this study has proved that the growth of

free labor from 1800 to 1900 shows a significant

development in the economic development of

Javanese society.

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