Peasant Pedlars and Professional Traders: Subsistence Trade in Rural Markets of Minahasa, Indonesia 9789814379083

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Peasant Pedlars and Professional Traders

The Institute of Southeast Asian Studies was established as an autonomous organization in May 1968. It is a regional research centre for scholars and other specialists concerned wi\h modern Southeast Asia, particularly the multi-faceted problems of stability and security, economic development, and political and social change. The Institute is governed by a twenty-two member Board of Trustees comprising nominees from the Singapore Government, the National University of Singapore, the various Chambers of Commerce, and professional and civic organizations. A ten-man Executive Committee oversees day-to-day operations; it is chaired by the Director, the Institute's chief academic and administrative officer.

Peasant Pedlars and Professional Traders Subsistence Trade in Rural Markets of Minahasa, Indonesia

Ulrich Mai and Helmut Buchholt University of Bielefeld

I5ER!i INSTITUTE OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN STUDIES

This study was carried out with the financial assistance of the Stiftung Volkswagenwerk.

Published by Institute of Southeast Asian Studies Heng Mui Keng Terrace Pasir Panjang Singapore 0511 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.

© 1987 Institute of Southeast Asian Studies Cataloguing in Publication Data Mai, Ulrich Peasant pedlars and professional traders: subsistence trade in rural markets of Minahasa, Indonesia I Ulrich Mai and Helmut Buchholt. 1. Pedlars and peddling- Indonesia- Minahasa. 2. Markets- Indonesia- Minahasa. 3. Minahasa (Indonesia) -Commerce. 4. Minahasa (Indonesia)- Rural conditions. I. Buchholt, Helmut. II. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. III. Title. 1987 HF5459 I5M21 ISBN 9971-988-95-X (hard cover) ISBN 9971-988-78-X (soft cover) The responsibility for facts and opinions expressed in this publication rests exclusively with the authors and their interpretations do not necessarily reflect the views or the policy of the Institute or its supporters.

Typeset by The Fototype Business Printed in Singapore by Chong Moh Offset Printing Pte Ltd

Contents

List of Tables List of Figures List of Maps Acknowledgements

Vll Vlll

lX X

1.

Introduction (UM)

1

2.

Field-Work Methodology (HB)

6

3.

Minahasa: Some Thoughts on the Region (HB) Colonial History Social and Cultural Characteristics Economic Characteristics

10 10 19 22

4.

Kakas Village (UM) Geographical Location The Village Economy: Peasants, Traders, and Teachers Village Society and Culture: Protestantism and Village Associations Social Change and the Local Elite

27 27 31 37 42

Pasar Kakas (UM) The Scenery: Tokos, Ifarungs, and Market-Stalls The Market-Day Traders and Customers

46 46 53 54

5.

Contents

Vl

Bargaining Trading in Foodstuffs and Factory-Produced Goods Pasar Kakas within the Regional System of Market-Places Communication in the Market-Place and Local Identity

56 59 63 73

Trader Households Nona, Trader in Lake-Fish (UM) Keti, Trader in Fruits and Vegetables (UM) Dani, Trader in Foodstuffs (UM) Sarkyah, Trader in Haberdashery and Sanitary Items (HB) Robbie and Anna, Producers and Traders in Home-Made Sweets, Dodol (HB) Tine, Trader in Fruits and Vegetables (HB)

79 79 84 88 95 99 103

7.

Part-Time and Permanent Traders (UM) Different Market Engagements Unequal Security

108 108 113

8.

Trading within the Strategy of Combined Economic Sectors (UM)

122

The Efficient Subsistence Trader and the World Market (UM)

127

10.

Trading past the Market-Place: The Case of Cloves (UM)

133

11.

Socia-Economic Change and the Role of Traders in the Village (UM) The Spread of the Market Principle Social and Economic Differentiation Traders and the Elite Reciprocity, Redistribution, and the State

137 137 139 141 144

6.

9.

Bibliography

148

NOTE: Chapters marked HB and UM have been contributed by Helmut Buchholt and Ulrich Mai, respectively.

List of 7ables

1.

2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13.

14. 15. 16.

The Development of the Coffee Harvest, 1822-60 Income and Expenditure of the Colonial Government in Minahasa, 1849-52 Government Receipts from Market-Places in Minahasa,

15

1933-38

19 19 23 31 32 36

Population of North Sulawesi Percentage Employment in North Sulawesi, by Sector Income Sources of Households in Kakas Agricultural Land Use among Kakas Peasants Monthly Household Income in Kakas Landownership by Market Attendance of Traders, Kakas Market-Place Landownership and Availability of Money Income among Traders, Kakas Market-Place Availability of Money Income and Market Attendance of Traders, Kakas Market-Place Landownership by Origin of Products, Kakas Market-Place Daily Net Income of Traders, Kakas Market-Place Landownership of Traders by Daily Net Income, Kakas Market-Place Characteristics of Types of Traders Trader-Trader Relations, Kakas Market-Place

17

109 110 110 111 112 112 114 119

List of Figures

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.

Percentage of Traders by Type of Goods Sold in the Kakas Market-Place Trading Network of the Kakas Market-Place Trading Chain of Sea-Fish The Hierarchy of Market-Places Frequency of Traders in the Kakas Market-Place by Week-Day Kakas and Langoan Market-Places by Type of Goods Bought Shopping Behaviour of the Population of Kakas Means of Transportation to the Kakas and Langoan Market-Places Customers by Age Group in the Kakas and Langoan Market-Places Investment Cycle of a Larger Trader's Household Landownership among Traders Landownership among Traders (Paradigmatic)

52 62 63 64 69 69 70 72 73 94 109 110

List of Maps

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Main Coffee-Growing Areas in Minahasa in the Nineteenth Century Minahasa Population Density of North Sulawesi Kakas Kakas Market-Place Market-Places in Kabupaten Minahasa Origin of Customers in the Market-Places of Kakas and Langoan

14 20 21 28 47 67 72

Acknowledgements

This study has been generously supported by funds from the Stiftung Volkswagenwerk. We also acknowledge the support of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) with the field-work. We are particularly grateful to members of the staff and postgraduate students of Universitas Sam Ratulangi (UNSRAT), Manado, for their institutional, moral, and practical assistance. Rektor Prof. W.J. Waworoentoe, Dr L. Sondakh, and Drs R. Solangs took much interest in our field-work and extended helpful advice and information. We are glad our research project contributed to further co-operation between UNSRAT and the Sociology of Development Research Centre (SDRC), Bielefeld. We are most obliged to the people of the village of Kakas who not only provided valuable information but also accepted us with kind hospitality. Special thanks are due to J. Warouw and his family, Pendeta B. Pangaw, Dori Tarandung, P. Polii, A.T. Lakoy, N. Komaling, L. Lumingkewas, E. Palit, and Dole for their understanding, patience, tolerance, and generosity. On different occasions, the various aspects of the findings were exposed to criticisms by scholars of the SDRC, Bielefeld, and ISEAS, Singapore, and we especially acknowledge critical comments from Dr Diana Wong, Dr S. Siddique, Prof. H.D. Evers, Prof. G. Elwert, Prof. K. Sandhu, and Dr T. Schiel, which caused us to rethink our interpretation. However, we take the responsibility for the final work. We are also grateful to P. Blank for his diligent cartographic work. Last but not least, we appreciate the effort and patience of Christel Huelsewede in the typing of the manuscript. Bielefeld, Spring 1986

1

Introduction

Market-places are for circulating goods outside the traditional system of reciprocity and redistribution. At the early stages, trading that was conducted outside the village or town was made with foreigners to whom there were no social obligations, as depicted by Polanyi in the case of ancient Greece (Polanyi 1971, p. 104). The spatial separation of trade and other modes of circulating goods indeed mirrored the historic incompatibility of two different normative conceptions which constituted the basis for the exchange of goods. It was felt that the gift, to members of the same community, contained a social content inasmuch as the transfer of the gift confirmed the social bonds with kin, neighbours, and fellow villagers, thus contributing to the social cohesion and economic self-sufficiency of even smaller communities. Trading for money has always conveyed the notion of making profit at the expense of others; among friends and neighbours, it would have discredited the social content of the good (Malinowski 1922; Mauss 1966; Polanyi 1971, pp. 78-115). This notion did not apply, however, in transactions with foreigners, who were regarded as having a different set of values. When the market principle penetrates and gradually dominates various aspects of community life, the market-place comes to be a central village institution which now not only serves the trading function but also has social and cultural purposes. In Minahasa, after the abolishment of the mapalus - the mutual aid groups involved in agricultural production which also provided the arena at festivities for confirming social and cultural relations - the marketplace, in addition to other new institutions such as local associations, took on some non-economic functions. For despite economic integration and social transformation, the villagers continued to feel the need for an informal public place in which to exchange all kinds of local news, including private and

2

Chapter 1

political gossip and slander (Frohlich 1940; Bohannan and Dalton 1968; Skinner 1968). As the market-place mirrors various aspects of village life, the pasar as a research subject provides valuable access to a number of issues in the social sciences which relate to the village. However, the objective of this study, which is to assess the role of rural trade in the economic and social change of the village calls for an investigation that could hardly be restricted to the market-place proper. No doubt, the pasar contains ample information on the structure of goods offered, the typology of traders, the enterprises, the customers, even the economic and social organization of trading, market prices, credits, selling and buying strategies, the communicative and cultural aspects of the market-day, and so forth. However, to shed some light on the central question of the organization of trader households, the whole complex of social, cultural, political, and economic aspects that are characteristic of the village in general has to be taken into account. The process of extricating the economy out of social relationships (Polanyi 1971, p. 70) has been paralleled by a substantial change in the value system, which in turn has repercussions on the mode of reproduction of the individual village household in so far as households would, in case of need, receive less help from outside than during the times of an intact system of reciprocity. This is as expected with regard to any peasant household in the village, which includes peasants who engage in marketing by selling part of their subsistence surplus on a part-time basis or who complement their income by trading more regularly. These are the central questions: How does market engagement, which is considered an economic activity paradigmatic of the spread of the market principle and thus excluding specific types of social obligations, influence the social integration of traders in the village? Would traders then, depending on their market engagement, rather be agents of social and economic change, even as a local entrepreneurial bourgeoisie (Geertz 1963, pp. 73 ff.) accelerate the development process at the local level, "agents whose social position frees them from obligatory participation in traditional prestation and personal gift exchange" (Bromley et al. 1975, p. 533), or would they rather be landless peasants or itinerant traders disintegrated from their home community, and strangers in the village they trade with? Different social integration would, despite individualized reproduction in the face of commercialization, indicate different chances of getting help in times of crises and also a different extent to which traders are dependent on the market. We assume the degree of social integration or disintegration of traders can be deduced from the immaterial trader-consumer relations ranging from "atomistic", unrelated "person-to-person transactions" in which the exchange partners vary (Tax 1953; Geertz 1963, p. 28) to stable patron-client relations, possibly an extension of non-commercial contacts within the same village. We are also

Introduction

3

aware of the probability that, along with the differentiation of roles in the peasant society (Long 1977, pp. 26 ff.), there is a trend to insulate economic activities, such as trading, from expected social obligations between trading partners, subject to the proportion of subsistence production necessary to complement household income. Since material wealth, indicated by selective consumption of imported luxury goods, increasingly becomes a prerequisite for gaining political power, we will also focus on the power relations between the local elite and traders. A focal point of interest will be the way in which trader households combine the various economic sectors (Elwert 1984) as part of a "safety-first" strategy (Scott 1976, p. 11). Typical of rural markets in developing countries, most marketers (or their wives) are trading peasants who make use of the market-place as a means to complement their income, via subsistence production, cash-cropping, the occasional wage labour, handicraft, and so forth. According to Scott, the small peasant in securing subsistence production in the first place "prefers to minimize the probability of a disaster rather than to maximize his average return" (Scott 1976, p. 7) from market engagement. Scott also observes that trading, as well as handicraft, occasional wage labour, and migration for that matter, is a subsistence alternative which is taken to regularly only in cases where agricultural production drops below the subsistence level (Scott 1976, pp. 26 f.). This seems plausible in view of the lack of landownership and the shortage of land. However, we feel that trading, which often can be easily reconciled with agricultural production, especially with dove-growing (which is the predominant cash crop in the area under study), is an economic activity that, besides the communicative pleasure it provides, can be taken on without much risks to increase household income and so permits better consumption. Nevertheless, the question remains whether trading in the market-place as a complementary sector is a useful indicator of the individual household's state of prosperity or poverty or even that of the village. Indeed, special attention has to be paid to trading in terms of expenditure of time, capital, and labour on the one hand, and to the proportion of trading among other economic activities, especially subsistence production and cash-cropping, on the other. We presume that the more prominent trading becomes, that is, the less the household relies on subsistence production, the more vulnerable the trader household is to external market forces which, despite professionalism and possibly self-exploitation, may turn out to be all the more fatal because a higher amount of money is involved. Considering the links between farming and trading in rural areas, we are also interested in whether there is a discernible subsistence ethic comparable to the small peasant's risk-avoiding strategy which constitutes the basis of a moral economy of the trader. If so, trading, as an extension of agricultural subsistence production, just serves immediate

4

Chapter 1

consumption, which we call "subsistence trade". Or does the small rural market also provide opportunities to extend beyond the subsistence margin? Geertz in his influential Peddlers and Princes (1963) states that the "bazaar economy" in the Modjokuto market-place hampers development and modernization, because despite the necessary entrepreneurial virtues which he attributes to the Modjokuto small-scale traders, it is inefficient in using labour and capital. The main reason for the "basically undynamic bazaar economy" (1963, p. 17) is, according to Geertz, the traders' inability to form adequate organizations (1963, pp. 28, 47), which first of all would do away with the involution of myriads of small-scale traders tolerating each other in their common goal to share risks and security. Modjokuto is a Javanese town and things may have changed meanwhile; nevertheless, we have to rethink the Geertzian bazaar economy and the view that traders are "powerless agents of stagnation", as well as consider other roles the market-place trader may play in the context of development, for instance as an "agent of development" or as a "powerful agent of under-development" (Harriss 1981, pp. 5-18). When reflecting on the role of market-place traders in the expanding market economy, one has also to consider the part the state plays. Although the market-place as the major economic institution has facilitated economic penetration in rural areas, the market principle has outgrown the market-place proper, the process being facilitated by state intervention, such as the establishment of a special trading system for cash crops which bypass the pasar via corporations regulated by floor prices. Furthermore, state intervention in improving infrastructure for transportation and the provision of other facilities that create external economies as well as the development of a hierarchical system of market-places also contributes to expanding the market economy. The danger of including individual traits not found elsewhere is liable to occur in a case study of this sort. Although this study examines conditions in a specific village, we trust that the more relevant conclusions drawn are applicable to other rural markets in the area, particularly those in Indonesia and other Third World countries. We hope that details which are more individual in character, particularly those in connection with the household studies, will not only add colour to a fairly abstract subject but also generate some understanding in the day-to-day situation of the people concerned. A final remark has to be made on the choice of the village market. The issue of reproduction of rural trader households has hardly been dealt with so far. Geertz's and Dewey's anthropological researches on Modjokuto were conducted in a small town. They were more concerned with the various entrepreneurial aspects of marketing except for, in Geertz's case, the illustration of the role of traders in development (Dewey 1962; Geertz 1963). Generally, the bulk of the literature on marketing in small-town and village markets, however, falls into two major categories. The first, which is more geographic in character, examines the spatial aspects of the subject, which include the

Introduction

5

genesis of market-places, markets as central place institutions, the hierarchical order of market systems under the dimensions of space and time, and the marketing chain between producers and consumers. A conceptual survey of the geographic literature is provided by Bromley (1971; see also Bromley et al. 1975; Smith 1979, 1980; Anderson 1978; Chandler 1984; Gormsen and Smith 1982; Skinner 1964, 1965). Literature in the second category, however, is primarily concerned with the question of employment possibilities created by small-scale trading, often treated in connection with the informal sector in towns and cities (McGee 1975; McGee and Yeung 1977; ILO 1978; Waworoentoe 1973). Our case study is a village with a rural market which, within the hierarchy of market-places, is almost at the bottom. We have done this in order to illustrate the changing living conditions of the ordinary rural trader household where agricultural production, distribution, and consumption are combined by the individual household and where the economic transformation which usually favours the urban context is hence most intensively felt. For this purpose, findings of research work conducted in towns and cities would, of course, scarcely be useful.

= = = ==

===

2=

= = ==

=

==

Field-Work Methodology

The field-work was carried out in the village. of Kakas, District of Minahasa, from August to October 1983, preceded by two months of orientation work in August and September 1982. Kakas was chosen for various reasons: Firstly, the village has one of the oldest market-places in the region founded by the Dutch in the second half of the nineteenth century, hence permitting an insight into the historical development of a market-place since colonial times. Secondly, Kakas is one of the major "clove villages" in Minahasa, and the impact of cash-cropping, including the accompanying commercialization on the local economy, society, and culture could well be investigated here. From observation, socio-economic differentiation within the village seemed to have proceeded relatively far. Thirdly, the village peasantry has traditionally lived on a multiplicity of subsistence activities, such as fishing on Lake Tondano, growing rice in well-irrigated sawahs near the lake, and the cultivation of ladang in the mountains, thus providing the prerequisites of subsistence safety for the introduction of cash crops. Fourthly, Kakas is a fairly small rural market - large enough to provide the occasional job opportunities to peasant pedlars and to secure the necessary provision with primary goods; too small, however, to withstand the economic dominance of the more attractive larger markets in nearby Langoan, thus reflecting the ambivalent quality of the typical rural market-place in the area. We stayed in the house of one of the larger farmers in the village, only a few minutes' walk from the market-place. The people accepted our presence in the village and were very co-operative and friendly. During the first two weeks of our stay we visited the market-place on each market-day. Only on the first few market-days did we attract a crowd; we were perceived as part

Field-Work Methodology

7

of the local market scene thereafter. The very informality of meeting people in the market-place made it easy to get in contact with not only traders but also informants from peasant households. We participated as far as possible in the village life, attended church services, meetings of local associations, sport events, and so forth. We received invitations from peasant families, which were usually addressed to only one of us as, despite close co-ordination, we decided to carry out field-work activities individually. Generally, the role ascribed to us by most villagers was that of educated Europeans with special interest in the local market. In our household studies, however, closer personal contact developed quite naturally. Consequently, we were perceived as both friends and strangers (in the sense of Schutz 1972), with their respective implications for the field research situation. 1 During the first few weeks of field-work, we visited the market-place, talked to traders and customers, and observed the market scene. This method, usually referred to in the literature as "participant observation", has been our modus operandi in the field research. 2 Our early observations already provided first results on how the institution "market" works, how consumer-trader relations develop and in particular on how to differentiate between the groups of traders. It was obvious that traders were not a homogeneous group. Differences ranged widely in quantity and quality of commodities offered, the amount of time traders usually spent in the market-place, and so forth. But a more precise distinction of traders would only be possible on the basis of further data collection. Although we were aware of the questionable usefulness of standardized questionnaire surveys (Kohli 1978), particularly when used in a cultural environment different from that of the European, we nevertheless decided to apply this method to obtain basic information on the market and details about traders, such as frequency of market attendance, type of goods supplied, and turnover. The standardized questionnaire survey was conducted on a Monday, which is the main market-day (pasar panas) in Kakas, with the assistance of graduate students from the university in Manado. All traders and more than one hundred customers who visited the market during that day were included. We also carried out a household survey in Tounelet, one of the five desas of Kakas, which seemed representative of the whole village. The purpose of this survey, which included all (that is, 217) desa households, was to obtain information on the reproduction of village households, which could facilitate the comparison of the ordinary peasant household with the trader household. From our preliminary data on trader classification, we then selected ten traders for the intensive household studies, which were conducted by each of the co-authors individually. For this purpose, apart from our observation in the market-place, we had intensive interviews during market hours, and we also participated in the various economic and social activities after that, such as preparing the goods for the next market-day, working in the field, and

8

Chapter 2

attending credit groups (arisans) and family gatherings. On average, a week was spent on the study of each household. Each study ended with an interview lasting at least three hours, during which questions were asked about biographies, monetary incomes, social bonds outside the family, and so forth. There had hardly been any problem getting information. Topics on monetary incomes and land property, however, seemed to be the only issues they were more reluctant to divulge. Both authors have a sufficient command of bahasa Indonesia for everyday communication. Some informants use the local dialect (bahasa daerah) which we were less familiar with. But we were assisted by members of the university in the final interviews. Some final theoretical remarks on the role of households are pertinent here. Our decision to do trader household studies arises from the obvious differences between traders in the market-place. In general there are two types of traders: those who visit the market-place regularly to sell the surplus of their agricultural produce, these being the peasant pedlars or part-time traders, and professional or full-time traders 3 who regularly go to the market to sell mainly manufactured products. While both types of traders are part of the market economy, the latter are more deeply involved in the capitalization and commoditization process. This difference, we expected, would have consequences for the structure of reproduction in the respective households and would answer our questions as to how conditions of reproduction change in trader households, depending on the degree of market integration. It has been observed that primary reproduction, that is, the reproduction of labour force, is a complex process that includes the production and processing of food, education, and housework (Evers et al. 1984, p. 24; Arbeitsgruppe Bielefelder Entwicklungssoziologen 1979; Wong 1984). However, household reproduction to a large extent depends on access to income, which is often derived from a combination of various sources of income, to meet reproduction requirements. A large proportion of the reproduction of households and families often takes place outside the market economy in the form of household subsistence reproduction (Evers 1981). While subsistence production was usually regarded as part of the traditional mode of production, scholars have recently come to realize that "subsistence production is neither a relic of the past nor a form of underdeveloped agriculture but a part and pre-condition of any economy and society" (Evers et al. 1984, p. 28). One of our objectives in the research was to identify the different sources of income in the households under study and particularly to elucidate the significance of subsistence production. There were methodological difficulties in determining the units of analysis. In particular, the definition of the exact boundary of the research unit "household" presented a problem (Wong 1984). Such difficulties redefine the boundary of the research unit: "research should not be restricted to the household as the unit of analysis but should be directed to the identification of the different units (households, neighbourhood,

Field-Work Methodology

9

village, and so on) that may be constituted for different kinds of consumption and different reproduction needs" (Evers et al. 1984, pp. 33 f.). Indeed the peasant household (viewed as a unit of consumption) often receives monetary or other support from people outside the family proper (village associations, children, relatives, and so forth). There was no necessity in our research to gather exact information on total household budget. Rather, we thought it would suffice to focus on the general differences in the reproduction of the two types of trader households, and in this respect special attention had to be pajd to the aspect of safety of reproduction as a central motive for economic decision-making.

NOTES

1. For the problem of the relations between the researcher and the researched, role assignment, and adaptation in anthropological field-work, see Burgess 1982; Devereux 1973; Malinowski 1935; Nadig 1980; Elwert-Kretschmer 1984. 2. Becker has summarized the task of the participant-observer as follows: The participant observer gathers data by participating in the daily life of the group or organization he studies. He watches the people he is studying to see what situations they ordinarily meet and how they behave in them. He enters into conversation with some or all of the participants in these situations and discovers their interpretations of the events he has observed. (Becker quoted in Burgess 1982, p. 45) 3. We use the terms "peasant traders", "peasant pedlars", and "part-time traders" as synonyms. The same applies to "full-time", "permanent", and "professional" traders.

= = = == == =

3 = ==

=====

Minahasa: Some Thoughts on the Region

COWNIAL HISTORY

There is no doubt that the era of colonialism has always represented a caesura for Third World societies. Although the impact of colonialism varies in different countries and regions, the era generally marked the beginning of far-'reaching changes for colonized societies. What is of particular interest here is the destruction of the "natural economy", that is, an economy with dominating use-value production and limited trade relations, in favour of the development and establishment of the market economy. The most important mechanisms of this destruction since the era of colonialism have been: • the intervention of the colonial state; • the internal monetization of traditional social relations; • an increasing dependency on industrial products in place of traditional self-produced goods; • the development of new tastes and needs; • the destruction of the ecological equilibrium; • the disintegration of the domestic economy, social obligations, and traditional forms of reciprocal and collective labour. (Elwert and Wong 1979; see also Evers, Clauss, and Wong 1984) This does not mean that all these mechanisms have worked harmoniously. They were also dependent on other influences, such as the pre-capitalist social background and existing internal structures. For a better understanding of the significance of this process of social

Minahasa: Some Thoughts on the R egion

11

transformation, we refer to the work of Polanyi (1971, 1979). Although his research is focused on the European context, particularly with regard to the explanation of the economic crises at the beginning of the twentieth century, a modified use of his theoretical reflections on so-called underdeveloped societies seems justifiable. His main issue was the potential destruction of social structures in the market-establishing process. He pointed out that the market principle as it was established in Europe during the eighteenth century effected a particular transformation of all societies concerned. It is one of Polanyi's fundamental statements that in pre-capitalist societies the economy was always embedded in social relations, while with the domination of the market principle, social relations are embedded in the economy. This means the establishment of the market principle as such results in a reversal of the relations between society and the economy. Ports of trade (Polyani's name for a settlement which acts as a control point in trade between two cultures with differently patterned economic institutions, in Humphreys 1969, p. 191) were hardly the cause of social change, because, isolated as they were, they were not linked to a system of tributary local markets. Although the market principle reached the colonial societies later than the European ones, the result was as important: The catastrophe of the native community is a direct result of the rapid and violent disruption of the basic institutions of the victim (whether force is used in the process or not does not seem altogether relevant). These institutions are disrupted by the very fact that a market economy is foisted upon an entirely differently organized community. (Polanyi 1978, p. 220)

With this Polanyi, of course, did not maintain that markets or even trade did not exist before the extension of the capitalist market principle. 1 For the history of trade in the Southeast Asian context in general, we refer to the work of van Leur (1967). His Indonesian Trade and Society illustrates the significance and tradition of trade in Southeast Asia: Trade came and went with the alternating semi-annual winds, and the nature of the trade staying over was just as much determined by that periodicity. It was spread out over the many markets of Indonesia and concentrated at a few stapling points. The markets were isolated from each other and showed important variations in structure, while the amount of goods turned over was small, even at the largest of them. (van Leur 1967, p. 135)

The often-formulated thesis that trade in Southeast Asia was a product of European influence was unequivocally disapproved. Therefore, according to Wertheim, van Leur has shown "how much the 'colonial historians' have tended to overestimate European preponderance" (Wertheim 1954, p. 171). The political European influence depended on armed forces and not on economic power. Van Leur's findings are compatible with those of Polanyi and underline his arguments. Like Polanyi too, van Leur assumes that the changes

12

Chapter 3

that the nineteenth century brought about, however, were important and drastic. But there is still the question of how communities were organized before this impact happened and how the development of the market economy took place. The following discussion of historical Minahasa will therefore focus mainly on the establishment and further development of the market principle, that is, the question of how the market economy spread under the impact of colonialism. During pre-colonial times in Minahasa, the most important political and cultural unit was the walak, a territorially based clan or group of clans (Schouten 1981, p. 12). It consisted of a main village with a number of satellites around it. All village heads were subordinate to the walak chief called ukung or later hukum besar. Besides other obligations, the hukum besar was both, the guardian of the adat (traditional law) and the organizer of the mapalus (reciprocal help group) . The hukum besar always had to be a person genealogically close to the first cultivators (Lundstrom-Burghoorn 1981, p. 62). Before the advent of the Dutch, Minahasa had ten tribes, divided into twentyseven walaks. ' While Schouten (1976, p. 87) underlines the egalitarian character of Minahasan society, other authors stress the fact that the chiefs in pre-colonial times had already formed a rural walak-bound elite and later, with the presence of the Dutch, received new functions, titles, and privileges, and different duties (Lundstrom-Burghoorn 1981, pp. 62 ff.). The members of a walak possessed equal rights in uncultivated land (kala keran, from Iaker, "many"). Cultivated land (pasini, from sini, "alone") was owned by the cultivators and their heirs, that is, the right to pasini was passed on from generation to generation. The community did not have the right to reclaim it. Before the arrival of the Europeans, pasini was used primarily for the production of yam, bananas, and taro (Lundstrom-Burghoorn 1981, p. 29). Schouten (1981) in addition mentions rice (ladang) and maize. The first contact with Europeans took place in the sixteenth century in connection with the spice trade with the near Moluccas, when the Portuguese and the Spanish arrived in the eastern part of the archipelago. But this first contact was of no great impact for the Minahasan society. This is in accordance with van Leur's general statement on Southeast Asia: Despite the existence of Portuguese and Spanish strongholds in southern and eastern Asia, that world was not a colonial one in the sense that the Europeans were in a dominating position. (van Leur 1967, p. 165)

The Dutch, or more precisely, the Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC) arrived some one hundred years later. In 1679, a treaty of mutual assistance was signed between the Minahasan chiefs and the VOC: 2 The Minahasans could by then count on Dutch protection [against the king

Minahasa: Some Thoughts on the Region

13

of Bolaang-Mongondow] and the Dutch upon deliveries of rice and hard wood. (Lundstrom-Burghoorn 1981, p. 39)

The year 1679 was the beginning of nearly three centuries of Dutch rule in Minahasa and also the beginning of substantial changes in the economy and the social organization of the society. Although the VOC had an exclusively economic interest and had no ambition to establish a system of direct rule, the overall pattern of agricultural production partly changed during the VOC period around the end of the eighteenth century (ibid., p. 26). In former times Minahasans had grown food crops only, such as maize, cassava, and others, but later they came to grow cash crops as well. Direct and systematic economic measures were first taken by the Dutch colonial government in the 1820s, that is, some years after the British interlude (1811-16) in East India, which was a result of the Napoleonic wars in Europe. In 1822, the forced cultivation of traditionally uncommon crops (kultuurstelsel) became important. The presence of the Dutch in the archipelago cannot be attributed to philanthropic considerations - even if they themselves believe this sometimes - but particularly to their endeavour to get a maximum of profit from the colony. This became especially obvious at around 1830 when the "cultivation system" was established .... The cultivation system forced the indigenous population to cultivate certain export products for payment, which was neither adequate to the market value nor to the labour invested. The profit realized in this manner found its way, expenses deducted, into the Dutch treasury. (Schouten 1976, p. 36, author's translation)

Dutch interest was focused on the export of rice, maize, cocoa, sugar palm, and in particular coffee, and later, nutmeg. The growing of coffee especially had to be done both on kalakeran and pasini. The latter led to a direct decrease of subsistence production. Besides this, the population was forced to pay taxes in the form of rice, Heerendiensten (corvee) and, until1881, labour for their walak heads Gansen 1861). Coffee had already been known in the area since the end of the eighteenth century, but it was not until the beginning of the nineteenth century that the Dutch discovered that coffee, an important product on the world market, grew exceedingly well in Minahasa. 3 Thus in 1822, the population was forced to plant coffee for a payment of 10 florins per pikul (approximately 62 kg.). But the amount of this payment changed as often as the cultivation duties did. However, for more than fifty years, coffee became the most important export product of the area. The coffee monopoly of the colonial government existed for nearly seventy years (1824-89) (see Table 1). 4 Thereafter was a continuous and clear decrease in coffee growing. After 1890 the planting of coffee became insignificant (Schouten 1981, p. 13).

Chapter 3

14

· M.ma1h a.a in the Nmeteenth w1ng Areas m . MAP Main . C orree-Gro = C entury ,

Likupang

'

~Airmadidi

,

~ ~ Tombatu •

•Motoling

• Tompasobaru

• Ratahan

Minahasa: Some Thoughts on the Region

15

TABLE 1 The Development of the Coffee Harvest, 1822-60

Coffee Harvest Year

(pikul*)

1822 1830 1853 1854 1855 1856 1857 1858 1859 1860

80 3,000 16,000 23,000 25,262 26,900 14,682 22,866 21,580 15,010

* 1 pikul ~ 62 kg . . SOURCE: "De gedwongen koffiecultuur in de Minahasa", Tijdschrift voor Nederlands-Indie 4, no. 1 (1866): 490-91. See also Bleeker (1856).

Besides the planting of coffee and other work already mentioned, the population was forced to deliver the total harvest of coffee and other cash crops to the so-called pakhuizens (collecting camps) on the shore. But often the Minahasans preferred to get rid of the harvest by hiding it in the ground or burning it because of the low pay they received for their work and the lack of time left to care for their own subsistence production. After 1852 pakhuizens were also established in the interior of Minahasa. Resistance against the colonial government also took the form of the smuggling of cash crops mainly to the Philippines, the principal purchaser of cocoa (Stakmann 1894, p. 434). The huge harvest of 1854 was the result of a considerable increase in coffee trees and the newly established pakhuizens. During the early 1820s, currency was not yet commonly used in Minahasa. Instead, they used linen, een stapelartikel van geldswaarde (Pietermaat 1840, p. 144). The colonial government in particular paid the coffee grown by the indigenous people with linen. Regional trade, if it existed at all, was fairly unimportant. The former resident of Minahasa, D.F.W. Pietermaat depicted this insignificance of trade and ascribed it to the trade-monopoly of the colonial government. The native local trade is here of little significance because the most important products of the soil, such as rice, coffee, and gold dust have to be delivered to the government against fixed prices . .. .

16

Chapter 3

Besides a few Europeans who have established themselves in Manado, the Chinese can be considered the most important traders. (Pietermaat 1840, pp. 144 f., author's translation)

The few minor trading activities carried out mainly by the Chinese and the Arabs were concentrated on imported goods, especially linen, silk, and other Chinese articles. While exports of cash crops for the world market mainly took the route via Java, rice and other goods of lower value were delivered directly to Ternate, the centre of the spice trade. Godee Molsbergen pointed out that currency had already been in use in the late 1820s: "Since 1825 the population was paid in currency instead of linen for their coffee deliveries" (Godee Molsbergen 1928, p. 185, author's translation). But although there is little doubt that currency had been in use in Minahasa then, what is questionable is whether it was already a circulating currency. However, there are good reasons to view the early 1850s as an important step in the direction of further development of the market economy. In 1852, instead of the enforced deliveries of rice, 5 a head tax (5 florins per adult) became obligatory and an official currency was introduced. "Five guilders tax per household-head was an enormous amount especially if we keep in mind that not much currency was in circulation" (Schouten 1976, p. 40, author's translation). At the same time the colonial government founded permanent marketplaces. The colonial official, E.D. Dekker (pseudonym: Multatuli), who later criticized the Dutch cultivation system in his book Max Havelaar of de koffieveilingen der Nederlandsche Handelsmaatschapij (1974), had - in his function as Resident Assistant - to justify the new regulations imposed on the native population. Here we quote part of the declaration, which is remarkable for its ideological content. The declaration was addressed to the hukum besar, who finally had been charged with its execution. Because I do not want anyone to abuse your innocence . . . I had markets set up in many places, where everybody who needs rice can come and buy it from you at a reasonable price. . . . Keep in mind how useful and advantageous it will be for you to cultivate the rice-fields with diligence. Don't forget that you can buy clothes for your wife and children, or other things you wish, from earnings of the rice sold ... . All over Minahasa I had minor godowns set up where everybody can bring his coffee . . . so that you receive money every day and thus very conveniently pay your tax to the government. . . . In this way your prosperity will increase. Dekker, quoted in Schouten 1976, p. 40, author's translation)

In fact, the circulation of money increased considerably because of the imposition of personal taxes while endeavours of the Dutch civil servants to

Minahasa: Some Thoughts on the Region

17

establish official markets seemed to have all failed between 1850 and 1870. Gradually, however, currency became more common and in 1898 about thirtyfive villages and towns each had a regular market-place (Graafland 1898, pp. 217 ff.). The Dutch undoubtedly implemented these measures to increase profits. Rice cultivation required relatively much time while its income or profit for the colonial government was relatively small compared with, for example, coffee. Moreover, the supply of rice, for instance, for the Moluccas could be secured more effectively from a more intensive rice cultivation area like Java (notice the distinction between "Outer" and "Inner" Indonesia made by Geertz [1968]). Thus the scale of a larger share of cash crops on the world market was much more profitable (see Schouten 1976, p. 39). Of course, there is no question that Minahasa contributed largely to the enormous surplus which the Dutch secured in the Netherlands Indies (Bleeker 1856, p. 123). The income-expenditure relation had always been positive in Minahasa after the establishment of the kultuurstelsel (see Table 2). If we bear in mind that besides cash crop production the native population had to perform corv