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Industrious Women in an Imperial Economy: The Cultivation System and Its Consequences

In: Women, Work and Colonialism in the Netherlands and Java

Author

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  • Elise van Nederveen Meerkerk

    (Utrecht University)

Abstract

The Cultivation System that was imposed by the Dutch on the East Indies between 1830 and 1870 constituted a classic piece of colonial exploitation. Javanese peasants were forced to employ part of their land and their labour for the cultivation of cash crops such as sugar, coffee and indigo for the European market. While the consequences of this system—both for Java and the Netherlands—have been much debated, the effects of the Cultivation System on women’s work have seldom been investigated. This chapter argues that Javanese women’s work was crucial for fulfilling the increasing labour demands of the system. Moreover, it contends that the Cultivation System not only drastically influenced women’s work in Java, it also, through the vast remittances from the colony to the metropole, impacted—although more indirectly—gender-specific work patterns in the Netherlands. All in all, colonialism shaped, and was shaped by, women’s participation in the household economy in both parts of the Dutch Empire, albeit in increasingly contrasting ways.

Suggested Citation

  • Elise van Nederveen Meerkerk, 2019. "Industrious Women in an Imperial Economy: The Cultivation System and Its Consequences," Palgrave Studies in Economic History, in: Women, Work and Colonialism in the Netherlands and Java, chapter 3, pages 85-126, Palgrave Macmillan.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:palscp:978-3-030-10528-0_3
    DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-10528-0_3
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