IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ucg/wpaper/0049.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Coins as gauge for growth: VOC- doits to probe Java’s deep monetisation, 1700-1800

Author

Listed:
  • Alberto Feenstra

Abstract

During the eighteenth century the VOC imported over a billion small copper coins (doits) to Java, which is a remarkable operation for the world’s largest enterprise at that time, since these coins were unfit to pay for the company’s wholesale trade. This paper argues that the VOC responded to Java’s specific need for small coins, because people increasingly relied on the market for daily necessities and became less dependent on subsistence farming. The alternative explanations of population growth, substitution and inflation do not satisfactorily explain the increased demand for these copper doits. Therefore, this paper proposes that Java’s economy underwent a transformation, particularly after 1750.

Suggested Citation

  • Alberto Feenstra, 2013. "Coins as gauge for growth: VOC- doits to probe Java’s deep monetisation, 1700-1800," Working Papers 0049, Utrecht University, Centre for Global Economic History.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucg:wpaper:0049
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.cgeh.nl/sites/default/files/WorkingPapers/CGEHWP49_feenstra.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Parthasarathi,Prasannan, 2011. "Why Europe Grew Rich and Asia Did Not," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521168243, January.
    2. Parthasarathi,Prasannan, 2011. "Why Europe Grew Rich and Asia Did Not," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107000308, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chilosi, David & Federico, Giovanni, 2015. "Early globalizations: The integration of Asia in the world economy, 1800–1938," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 1-18.
    2. Bassino, Jean-Pascal & Broadberry, Stephen & Fukao, Kyoji & Gupta, Bishnupriya & Takashima, Masanori, 2019. "Japan and the great divergence, 730–1874," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 1-22.
    3. David Cassass, 2013. "Adam Smith's Republican Moment: Lessons for Today's Emancipatory Thought," Economic Thought, World Economics Association, vol. 2(2), pages 1-1, October.
    4. Pim de Zwart, 2012. "Population, labour and living standards in early modern Ceylon: An empirical contribution to the divergence debate," The Indian Economic & Social History Review, , vol. 49(3), pages 365-398, September.
    5. Roy, Tirthankar, 2021. "Useful & reliable: technological transformation in colonial India," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 113442, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    6. Pim de Zwart & Jan Lucassen, 2020. "Poverty or prosperity in northern India? New evidence on real wages, 1590s–1870s," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 73(3), pages 644-667, August.
    7. Roy, Tirthankar, 2019. "State capacity and the economic history of colonial India," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 100723, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    8. Bishnupriya Gupta, 2019. "Falling behind and catching up: India's transition from a colonial economy," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 72(3), pages 803-827, August.
    9. Laura Panza, 2014. "De-industrialization and re-industrialization in the Middle East: reflections on the cotton industry in Egypt and in the Izmir region," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 67(1), pages 146-169, February.
    10. Rafael Torres Gaviria, 2022. "Horsemen of the apocalypse: The Mongol Empire and the great divergence," Documentos CEDE 20533, Universidad de los Andes, Facultad de Economía, CEDE.
    11. Lucas Chancel & Thomas Piketty, 2021. "Global Income Inequality, 1820–2020: the Persistence and Mutation of Extreme Inequality [Global Inequality of Hourly Income, 1980–2020]," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 19(6), pages 3025-3062.
    12. Fenske, James & Kala, Namrata & Wei, Jinlin, 2023. "Railways and cities in India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    13. Alka Raman, 2022. "Indian cotton textiles and British industrialization: Evidence of comparative learning in the British cotton industry in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 75(2), pages 447-474, May.
    14. Bruland, Kristine & Smith, Keith, 2013. "Assessing the role of steam power in the first industrial revolution: The early work of Nick von Tunzelmann," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(10), pages 1716-1723.
    15. Broadberry, Stephen & Custodis, Johann & Gupta, Bishnupriya, 2015. "India and the great divergence: An Anglo-Indian comparison of GDP per capita, 1600–1871," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 58-75.
    16. C. Knick Harley, 2013. "British and European Industrialization," Oxford Economic and Social History Working Papers _111, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    17. Sagnik Bhattacharya, 2020. "Monsters in the dark: the discovery of Thuggee and demographic knowledge in colonial India," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 6(1), pages 1-9, December.
    18. Peter Maw & Peter Solar & Aidan Kane & John S. Lyons, 2022. "After the great inventions: technological change in UK cotton spinning, 1780–1835," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 75(1), pages 22-55, February.
    19. Bassino, Jean-Pascal & Broadberry, Stephen & Fukao, Kyoji & Gupta, Bishnupriya & Takashima, Masanori, 2015. "Japan and the Great Divergence, 725-1874," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 230, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    20. Lu, Jie, 2015. "Varieties of Governance in China: Migration and Institutional Change in Chinese Villages," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199378746.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Economic History; Money Suppply; Economic growth; Indonesia; Java;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ucg:wpaper:0049. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sarah Carmichael (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cgeuunl.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.