European traders, however introduces two powerful inducements to exertion.
Spirits or opium is a temptation too strong for most savages to resist, and to
obtain these he will sell whatever he has, and will work to get more. Another
temptation he cannot resist, is goods on credit. The trader offers him gay cloths,
knives, gongs, guns, and gunpowder, to be paid for by some crop perhaps not yet
planted, or some product yet in the forest. He has not sufficient forethought to
take only a moderate quantity, and not enough energy to work early and late in
order to get out of debt; and the consequence is that he accumulates debt upon
debt, and often remains for years, or for life, a debtor and almost a slave. This is
a state of things which occurs very largely in every part of the world in which
men of a superior race freely trade with men of a lower race. It extends trade no
doubt for a time, but it demoralizes the native, checks true civilization—and
does not lead to any permanent increase in the wealth of the country; so that the
European government of such a country must be carried on at a loss.
The system introduced by the Dutch was to induce the people, through their
chiefs, to give a portion of their time, to the cultivation of coffee, sugar, and
other valuable products. A fixed rate of wages—low indeed, but, about equal to
that of all places where European competition has not artificially raised it—was
paid to the labourers engaged in clearing the ground and forming the plantations
under Government superintendence. The produce is sold to the Government at a
low, fixed price. Out of the net profit a percentage goes to the chiefs, and the
remainder is divided among the workmen. This surplus in good years is
something considerable. On the whole, the people are well fed and decently
clothed, and have acquired habits of steady industry and the art of scientific
cultivation, which must be of service to them in the future. It must be
remembered, that the Government expended capital for years before any return
was obtained; and if they now derive a large revenue, it is in a way which is far
less burthensome, and far more beneficial to the people, than any tax that could
be levied.
But although the system may be a good one, and as well adapted to the
development of arts and industry in a half civilized people as it is to the material
advantage of the governing country, it is not pretended that in practice it is
perfectly carried out. The oppressive and servile relations between chiefs and
people, which have continued for perhaps a thousand years, cannot be at once
abolished; and some evil must result from those relations, until the spread of
education and the gradual infusion of European blood causes it naturally and
insensibly to disappear. It is said that the Residents, desirous of showing a large
increase in the products of their districts, have sometimes pressed the people to