#it's no surprising that a western animation company that has a monopoly on almost most franchises supports the dark side

[ryuunosora]

Disney's bias to the Dark Side is certainly noticeable...

[afishtrap]

This article deals with the introduction of European wind‐ and watermill technology by the Dutch in Asia, and it links this development to the gradual shift from a trading empire to a territorial state. The article evaluates how this technology fitted in with Asian technologies, why the Dutch trading company invested so much money and energy in keeping the new technology working, and how this technology had to be adapted to local circumstances, particularly to the new physical environment. It also looks at indigenous reactions and the role of indigenous labor.

Boomgaard, Peter. “Technologies of a trading empire: Dutch introduction of water‐ and windmills in early‐modern Asia, 1650s–1800.” History and Technology: An International Journal. Volume 24, Issue 1, 2008. Electronic.

The territory of what was to become Batavia had not been conquered because of the natural resources to be found there. Its importance lay in its strategic location as a port-of-trade. Compared to the tiny spice-producing islands of Ambon and Banda, Java was a much bigger and also more important place, despite the fact that it did not produce spices. Instead it produced other very important trade items – rice and timber. Rice was needed to feed Batavia, Ambon and Banda, Palembang and Padang (both Sumatra), and occasionally places such as Malacca (Malay Peninsula) and Ceylon. Rice was also needed to feed the VOC fleet. Timber, particularly teak, was necessary for ship building and repair, essential, therefore, for the survival of the VOC fleet. In addition timber was used for the construction of houses, warehouses, ‘industrial’ establishments, fortifications, bridges, and sheetpilings of sea walls, and the banks of rivers and canals.

Ceylon’s importance lay mainly in its production of cinnamon. In terms of surface area, Java and Ceylon were the main VOC conquests, which gave them a special place in the VOC administration. The VOC regarded these regions as ‘its own’ territories, where they were inclined to concentrate their European personnel, their strategic investments and their agricultural experiments. All other VOC establishments were either smaller conquests (Ambon, Banda, Malacca, Makassar), or just trading posts.

Before the arrival of the Dutch, there were probably two types of mills in Indonesia, indigenous hand-mills and introduced mills driven by animals. The Indonesian word gilingan may refer to either type.

It is highly likely that the Chinese introduced the animal-powered mill. These mills were to be found whenever Chinese entrepreneurs either dominated the cultivation of a product, or the trade, or both. This was the case (locally) with sugar, peanuts and rice. Sugar was already being cultivated and processed by Chinese in Java prior to the arrival of the Dutch, and up until the last years of the eighteenth century they had a near-monopoly in both cultivation and trade, most of which was located around Batavia. There were two types of mills driven by (water) buffaloes – small, portable wooden mills driven by one or two animals, mainly to be found around Jepara (northern Central Java), and the larger, stationary structures encountered around Batavia, with a much larger capacity. In 1710, for instance, there were 130 of these larger mills in the Environs of Batavia. However, in 1798, there were over 1000 smaller mills around Jepara.

Peanuts in Java were almost certainly introduced by the Chinese – the Indonesian word for peanut is kacang cina. Both the cultivation on a commercial scale around Batavia and the trade in peanut oil and its derivative, the ‘cakes’ of pressed peanuts that remain when the oil has been taken out, to be used as manure, were entirely in the hands of the Chinese inhabitants of the Environs of Batavia. So were the animal-powered mills employed to produce the oil, which were probably introduced after ca 1750. Around 1780 there were 50 such mills in and around Batavia. Finally the – animal-powered – rice mills should be mentioned. In this case it is explicitly recorded that the Chinese introduced them to the Environs of Batavia, around 1750. Here, the cultivation of the crop was not in Chinese hands, but largely in that of the indigenous population (Sundanese, Javanese). However, the rice trade from the production areas in western Java to the city of Batavia was largely a Chinese affair, as was the milling of rice. Some 200 mills are mentioned around 1780, but by 1795 this number seems to have dropped to 100.

So it would appear that the Chinese introduced animal-powered mills to Java – perhaps developing them further – prior to the arrival of the Dutch, and went on doing so until far into the eighteenth century.

Gunpowder was of utmost importance to the VOC. All its large ships (‘Indiamen’) carried cannon, and had to use them frequently. When the VOC acquired establishments all over Asia, and later on became a territorial ruler in various areas (Sri Lanka, Moluccas, Java), these places had to be defended with cannon too. Moreover, gunpowder was needed for the guns and pistols used by its soldiers and sailors. Thus, it should not come as a surprise that the historical sources regarding the VOC mention gunpowder-mills regularly. The first Dutch fleet to reach the Malay world, a few years before 1600, found gunpowder in Banten (western Java) that had been produced by the powder-mill of Malacca, at that time in Portuguese hands. We do not know what type of mill this was. It is possible that gunpowder was being produced in Java prior to 1600 – Javanese armies did have muskets after all – but documentation on this is lacking.

We are reasonably well informed about the types of mill we are dealing with and about the chronology of their construction. In 1629, as mentioned earlier, there may have been a powdermill in Batavia, but perhaps there were only plans to build one, and we hear nothing more about it. In 1654 it was decided to employ English and Portuguese prisoners in Batavia for the production of gunpowder. Gunpowder is a mixture of charcoal, saltpeter, and sulfur, and the stench emitted by the latter two substances was probably so insuperable, and the production process so dangerous, that free labor could not be obtained, a point to be dealt with in more detail shortly. At that time the production of gunpowder in Batavia was apparently purely manual labor, because in the same year the High Government (as the Governor-General and Council called themselves) decided to build two buffalo-driven mills instead. The first one of these mills seems to have been operating in 1655, but already in 1657 the decision was taken to switch from buffalo- to waterpower, and one watermill was producing gunpowder in 1658. The two mills were relocated to the Molenvliet.

These powder-mills, and many other water- and animal-driven powder-mills the Company would erect in Asia, are commonly found in the sources because the mills had a tendency to blow up. It was a problem that would haunt the High Government probably as long as the mills existed, as it frequently involved both the death of people and the destruction of capital investment. By 1661, the Governor-General and Council, therefore, ruled after the first series of explosions that powder-mills from then on would be operated by slaves, who were not so dear to the Company (this was not an age to mince words), and who were also less expensive than Dutch people. In 1662 extensive regulations for the powder-mills were issued, in which the use of fire and tobacco smoking in the mills were forbidden. Only in 1706 was it also forbidden to use fire in the proximity of the mills, while the owners of buildings close to the mills had to replace thatched roofs with tiles or demolish their building.

However, at the same time, the High Government was also experimenting with technical solutions. Already in 1654, and again in 1687, wooden and stone pestles were used instead of millstones, for which the term stamp-mills was employed. During another bout of exploding mills between 1707 and 1709, there was a discussion on copper mortars and pestles vs millstones, on various types of millstones (from Coromandel vs those from the Republic), and on the wisdom of working with a copper runner (the upper millstone) and bed-stone (the lower millstone). In 1710, Governor-General Abraham van Riebeeck personally inspected all the powder-mills. However, the mills, of which there were seven in Batavia by 1712, went on blowing up, so the experiments continued.