Andaya Pepper

27
Women and Economic Change: The Pepper Trade in Pre-Modern Southeast Asia Author(s): Barbara Watson Andaya Source: Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, Vol. 38, No. 2, Women's History (1995), pp. 165-190 Published by: BRILL Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3632514 . Accessed: 20/04/2011 12:44 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at . http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=bap. . Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. BRILL is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient. http://www.jstor.org

Transcript of Andaya Pepper

Page 1: Andaya Pepper

Women and Economic Change: The Pepper Trade in Pre-Modern Southeast AsiaAuthor(s): Barbara Watson AndayaSource: Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, Vol. 38, No. 2, Women'sHistory (1995), pp. 165-190Published by: BRILLStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3632514 .Accessed: 20/04/2011 12:44

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unlessyou have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and youmay use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.

Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at .http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=bap. .

Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printedpage of such transmission.

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

BRILL is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of the Economic andSocial History of the Orient.

http://www.jstor.org

Page 2: Andaya Pepper

WOMEN AND ECONOMIC CHANGE: THE PEPPER TRADE IN PRE-MODERN SOUTHEAST ASIA

BY

BARBARA WATSON ANDAYA

(Department of Asian Studies, University of Hawai'i at Manoa)

Abstract

Women in Southeast Asia are traditionally said to have occupied a "high status", especially in comparison with China and India. As yet, however, little research has been undertaken on the pre-modern period. This paper examines the development of the pepper trade in Sumatra during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and explores the manner

In which this new cash crop affected the position of women. Prior to the Introduction of pep- per, females dominated horticulture and local marketing. Initially pepper was incorporated into household gardens, but increased production made its growing and marketing less easily allied with domestic tasks. The arrival of Europeans accelerated the process whereby control of pepper resources fell into male hands, both local and foreign. Declining prces meant pep- per's popularity declined, but the Dutch and English East India Companies still tried to per- suade local rulers to enforce cultivation. On the east coast of Sumatra the pepper areas were far from coastal centres of control, and compulsion proved impossible. On the west coast, however, the pepper districts were closer to English posts, and the changes brought about

by forced cultivation were therefore more far reaching. Women were particularly affected, since Europeans saw plantation agriculture as a male preserve, with females occupying a

secondary position. Growing local resistance to pepper growing is normally attributed to the low returns it offered from the mid seventeenth century onwards. As a case study, this paper suggests that another element was the cultural disruption that European policies introduced, and especially the effects on the traditional roles of women in the domestic economy

Introduction

Non-specialists sometimes forget that "Southeast Asia", a term first

employed dunng the Second World War, refers to a region that to-day includes ten sovereign nations rather than a single geo-political entity'). Yet

despite its cultural variety, Southeast Asia-the "Southern Ocean" for the

Chinese, the "lands below the winds" for Indians and Arabs-has been

consistently perceived by outsiders as culturally separate from its larger Asian neighbours, in part because of female prominence in "descent, ritual

matters, marketing and agriculture" 2). Indeed, in his survey of the pre- modern period, Anthony Reid contends that the comparatively high status of women in the social system is distinctively Southeast Asian3).

1) Keyes 1992, pp. 9-20.

2) Wolters 1982, p. 5; Reid, 1988, p. 6.

3) Reid 1988, p. 146; Reid, 1988a.

? E.J. Brill, Leiden, 1995 JESHO 38,2

Page 3: Andaya Pepper

166 BARBARA WATSON ANDAYA

While similar comments are also made about contemporary Southeast

Asia, feminist scholars in the social sciences have warned against unqualified generalizations, pointing to the ways in which women's

"autonomy" and "freedom" may differ according to specific cultural norms and socio-economic status4). The implications of these discussions, however, are rarely apparent in historical studies on Southeast Asia, where research on women has been extremely limited and has concentrated almost

exclusively on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Although the "high status" of women in pre-modern times has become a truism in the literature, there is an urgent need for this generalization to be tested by more detailed work that compares different areas and traces shifts over time.

Research on other pre-industrial societies where females have enjoyed a

relatively favoured position has frequently concluded that women's

"status" is directly correlated with the degree of control they wield over economic resources, and the value placed by the community on the work

they perform5). Certainly, the scattered glimpses of early Southeast Asia that have survived do comment on the commercial independence of women, and such sources are often cited as evidence of a "high status" which

prevailed through the entire region. The imperial Chinese envoy, Zhou

Daguan, who visited Cambodia in the late thirteenth century, was struck

by the fact that "the women. .take charge of trade", while a century later another emissary recorded that in the country of Hsien-lo (Ayudhya, in

Thailand) most men, from the king down, entrusted "all trading transac- tions, great and small" as well as other important decisions to their wives6). And like earlier Chinese visitors, western European men in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries remarked on the participation of females in small scale trade. In most areas, as in the Moluccas, "it is the women who

negotiate, do business, buy and sell" 7).

Throughout Southeast Asia women also played an important role in agri- cultural production, a feature which sets the region apart from many other societies where the introduction of grain crops, herding and ploughs saw men dominating agriculture with women's tasks becoming secondary8). The maintenance of large animal herds is not typical of Southeast Asia, however, and the digging stick was much more widespread than the plough

4) See further Wolf 1992, pp. 55-56. 5) Estenck 1982, p. 1, Brown, 1970, 157, Blumberg, 1976, pp. 19-20; Howell 1986, p.

199 6) Chou 1967, p. 34, Mills, 1970, p. 104. 7) Galvio 1971, p. 75; see further Reid 1988a, p. 632. 8) Ehrenberg 1989, p. 81.

Page 4: Andaya Pepper

WOMEN AND ECONOMIC CHANGE 167

as an agricultural implement. Throughout much of the region the place of rice as a staple was a further factor in maintaining the position of women. In China it has been shown that women's labour is more significant in rice areas than in those that produce wheat, and the same pattern was enhanced

in Southeast Asia because a low population meant female work was essential for planting, weeding and harvesting In colonial Java, for example, both

irrigated and upland rice cultivation consistently required more work from women than from men 9).

Nonetheless, the involvement of females in economic activities is not by itself sufficient to demonstrate a distinct Southeast Asian pattern. Cross- cultural comparisons, such as the classic study by Ester Boserup, suggest that the economic role of women in Southeast Asia is not unique, and is related historically to a pattern of "female farming" found in other societies like those of North America and Africa'1). What does make the Southeast Asian region rather distinctive is the interlinkage between the prominence of females in marketing and agriculture and other aspects of the social and cultural matrix that also advantage women, such as the widespread occur- rence of bilateral descent, and the complementarity of male-female roles in

indigenous ritual. In contrast to the requirement for a dowry in much of

India, for example, marriage exchanges in Southeast Asia are generally reciprocal or may entail greater expenditure from the groom's side. A female child thus does not represent a greater financial burden for her

family than does a male child "). Furthermore, in Southeast Asia the

patriarchal views of the world religions were considerably modified by the

vitality of indigenous religious beliefs, with their emphasis on women's

participation12). When these economic and cultural factors are considered

together, it should not be surprising to find indications of female influence

reaching beyond the purely domestic sphere. Tenth-century Javanese inscriptions, for instance, indicate that village women entered into con-

tracts, incurred debts, owned property; they also took an active part in

ceremonies connected with the granting of land for freehold domains. Women could either inherit or acquire titles In their own right, and there is evidence that they took a prominent part in village decision-making'3).

Modern scholarship on gender relations has established that women who

9) Davin, 1975, pp. 247-248; Stoler 1977/78, pp. 77-78; Locher-Scholten 1992, p. 94. 10) Boserup 1970, pp. 16-19 11) Errinngton 1990, pp. 3-5. 12) For further discussion see Uno 1991, p. 30; Ta 1981, Andaya 1994. 13) Locher Scholten 1992, p. 83; van Setten van der Meer 1979, pp. 94-96; Barrett Jones

1984, pp. 96-98.

Page 5: Andaya Pepper

168 BARBARA WATSON ANDAYA

retain control of their income are more likely to gain not merely economic

autonomy but personal confidence 14). Such conclusions have clear implica- tions in discussing early Southeast Asian evidence, for the ease with which women could end an association with one man and initiate another con-

sistently attracted attention from outside observers. Zhou Daguan's remarks on Cambodia clearly indicate that he considered this society to be

very different from his own. "When a husband is called away on matters of business they endure his absence for a while; but if he is gone as much as ten days, the wife is apt to say, 'I am not a ghost; how can I be expected to sleep alone?' "15) Similar observations, ranging from surprise to outright distaste, form a recurring theme in descriptions of pre-modern Southeast Asia. As an early Spanish observer remarked in the Philippines, "Mar-

riages last only so long as harmony prevails, for at the slightest cause in the world they divorce one another" 16). Contemporary research has demon- strated the tenacity of female autonomy in Southeast Asia, despite extensive social transformations resulting from industrialization and urbanization. In

fact, such economic shifts sometimes seem to reinforce cultural elements rather than changing them. Female factory workers in Java are thus more

independent than their East Asian counterparts, despite their meagre earnings 17).

On the other hand, we should not assume that economic and cultural pat- terns remain unchanged over time. In colonial Java, for instance, gender divisions in regard to rice cultivation were not necessarily applied to other

crops like corn, peanuts and sugar, especially when these were grown primarily for the market. Although female workers still had specific tasks, commercial agriculture was dominated by male labourers18). In this regard Southeast Asia appears to typify a pattern that has been well-documented in numerous other societies. Nonetheless, we have yet to explore the effects of changing economic forces on women's lives in earlier times, and here Southeast Asia may well provide a variety of intriguing case studies. Given that females did play an important role in local economies and were able to control many of the resources they generated, it is relevant to ask how they were affected by the expansion in world trade and the growing international demand for Southeast Asian products. What happened when incoming traders from other parts of Asia and from Europe brought with them

14) Blumberg 1991, p. 25. 15) Chou 1967, p. 25. 16) See further Reid 1988, pp. 152-153. 17) Wolf 1992, pp. 10, 254-258. 18) Locher Scholten 1992, p. 94.

Page 6: Andaya Pepper

WOMEN AND ECONOMIC CHANCE 169

assumptions about gender and work that often conflicted with women's established economic and cultural roles? How did the Introduction of new

crops where gender tasks were not dictated by custom affect women's posi- tion in agriculture and the economy generally?

One of the major methodological problems n m mnvestigating such ques- tions remains the dearth of sources, and one looks with envy at the rich material available for those working on European societies"). Written

indigenous texts, largely emanating from the courts, are naturally unconcerned with the kinds of questions raised by contemporary historians, while European documents, whether memoirs, trading records, or mis-

sionary accounts, were all produced by white males whose knowledge of women's lives was limited and whose perceptions were shaped by their own cultural attitudes. Nonetheless, it may still be possible to push the existing evidence harder, and to make greater use of the expanding theoretical and

comparative framework developed by scholars working in other areas20). One area where the sources may be more responsive concerns the trade in

pepper, the first cash crop to be developed on any scale in Southeast Asia. In examining the Dutch and English material relating to the pepper- growing areas of Sumatra, this paper attempts an exploration of possible ways in which women's lives were affected as they were caught up in an

ever-expanding world economy

Women and the Introductzon of Pepper to Sumatra

During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries a plant native to India,

pzper nigrum (black pepper), became a major export from Southeast Asia. By the end of the seventeenth century western Java, central Vietnam, southeast Borneo and the Malay peninsula had all became known as pepper- producers, but internationally the area most well-known for its pepper exports was Sumatra21). First introduced along the northeast coast around

1450, piper nigrum had gradually spread down the central spine to the southern lowlands, and when the first Dutch vessels passed through the Sunda Straits in 1596 they could see Sumatran pepper vines "climbing like

hops on high thick canes. Growing in rows like junlper-berries" 22). It was the hope of tapping this expanding source of pepper that led the Dutch East

19) See, for example, Duby and Perrot 1992; Wiesner 1993 20) Wolf 1992, p. 55; Locher-Scholten 1992, pp. 3-4. 21) Andaya 1993, p. 45. 22) Andaya, 1993, p. 47

Page 7: Andaya Pepper

170 BARBARA WATSON ANDAYA

ACEH

Melaka JOHOR

PALEAMBA

REPaJNGPalem

Bengkulen REJANmban

PASEMAH

SUMATRA SUMATRA LAMPUNG

0 100 200 300 400 km

, ,,,, o

Page 8: Andaya Pepper

WOMEN AND ECONOMIC CHANGE 171

India Company to establish posts in southeast Sumatra (Jambi in 1615 and

Palembang in 1662) and after 1682 to attempt to control the pepper of Lam-

pung through its vassal Banten. The English East India Company also maintained a post in Jambi between 1615 and 1679, and in 1685, after their exclusion from Banten, set up a residency at Bengkulen, on the southwest

coast, specifically to purchase pepper European interest testifies to the extent to which this relatively new crop

had come to be cultivated in Sumatra, which in turn indicates more than

simply climatic suitability. The popularity of ptper nigrum suggests that

initially it was easily incorporated into traditional cultivation patterns best described as horticultural rather than agricultural, in which women's work was vital. Prior to the introduction of pepper, the primary occupation of most inland communities was the cultivation of upland or dry rice. From a stable village base, family groups worked plots in forest clearings which could be some distance away, usually necessitating the construction of small

temporary houses during planting or harvesting These plots were con- tinued for a few years, and then the site was abandoned as soil nutrition was

depleted. After a period of time, when the forest cover had returned, the

plot might again be worked. In this agricultural cycle the female contribu- tion was critical because Sumatran rice cultivation was organized around the family rather than the village, and families were generally small. Men were responsible for clearing the jungle and felling the trees, but the tasks of women and children stretched over a longer period, since they planted the rice itself, tended the young seedlings, and were essential in harvesting and threshing Statistics from this early period are obviously lacking, but it is worth noting that colonial officials in Java estimated that women devoted

roughly twice as much time as men to dry-rice cultivation23). And though Europeans were exasperated by the absence of tools and draught animals in these dry rice-growing communities, it is a common feature of societies where agriculture is still largely in female hands24). Even more importantly, in Sumatra as elsewhere in the region rice was imbued with a particular cultural attachment that made its cultivation vital. If the rice crop failed

people believed they would starve, even when sago, yams and other root

vegetables were available. A golden rice plant was even said to have formed

part of Palembang's original regalia25). A second important crop grown in combination with rice was cotton.

23) Marsden 1811, p. 71, Locher-Scholten 1992, p. 95.

24) Ehrenberg 1989, p. 81, Boserup 1970, p. 35.

25) Andaya 1993, p. 66.

Page 9: Andaya Pepper

172 BARBARA WATSON ANDAYA

While lacking the emotional associations of rice, it remained very much in the female economic realm, being grown primarily for domestic use. Women planted and tended the young bushes, harvested the pods when

ripe, spun the thread, and dyed it with vegetable dyes. They then wove both the rough black pieces used for ordinary wear, and the more elaborately designed cloth required for ritual exchanges. In some areas cotton textiles were supplemented by bark cloth for daily use, but the production of this too was solely a female affair26). Any surplus women obtained from their

gardens, including vegetables and fruit, was sold or exchanged in local

markets, providing them with a small but steady income that could be used to support household activities. Indeed, traditional pantun (rhyming poems) collected in central Sumatra in later times make plain that men considered a desirable wife to be also a successful trader27).

A feature of local marketing and garden agriculture is that both are

eminently compatible with child-rearing Men may have been responsible for activities which involved greater physical strength or long separations from the family, but it was women who were the anchor of the domestic

economy. As in most pre-industrial societies the family thus formed an economic unit where the activities of the wife were as important as those of the husband. This notion of a partnership is well expressed by a women in a seventeenth-century Malay folktale who asks that she be allowed to

accompany her husband on a trading expedition, since "we women are like shoes: without shoes, the foot is ruined" 28). However, the contribution of women was measured in more than simply economic terms. The parallels between child-bearing and young plants sprouting from the earth-womb infused the agricultural process with a sexual dimension that made female

participation integral to fertility rituals. And while the cloth that women wove was certainly used for bedding and clothing, it was even more

necessary for ritual exchanges like those held during ceremonies connected with birth, marriage and death 29). A guaranteed access to rice and cloth was critical not only for the family's economic welfare but for its spiritual well-

being as well.

Important implications follow from the above comments, because

26) Andaya 1989, pp. 29-30; Marsden 1811, p. 157 27) For instance, "Serampas ke Sungai Tenang/Ke Tebing Tinggi membeli padi/Idah

berkapas, beli benang/Mandang dipuji oleh laki." From Serampas to Sungal Tenang/To Tebing Tinggi to buy rice; If there's no cotton, buy thread/You'll certainly please your hus- band. van Hasselt 1881, p. 25.

28) Winstedt 1966, p. 4. 29) Andaya 1989, p. 31.

Page 10: Andaya Pepper

WOMEN AND ECONOMIC CHANGE 173

modern research suggests that the influence women exert on household decisions is directly affected not so much by how hard they work, but on the value placed on this work. Given the role of Sumatran women as hor- ticulturists and food producers, it is fair to assume that their opinions were influential when a family decided to begin cultivating pepper. The shift would have been facilitated because at least initially pepper was grown in

conjunction with dry rice and cotton and in small amounts that were suffi-

cient for small family units to maintain30). The work patterns were similar to those that prevailed with rice and cotton: men cleared the land and women planted out the young vines, kept them clear of weeds and trained them around the prop-plants during the four to seven years before they matured. While both sexes may have been involved in picking the berries, women were responsible for drying and sifting the pepper in preparation for sale of exchange. In the early years women were also in charge of marketing their produce, for surplus pepper was seen as similar to other garden pro- ducts normally traded by females. One strain, known locally as lada jambi after the area where it was originally cultivated, was particularly suited for

marketing since it bore small quantities of berries through the entire year. The benefit women drew from trading pepper was apparant in the west Java port of Banten in 1598, when Dutch observers noted that female hawkers were selling both food and pepper to incoming merchants31).

Changing Conditions in Pepper Productzon

The nature of female involvement in pepper growing started to change, however, as its cultivation expanded in response to a rising world market. From the sixteenth century the reputation of Sumatran pepper steadily rose, and local ports along the southeast coast began to attract increasing numbers of foreign traders who came in search of greater supplies. The sources provide no clear answer as to why upland families were able to res-

pond relatively quickly to this enhanced demand for pepper However, a

partial explanation may lie in the fact that women were able to allocate their

working hours in different ways. In particular, instead of spending long hours spinning and weaving, women could now purchase attractively pat- terned cloth at low prices. This was because the principal exchange medium for Sumatran pepper was cheap piece goods made available by the commer-

30) The Hikayat Banjar, for instance, talks about ten or twenty stakes. Ras 1968, pp. 331, 375.

31) Reid 1993, p. 93.

Page 11: Andaya Pepper

174 BARBARA WATSON ANDAYA

cialization of production in China and particularly India. In economic terms, it made more sense to plant pepper and use the surplus to purchase the textiles needed for practical use and ritual activities. The cultural impor- tance of weaving meant that it still continued to be a necessary female skill among Sumatran women, but there was now less need to devote time to the production of everyday cloth.

With the spread of pepper cultivation many interior families also became

exposed for the first time to the use of money through the widespread cir- culation of lead picis, small coins first introduced by the Chinese. Following the arrival of the Dutch and English East India Companies in the early seventeenth centuries a bewildering array of other currencies began to reach the market, but interior peoples quickly demonstrated a preference for those with a high silver content such as Spanish rials. For women, this new coinage became much desired and was soon preferred to cloth as a medium of trade for pepper sales. Converted into jewellery or sewn to clothing it served as personal adornment and at the same time represented a woman's own savings which could be available for other exchanges should the need arise. Two hundred years later one observer in southern Sumatra noted that old and valued items like female collars were often made entirely of Spanish or Mexican rials as well as Dutch and English coinage, and that women were spending most of their pepper income on the purchase of silver

ornaments32). In the seventeenth century the relatively high prices offered for pepper and the Introduction of coinage similarly made it possible for interior women to accumulate a modest store of personal wealth that could be expended on themselves or their families. In west Sumatra in 1672 children in the hill districts of west Sumatra were wearing "new double stuivers" on chains around their necks33).

Despite the initial popularity of pepper growing, a historian must also be struck by the rapidity with which growers began to resist the pressure from coastal chiefs and foreign traders to increase cultivation. Women were cen- tral to this resistance, because it soon became obvious that the small family unit typical of most upland communities was simply unable to cultivate and harvest the amount of pepper demanded by coastal authorities and foreign traders. Estimates of family size are always problematic, but a seventeenth

century Malay text that may have originated in Sumatra hints at two or three children as "typical", while an Englishman in 1818 considered the

average family in west Sumatra to consist of a couple and two children34).

32) Forbes 1885, pp. 127, 135, 147 33) Coolhaas 1968, p. 786. 34) Jones 1985, p. 154, Bastin 1965, p. 179

Page 12: Andaya Pepper

WOMEN AND ECONOMIC CHANGE 175

The amount of labor available was thus not high, and while we cannot know

precisely how many plants such a family would have willingly cultivated for the market, it is useful to remember that the seventeenth-century Hikayat Banjar mentions "ten or twenty stakes" as suitable for domestic consump- tion. The continuing preference for growing rice and cotton would have also limited the extent to which "surplus production" could have been

expanded. Now, however, downstream kings began to demand much larger gardens. In 1663, for example, the ruler of Banten ordered each pepper- growing family in southern Sumatra and west Java to plant five hundred

vines35). And while this figure became established as the "traditional" size of a pepper plot, it did involve some adjustment in cultivation patterns. Lada

jambi, for instance, fell from favour in many areas because of the small size of its berries and the attention it required during the early stages of

growth36). The preferred strains matured more quickly but ripened twice

annually, which required considerable work in harvesting a large number of vines at roughly the same time. The more distant plots laid out as plan- ting expanded also meant gardening was less easily allied with domestic duties. For many families the hirng or recruitment of labourers was the

only way they could hope to support a successful garden; indeed, the ruler of Palembang regularly sent up parties of slaves to be distributed among growers37). But the clothing and feeding of slaves placed a new burden on the household economy, absorbing much of the surplus income previously available. By the 1630s pepper growers inm Jambi were threatening to replant with cotton because the price of pepper was insufficient to compensate them for the costs of maintaining slaves38).

It also became apparent that large scale pepper growing was not easily adapted to existing gender divisions in labour and marketing The promi- nence of women in petty trading in most of Southeast Asia was undoubtedly due to the fact that district markets were located within walking distance from home and family, and the transportation of produce there was not

problematic. In the pepper trade, however, the most important exchange points were the geographically distant coastal ports where the foreign traders gathered. In some Southeast Asian pepper areas, distance alone did not prevent women from taking their crop to market. In central Vietnam wild mountain horses could be domesticated and a Chinese visitor com-

35) Meinsma, p. 154. 36) Kathiithamby-Wells 1977, p. 72; Marsden 1811, p. 144. 37) Andaya 1993, p. 97 38) Andaya 1993, p. 80; Kathirithamby-Wells 1977, p. 71.

Page 13: Andaya Pepper

176 BARBARA WATSON ANDAYA

mented that "it was very common to see women go shopping or travelling on horseback 39). But without a family at home to oversee supplies they were still disadvantaged. For example, a Dutch merchant in Vietnam arranged a meeting with a female trader who had come down from the interior with

pepper She had to depart precipitously, however, because she had left two

large houses full of pepper unattended40). In most of Sumatra women faced much greater difficulties in maintaining

control over the sale of the pepper they had grown. This was especially true on the east coast, where the pepper-producing areas were many kilometres from the capital, and any trip downstream entailed long absences from home. In the nineteenth century the downstream journey from Rawas

(previously an important pepper district) to Palembang took 28 hours, with the return trip lasting between four and six days41). Added to this was the

period spent waiting while the pepper was sold or exchanged. In a society where aged parents were a rarity, few women were free to leave their

children, and it was extremely difficult to take infants on the journey because the large bamboo rafts used for transporting pepper had to

negotiate dangerous rapids and currents42). Because interior dwellers were inclined to see the bustling downstream ports as places where feminine vir- tue was at risk, a woman only ventured there in the company of male

relatives; young or middle-aged females travelling without men were almost

Invariably seen as prostitutes43). It was thus primarily older women without

family responsibilities, themselves often the widows of pepper traders, who made the journey between downstream port and upstream pepper areas. For the most part responsibility for the transport of pepper downstream rested with men44). The women who were involved in selling pepper in the coastal ports were rarely growers themselves, and were typically small

peddlers rather than bulk suppliers. The foreign vessels involved in interna- tional trade required large cargoes to make profits, and obtaining such sup- plies demanded capital; the only females with access to such resources were

wealthy court women45).

39) Li and Reid 1993, p. 125. 40) Li and Reid p. 17 41) Koninklijk Instituut Hs. 309 A.H.W de Kock, "Process Verbaal van Overgave en

Overname van Papieren, gelden enz," fo. 1. 42) Marsden 1811, p. 131, Andaya 1993, p. 19; Kathirithamby-Wells 1977, p. 67 43) As with single women passengers on boats. Andaya 1993, p. 287 fn. 33. 44) VOC 1099 Jambi to Batavia 10 Jan. 1631, fo. 142v- VOC 1083 Jambi to Batavia 3

Aug. 1624, fo. 242; 21 Nov 1624, fo. 246v 45) For example, Ratu Mas in Jambi. See Andaya 1993, p. 59

Page 14: Andaya Pepper

WOMEN AND ECONOMIC CHANGE 177

For the most part Sumatran females were thus excluded from the more

profitable end of the market, which entailed the sale of large cargoes of pep- per to foreign merchants. The same pattern, in short, is emerging as in

Europe; when a woman appears as a noteworthy pepper trader, like a cer- tain "Masatchi" in Jambi, it is as an assistant to her husband or as a widow who has inherited his interests*6). Certainly foreign men, especially Chinese, realized the importance of females as producers and were quick to obtain "wives" who could act as assistants and take responsibility for their affairs when they were absent, but such women were privileged servants rather than independent traders"7). And because the ruler normally assumed ownership of the goods of any deceased foreigner, women who married foreign men were not protected by local custom which allowed a widow to retain control of her husband's estate. If a widow were suspected of hiding the wealth of her foreign-born husband, she could suffer the most terrible punishment. When a certain Encik Ko Ee died in Jambi in 1671, his wife was forced to put her hands into boiling oil and her head was

squeezed between two planks "until her eyes nearly came out" in an effort to make her disclose where he had left his money48).

The marginalization of women in the purchase and sale of pepper became more pronounced as European men became increasingly involved in the trade. Portuguese merchants had bought pepper in Sumatra during the six- teenth century, but their numbers were small and their impact on local

society negligible. However, through the seventeenth century the Dutch and English East India Companies sought to negotiate contracts with rulers and chiefs on both the east and west coasts in order to secure a monopoly of pepper sales. Inevitably they became more involved with indigenous society, sometimes entering into liaisons with native women but tending to

regard them as "whores" rather than wives. In consequence, there were

recurring conflicts with local men because of European mistreatment of

females"9). Though admitting the importance of women as traders, both Dutch and English preferred to use men, either Chinese or local, as their

purchasing agents, despatching them upriver to negotiate large amounts for which they offered advance credit.

At the end of the seventeenth century royal orders from downstream rulers still recognized the family as a unit; in Palembang, for example a

46) VOC 1083 Jambi to Batavia 3 Aug. 1624, fo. 242; 21 Nov 1624, fo. 246v 47) Bluss6 1975, 30 1986, pp. 80-87, VOC 1099, Jambi Day Register April 8 1630, fo.

89v 48) Andaya, 1993, p. 265 fn. 32. 49) Andaya 1993, p. 58; Kathirithamby-Wells 1977, p. 86.

Page 15: Andaya Pepper

178 BARBARA WATSON ANDAYA

royal order (pzagem) dating from 1699 lays down that if a man fails to plant pepper, then he, together with his wife and children, will be brought downstream for punishment"S). Nonetheless, growing contact between

upstream families and downstream Muslim courts placed increasing emphasis on the male as the head and spokesman for the family It was he rather than his wife or daughters who negotiated with the male agents of both kings and Europeans. The domination of the pepper trade by men was

particularly apparent in the Dutch and English trading posts, where "menial" tasks such as sifting and bagging pepper were carried out by female slaves. Pepper sales were conducted in a commercial environment where all the visible links in the chain-buyers, scribes, weighers, captains-were men. Though females remained crucial in the actual cultivation of pepper, they had been relegated to a peripheral position in its

marketing and were consequently far less able to control the income that

pepper sales brought. When the prices of pepper began to fall it is not sur-

prising that upstream communities turned back to the cultivation of cotton. Women's resumption of weaving can be interpreted as a response not

merely to higher cloth prices but as an effort to regain some of the income they had previously enjoyed. A Dutch representative inm Jambi in 1691 com- mented that there were now "as many looms as there are households," and this trend so disturbed Batavian officials that they pressed the rulers of

Jambi and Palembang to order the destruction of all cotton bushes. To achieve this would have required the compliance of the majority of rural

women, and their quiet but determined resistance is evident in the large amounts of Sumatran cotton exported to other areasSi).

In Jambi and Palembang, where pepper districts were many kilometres from the port, representatives of the Dutch East India Company and downstream kings alike were unable to compel upstream families to grow a crop which was both economically disadvantageous and culturally disrup- tive. However, the situation was rather different on the southwest coast. Here the English East India Company established a post at Bengkulen in 1685 and proceeded to sign a succession of agreements with local chiefs in order to ensure a continuing supply of local pepper. The effects of the

English presence were far greater than those of the Dutch because west coast

pepper areas were geographically closer and thus more susceptible to con- trol. Initially the English hoped that they could use local chiefs to implement monopolies, optimistically assuming that a family could maintain two or

50) Brandes 1900, p. 495. 51) Andaya 1989, p. 39

Page 16: Andaya Pepper

WOMEN AND ECONOMIC CHANGE 179

three thousand vines. Cultivators soon made it clear that they could not

comfortably grow more than five or six hundred vines, the number tradi-

tionally invoked by adat or custom. It also became apparent that, contrary to English hopes, west coast inhabitants would not voluntarily increase pro- duction, and were often unwilling even to maintain existing gardens. Though world demand remained strong in the eighteenth century, pepper prices were vulnerable to oversupply, and were in any event much lower than a hundred years earlier52). Even when prices in Europe or China were

high, few benefits trickled down to the actual growers. The profits they enjoyed were at best meagre, especially when the slow maturation of pepper and the difficulties involved in cultivation were taken into account. As the members of an investigating committee noted in 1759, "It is with the utmost reluctance [that]. the Malays plant pepper " While Company directors continued to advocate persuasion, local officials therefore believed that only some degree of force would induce families to cultivate pepper53). Following administrative changes in 1759, the English attempted to under- take something the Dutch had never done-to introduce direct European supervision of the pepper gardens every two or three months and to punish delinquent growers. And though the policy of forced cultivation was

ultimately unsuccessful, its attempted implementation introduced changes which affected women in ways not found in any other pepper-producing area. The English-controlled areas of west coast Sumatra thus provide a case study of the clashes between cultural norms and commercial dictates that seem to be inevitably associated with a plantation economy54).

Women and the Forced Cultivation of Pepper

Though the English recognized that prime responsibility for the develop- ment of gardens lay in the hands of the family unit, women are rarely men- tioned in East India Company documents, and "the cultivator" and "the

planter" are invariably described as male. Yet the assumption that only men were involved in cultivating pepper ignored not only the importance of females in traditional agriculture, but the ways in which they were affected by continuing English efforts to increase production. At a very

52) In the early seventeenth century, the London price for pepper averaged 2 shillings halfpence per pound; in 1780 it was between 11 and 13 pence per pound. Bastin 1961, p. 22; Kathirithamby-Wells 1977, p. 184.

53) Reid 1993, p. 299; Kathirithamby-Wells 1977, pp. 59, 62; Bastin 1965, p. 64. Bastin 1961, pp. 29-42.

54) Wolf 1959, p. 136.

Page 17: Andaya Pepper

180 BARBARA WATSON ANDAYA

basic level was the question of labour supply. In their anxiety to outstrip their Dutch competitors, English policy-makers disregarded local pleas that the pepper quota be maintained at five hundred vines per family, and after 1766 this number was increased to a minimum of a thousand. A heavy burden of work thus fell on married couples, who were sometimes required to begin a new garden before the old one had been abandoned in order to maintain an uninterrupted supply. A man and woman and their children could therefore be responsible for maintaining as many as two thousand

pepper plants at one time. In addition, the English introduced new methods of cultivation which required that the ground be kept completely free of

undergrowth except during the hot season. For women such quotas were

particularly onerous because weeding was traditionally a female task and because men were frequently away on trading expeditions 55). Furthermore, unlike the Dutch, the English continued to insist on the delivery of a propor- tion of white pepper right through the eighteenth century. This increased the hours that pickers had to spent in the gardens because the berres had to be picked at the right time, and they rarely ripened simultaneously Yet

despite the amount of work involved in producing white pepper, no method could ensure a lack of discolouration, and the entire delivery might well be

rejected after much time and effort56). Bengkulen survey books listed only male cultivators, simply noting

whether they were married or single. However, the English view of the male as primary cultivator and landowner proved to be problematic when the

ownership of gardens was disputed, especially in areas of Minangkabau migration where land rights passed through the female line. The European view of work roles similarly conflicted with existing cultural patterns. Though not hesitating to use female slaves for arduous tasks such as carry- ing pepper sacks, the English considered field agriculture to be a male

activity"57). As far as they were concerned, the responsibility for growing pepper and the "ownership" of the vines rested with men. The decision in 1766 that all males over sixteen should be required to plant five hundred

pepper vines was in keeping with this view. There was no recognition of established gender divisions which applied here, in common with other Southeast Asian societies that practiced shifting cultivation. While the task of cutting down tall trees and burning scrub was male work par excellence, "an occasion for the demonstration of skill and daring, an opportunity for

55) Kathirithamby-Wells 1977, pp. 30, 57-58, 75. 56) Kathmirthamby-Wells 1977, pp. 65-66. 57) Bastin 1965, p. 144, Hanawalt 1986, p. xiii, xv

Page 18: Andaya Pepper

WOMEN AND ECONOMIC CHANGE 181

a young man to establish himself among his peers," planting, tending seed-

lings, and weeding were women's work. Without a wife it was impossible to grow pepper successfully, and it is not surprising that there are constant

English complaints of gardens "choked with weeds." Many young men

simply abandoned their gardens and left for the coast58). English requirements also infused new tensions into the complicated pro-

cesses by which marriages were arranged on the west coast. As we have

noted, pepper growing required more labour than was available to most

families, and in 1779 in one west Sumatran district it was estimated that five men were necessary to harvest a thousand vines59). A traditional solution to the chronic labour shortage was the practice known as ambil anak, or

adopting a child. By this custom daughters, usually the eldest, could marry a poorer man who would then live permanently with his wife's family and

"purchase" his bride through his own labor The English, however, discouraged and finally prohibited the custom. In their view a situation where a man's status as a cultivator meant that he was in effect a bondsman to his wife and her family created "administrative difficulties"60).

The English were also concerned to "reform" local customs because they were distributed at the low demographic growth. Were the population to

increase, they believed, it would help increase revenue and thus ease the financial difficulties of their west Sumatran posts. One reason cited for the low population was the alleged frequency with which women aborted their

pregnancies. This had never aroused cultural condemnation, although custom theoretically dictated that a fine could be imposed if a pregnancy was terminated. By the early nineteenth century, however, English rewriting of traditional laws had made abortion at least theoretically punishable by death61). In addition, officials hoped to stimulate marriage not only by prohibiting the custom of ambil anak, but also by modifying practices associated with the payment of jujur (bride price) which men in some districts customarily paid to their wife's relations. The English strongly disapproved of the resulting indebtedness, oblivious to the fact that this network of debts was an important cultural mechanism in establishing social relationships. Certainly most men who had obtained a bride through

jujur could never hope to repay the amount, but the widespread

58) Freeman 1970, pp. 173-174, 193; Kathinthamby-Wells 1977, p. 59; Bastin 1957, p. 85.

59) Kathirithamby-Wells 1977, p. 63. 60) Kathinthamby-Wells 1977, pp. 110-112. 61) Kathinthamby-Wells 1977, p. 118; Ball 1984, p. 213.

Page 19: Andaya Pepper

182 BARBARA WATSON ANDAYA

"indebtedness" that so horrified Europeans was In fact an important means of binding kinfolk together Marriageable daughters for whom jujur might be offered were a channel by which household resources could be enhanced and could help a man repay the debts he had incurred by his own marriage. Female infanticide was unknown in this society; indeed, the birth of a

daughter was an occasion for rejoicing, since "the more females in a

planter's family, the richer he is esteemed" 62).

The English, on the other hand, argued that the jujur "established a price on the woman that is out of the power of the purchaser to pay. . " and con- demned the victim to a cycle of debt that could only be resolved by obtain-

ing a juur payment from some other man. This in turn made him "greatly [dependent] on the female children he or his relations may have." Though the Directors claimed they did not wish to interfere with customs, they believed that "buying" a wife was harmful to economic development and

by introducing new regulations, even when these did not comply with tradi- tional laws, they would gain the "esteem and confidence of the people." In accordance with these arguments, a local official in 1768 modified existing custom and reduced the totaljujur amount to one hundred and fifty dollars, while allowing a man to take a bride with an initial payment of fifty63).

It is not surprising that these measures were almost totally ignored by local populations. It is also Ironic that, while the English were working to

encourage marriage, the economic changes they had introduced were in fact

bringing added burdens to young couples. From 1766 the number of pepper vines a young man was expected to maintain increased to a thousand follow-

ing his wedding. This assumption that the acquisition of a wife could double

production proved to be not only unrealistic but unacceptable. While living with her family a young woman would simply assist' her parents in the maintenance of the family plot, but on marriage, she and her husband

immediately became responsible for a thousand vines. This fell heavily on a new bride because most of the field work was her responsibility, and many females apparently preferred to remain single. When coupled with the

tendency of males to migrate outside areas of English jurisdiction, the result was a serious disproportion of young females to males. By the early nine- teenth century throughout all the Bengkulen districts there was a large number of unmarried women of all ages64).

62) Ball 1984, p. 96. 63) Ball 1984, p. 93, 196-197, 213; Kathirithamby-Wells 1977, p. 111, Marsden 1811,

pp. 220, 235; Moyer pp. 70, 74. 64) Kathirithamby-Wells 1977, p. 118; Bastin 1957, p. 86.

Page 20: Andaya Pepper

WOMEN AND ECONOMIC CHANGE 183

Married women were also vulnerable because they were often regarded as convenient pawns in the attempt to compel their menfolk to grow pepper Even though they were not listed as cultivators, females could be punished for perceived wrongdoings or debts of their male relatives. Some English officials were convinced that taking a man's wife and children as slaves would compel him to greater industry, and there were numerous cases in which families were divided, never to be united again. In 1774 three girls were enslaved by an English resident because of their father's debts, and another resident admitted confining a woman in the stocks as a hostage for her husband's return so that he could be punished for failing to maintain his gardens. Such methods proved to be extremely effective because of the cultural importance attached to the protection of a woman's honour, but

they also aroused considerable hostility As one English official put it, "There is nothing [the Malays] are so jealous about as interference in their

family affairs." While the Directors strictly forbade any continuation of such practices, women still commonly carried the burden of putting their

gardens "in order" while their husbands or fathers, considered lax in plan- ting, were placed in the stocks65).

Underlying all these developments was a growing sense of social unease because of what modern researchers term "food insecurity", indeed, some scholars have argued that declining nutrition is an almost inevitable con- comitant of extensive cash cropping66). Certainly food deprivation became ever more prevalent in west Sumatra as the forced cultivation policy com-

pelled many women to neglect subsistence food production. The extent to which female work hours were being directed away from the tending of traditional food gardens is evident in the periodic shortages not merely of rice but of vegetables and market produce. When local harvests failed and

imports were unavailable or expensive, women's skills as food suppliers were severely tested. In 1741, for example, officials in the Bengkulen area

reported that some pepper growers had been living for several months on ''no other sustenance than roots and the leaves of trees''" 67). For women the burden of maintaining household well-being was accentuated by the con- traction of the economic opportunities that had previously allowed them to

augment the domestic economy In those areas where pepper was grown outside the forced cultivation system, a woman's independent economic

65) Bastin 1957, p. 85; Bastin 1965, p. 83; Ball 1984, pp. 109, 123; Kathirithamby-Wells 1977, pp. 84, 87, 90.

66) von Benda-Beckman 1990, p. 158. 67) Bastin 1965, p. 61.

Page 21: Andaya Pepper

184 BARBARA WATSON ANDAYA

contribution to the household was still much valued by her menfolk. An

eighteenth-century biographical work, for instance, describes how a

Minangkabau pepper trader in Lampung, finding himself in straitened cir-

cumstances, sends a message back to his wife to request funds so that he can

purchase a perahu and cargo to continue his voyage68). Prior to the establishment of English posts along the west coast females had been able to draw a small but steady income from the sale of surplus rice and food items, but now the English personnel requisitioned extra supplies at much reduced prices and then resold them for inflated sums69). In 1766, for

instance, women would have been hit hard by the Company efforts to increase poultry stock by imposing a fine of five dollars on any person found

selling eggs, and requiring each family in the Bengkulen districts to rear a minimum of sixty fowls. In an effort to reduce the consumption of rice, the

English even tried to extend their influence into the kitchen, and in 1775 ritual feasts were forbidden70). Such edicts, of course, further reduced the occasions when women could excel, since normally they could acquire prestige in communal celebrations by organizing the provision of food and

by displaying their knowledge of the specific dishes appropriate for each occasion.

On the east coast of Sumatra, the Dutch East India Company was never in a position to compel people to grow pepper, despite the monopoly con- tracts made with successive rules of Jambi and Palembang. By the end of the eighteenth century the growing of pepper had been largely abandoned in favour of rice and cotton, and new garden crops such as tobacco and cof- fee. A similar retreat from pepper is evident on the west coast. Even though the English adopted much more coercive methods, their attempts to force cultivation were a signal failure. Company officials never tired of debating the reasons, which were attributed to a combination of economic disincen- tives, indolence, and lack of cooperation from indigenous leaders and chiefs.

Certainly a prime factor was the low prices which the English were willing to pay. As one scholar has observed, "Even had the highest degree of industriousness prevailed, payments from pepper could not have supported a comfortable livelihood" 7I). But it is noteworthy that an increase in prices in the late eighteenth century and the consequent removal of forced cultiva- tion did not encourage pepper growers to return to their gardens. Thus,

68) Drewes 1961, p. 121. 69) Kathirithamby-Wells 1977, pp. 53, 58, 118, 213 70) Kathirithamby-Wells 1977, pp. 132-133. 71) Kathuirthamby-Wells 1977, p. 62.

Page 22: Andaya Pepper

WOMEN AND ECONOMIC CHANGE 185

although economic factors were obviously a major element in resistance to

pepper cultivation, there may also be other reasons. Pepper had brought about considerable dislocation in west coast society, particularly for women, who had been reduced to a position of secondary importance in the agri- cultural economy. One sociologist has observed that when African farmers are discussed by modern researchers, "the personal pronoun used is he. That women are the main producers of African food crops.. is almost never mentioned" 72). The same blindness prevailed among English East India

Company representatives, who demonstrated a consistent failure to

appreciate the economic and cultural roles played by women in the trading and horticultural communities that typified the west coast. The proto- plantation economy they introduced did not easily adapt to a society where cultivation was based on the family unit. It is indicative that by European standards the most successful pepper plantations in most of Sumatra and the

Malay world came to be worked by Chinese men. Indeed, in 1806 local officials of the English East India Company stationed in West Sumatra saw the importation of Chinese laborers as the only means of reviving the pep- per trade73). In less than a generation indigenous cultivation of pepper in most of southern Sumatra had reverted to the pattern prevailing before the

seventeenth-century boom, with women tending a few pepper vines, their

"money trees" (pohon wang), to supplement the household income 74).

Conclusion

The early modern period saw far-reaching economic shifts in Southeast

Asia, the extent of which has been explored in relatively few areas. Because of the deficiency in source material, many questions that historians are now

posing will probably never be answered. In view of long established claims that females in Southeast Asia maintained a prominent economic and ritual

role, it is frustrating to realize that in all likelihood we will remain per- manently ignorant of many areas in which women's lives have undoubtedly changed. Yet though the material may be generally unrevealing, it is still

possible to catch glimpses of how economic developments during the pre- modern period affected women in certain parts of the region. The introduc- tion of pepper is of especial interest because it was the first imported crop

72) Blumberg 1991, p. 120. 73) Bastin 1965, p. 131, for Borneo, see Tarling 1971, for Penang and Singapore, see

Jackson 1968; for Bangka, see Heidheus 1992.

74) Forbes 1885, p. 135.

Page 23: Andaya Pepper

186 BARBARA WATSON ANDAYA

in the Indonesian archipelago to move from family gardens to widespread commercial planting. This essay has provided a case study of certain pepper growing areas of Sumatra, where local resistance grew as Europeans attempted to enforce cultivation, becoming particularly pronounced along the west coast. Traditional agricultural patterns were based on the family as the essential economic unit, and customs associated with Inheritance and

marriage all implicitly acknowledged the female contribution. The vision of a class of agricultural labourers that was largely male was thus a cultural contradiction. It was this cultural discordance as much as low prices and unfair exactions that helped bring about the demise of indigenous pepper cultivation in southern Sumatra. This is not to imply, of course, that such a pattern was necessarily typical. It would be interesting to explore similarities and differences in regard to other pepper-producing regions, especially those where matrilineal Minangkabau influence was absent. It is worth noting, for example, that the pepper boom of the late eighteenth and

early nineteenth century in the more patriarchal Acehnese society was made

possible not by the labour of families but by that of lone men who migrated to pepper-producing districts 5).

The history of gender relations in early modern Southeast Asia cannot be written until more detailed studies of specific areas are available. Only then will we be able to test the extent to which long accepted generalizations regarding the position of Southeast Asian women are applicable across areas and across time. In the process historians will undoubtedly seek to qualify comments regarding the "autonomy" and "freedom" often attributed to Southeast Asian females, so that future studies will undoubtedly lead to a

greater sophistication in discussions of their "high status." As yet there seems no sound reason to dispute the view that most women in the region did enjoy more economic and social independence than their sisters in east Asia and India. What is still needed, however, is a far greater consideration of theoretical and comparative work on other pre-industrial societies in order to determine why this should be so. Only by this means can we really determine whether the "high status" of women is part of a unique Southeast Asian identity.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

ANDAYA, Barbara Watson 1989 "The Cloth Trade in Jambi and Palembang Society During the Seven-

teenth and Eighteenth Centuries." Indonesia, 48. 26-46.

75) Personal communication, Patricia Rueb, Leiden, 13 December 1994.

Page 24: Andaya Pepper

WOMEN AND ECONOMIC CHANGE 187

1993 To Live as Brothers: Southeast Sumatra in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries

(Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press). 1994 "The Changing Religious Role of Women in Pre-modern South East

Asia." South East Asia Research 2, 2 (September 1994): 99-116. BALL, John

1984 Indonesian Legal History: Brztish West Sumatra 1685-1825 (Sydney- Oughtershaw Press).

BARRETT JONES, Antoinette M. 1984 Early Tenth Century Java from the Inscrzptions. A Study of Economic, Social and

Admiznstrative Conditions in the First Quarter of the Century (The Hague: Nijhoff).

BASTIN, John 1957 The Native Policies of Sir Stamford Raffles in Java and Sumatra, An Economzc

Interpretation (Oxford: Clarendon Press). 1961 Essays on Indonesian and Malayan History (Singapore: Eastern Universities

Press). 1965 The British in West Sumatra (1685-1825) (Kuala Lumpur- University of

Malaya Press). BENDA-BECKMAN, Franz von

1990 "Sago, Law and Food Security on Ambon." In J.I. Hans Bakker, ed. The World Food Crizss: Food Securzty in Comparatzve Perspective (Toronto: Canadian Scholars Press), pp. 157-199

BLUMBERG, Rae Lesser 1976 "Fairy Tales and Facts; Economy, Family, Fertility and the Female,"

in Irene Tinker and Michdle Bo Bramsen, Women and World Development (Washington D C.. Overseas Development Council).

1991 "The 'Triple Overlap' of Gender Stratification, Economy and the

Family " In Rae Lesser Blumberg, ed. Gender, Family and Economy: The

Triple Overlap (Newbury Park, California: Sage Publications). BLussE, Leonard

1975 "Western Impact on Chinese Communities in Western Java at the

Beginning of the 17th Century " Nampo Bunka. Tenrz Bulletin of South Asian Studies 2: 26-57

1986 Strange Company: Chinese Settlers, Mestzzo Women and the Dutch in VOC Batavia (The Hague: Nijhoff).

BOSERUP, Ester 1970 Women's Role in Economic Development (London: George Allen and Unwln).

BRANDES, J.I.A. 1900 "Nog eenige Javansche plagem's uit het mohammedaansche tijdvak,

afkomstig van Mataram, Banten en Palembang," TBG 42: 491-507 BROWN, Judith K.

1970 "Economic organization and the position of women among the Iro- quois," Ethnohistory 17 151-67

Page 25: Andaya Pepper

188 BARBARA WATSON ANDAYA

CHOU Ta-Kuan 1967 Notes on the Customs of Cambodia. Translated from the French version of

Paul Pelliot by J Gilman D'Arcy Paul (Bangkok: Social Sciences Association Press).

COOLHAAS, W.Ph., ed. 1968 Generale Missiven van Gouverneurs-Generaal en Raden aan Heren XVII der

Verenigde Oostindische Compangie, III (The Hague: Nijhoff). DAVIN, Delia

1975 "Women in the Countryside of China." In Margery Wolf and Roxane

Witke, eds. Women in Chinese Society (Stanford: Stanford University Press).

DREWES, GW J 1961 De Biografie van een Minangkabausen Peperhandelaar in de Lampongs. (The

Hague: Nijhoff). DUBY, Georges, and Michelle PERROT, eds.

1992 A History of Women in the West (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press). 2 Vols.

EHRENBERG, Margaret 1989 Women and Prehistory (London: British Museum Publications).

ERRINGTON, Shelly 1990 "Introduction" In Jane Monnig Atkinson and Shelly Errington, eds.

Power and Diference: Gender in Island Southeast Asia (Stanford: Stanford

University Press, 1990). ESTERIK, Penny van, ed.

1982 Women of Southeast Asia. Northern Illinois University Series on Southeast

Asia, Occasional Paper, No. 9 (De Kalb: Northern Illinois University). FORBES, H.O

1885 A Naturalist's Wanderings in the Eastern Archipelago: A Narrative of Travel and

Explorationfrom 1878 to 1883 (London; Sampson, Low, Marsten, Searle and Rivington).

FREEMAN, J.D 1970 Report on the Iban of Sarawak (University of London: Athlone Press).

GALVXO, Antonimo 1971 A Treatise on the Moluccas (c. 1544), probably the preliminary verston of Antonio

Galvao's lost Histdrna das Moluccas, trans. Hubert Jacobs, S.J (Rome: Jesuit Historical Institute).

HANAWALT, Barbara 1986 "Introduction" In Barbara Hanawalt, ed. Women and Work in Pre-

Industrial Europe (Bloomington: Indiana University Press), pp. vii-xviii.

HASSELT, A.L. van 1881 De Talen en Letterkunde van Midden Sumatra (Leiden: E.J Brill).

HEIDHUES, Mary F Somers 1992 Bangka Tin and Mentok Pepper- Chinese Settlement on an Indonesian Island

(Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies).

Page 26: Andaya Pepper

WOMEN AND ECONOMIC CHANGE 189

HOWELL, Martha C. 1986 "Women, the Family Economy and the Structures of Market Produc-

tion in Cities of Northern Europe during the Late Middle Ages." In Barbara Hanawalt, ed. Women and Work in Pre-Industrial Europe (Bloom- ington: Indiana University Press), pp. 198-222.

JACKSON, James C. 1968 Planters and Speculators: Chinese and European Agricultural Enterprzse in Malaya

1786-1921 (Kuala Lumpur- Oxford University Press). JONES, Russell

1985 Hikayat Sultan Ibrahim bin Adham (New York and London: University Press of America).

KATHIRITHAMBY-WELLS, J 1977 The Brztzsh West Sumatran Preszdency (1760-1785): Problems of Early Colonial

Enterprzse (Kuala Lumpur University of Malaya). KEYES, Charles F

1992 "A Conference at Wingspread and Rethinking Southeast Asia Studies." In Charles Hirschman et al, Southeast Asia Studies in the Balance:

Reflections from America (Ann Arbor- Association for Southeast Asia

Studies), pp. 9-20

LI TANA and Anthony REID 1993 Southern Vietnam under the Nguyen. Documents on the Economic History of Cochin

(Dhng Trong), 1602-1777 Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.

LOCHER-SCHOLTEN, Elsbeth 1992 "Female Labour in Twentieth Century Java; European Notions-

Indonesian Practice." In Locher-Scholten and Niehof, 1992, pp. 77-103

LOCHER-SCHOLTEN, Elsbeth and Anke NIEHOF

1992 Indonesian Women in Focus (The Hague: Nijhoff). MARSDEN, William

1811 The History of Sumatra (Kuala Lumpur- Oxford University Press, 1975

Reprint of 1811 edition). MEINSMA, J J

1873 "Eene Proklamatie van een Sultan van Bantam," BKI 20- 152-7 MILLS, J V G., trans and ed.

1970 Ying-yaz Sheng-lan. 'The Overall Survey of the Ocean's Shores' [1433]. (Cam- bridge: Cambridge University Press for the Hakluyt Society).

RAS, J J 1968 Hikajat Bandjar- A Study in Malay Historiography (The Hague: Nijhoff).

REID, Anthony 1988 Southeast Asia in the Age of Commerce 1450-1680. Volume One. The Lands

Below the Winds (New Haven: Yale University Press). 1988a"'Female Roles in Pre-Colonial Southeast Asia." Modern Asian Studies 22,

3 629-45.

Page 27: Andaya Pepper

190 BARBARA WATSON ANDAYA

1993 Southeast Asia in the Age of Commerce 1450-1680. Volume Two. Expanston and Crisis (New Haven: Yale University Press).

SETTEN van der MEER, N C. van 1979 Sawah Cultivation in AncientJava (Canberra: Australian National Univer-

sity Press, Oriental Monograph Series no. 22). STOLER, Ann

1977/78 "Class Structure and Female Autonomy in Rural Java." Signs. Journal of Women in Culture and Soczety 3, 1. 74-92.

1985 Capitalism and Confrontation in Sumatra's Plantatzon Belt, 1870-1979 (New Haven and London: Yale University Press).

TA Van TAI 1981 "The Status of Women in Traditional Vietnam; A Comparison of the

Code of the Le Dynasty (1428-1788) with the Chinese Codes." Journal of Asian History 15, 1981. 97-145

TARLING, Nicholas 1971 Britain, the Brookes and Brunei (Kuala Lumpur- Oxford University Press).

UNO, Kathleen S. 1991 "Women and Changes in the Household Division of Labor " In Gail

Lee Bernstein, ed. Recreating Japanese Women, 1600-1945 (Berkeley- University of California Press).

WIESNER, Merry E. 1993 Women and Gender in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press). WINSTEDT, R.O., ed.

1966 Hikayat Bayan Budiman (Kuala Lumpur- Oxford in Asia Reprint). WOLF, Diane

1992 Factory Daughters.: Gender, Household Dynamics and Rural Industrialization zn Java (Berkeley- University of California Press).

WOLF, Eric 1959 "Specific Aspects of Plantation Systems in the New World: Community

Sub-Cultures and Social Classes." In Plantation Systems of the New World, ed. Vera Rubin (Washington D C. Pan American Union).

WOLTERS, 0 W 1982 History, Culture and Region in Southeast Asian Perspectives (Singapore:

Institute of Southeast Asian Studies).