In 1845, the last Padri center village in Sungai Pagu was captured by the colonial government. With that, West Sumatra was completely conquered by the colonial government.
Michiels’ proposal was accepted and implemented without significant resistance from the people, especially the clergy, so conditions were more stable and economic activity could run smoothly.
On March 30, 1847, Governor General Rochussen gave his blessing to the views of the Governor of Central Sumatra, Colonel A.V. Michiels, thus beginning a new era of the coffee system in West Sumatra. A particular feature was forcing farmers to deliver coffee to the colonial government at a predetermined price.
The forced coffee cultivation system in West Sumatra ran for almost 60 years from 1847 to 1908. During those 60 years, the Cultivation System did not change. The method used is a step up from Governor Michiels.
For the colonial government, the costs incurred for forced coffee cultivation in West Sumatra were quite large.
This supervision was not possible entirely by the colonial authorities. This required the establishment of Minang officials who worked under a controller and who were all paid a salary. Then the cost of building warehouses to accommodate and store the coffee beans.
Payment of contracts with private coffee transporters from the highlands to Padang, and construction and maintenance of access roads to Padang. Most importantly, because this system is coercive. Behind the production and delivery of coffee, the colonial government had to provide restraints to ensure the continuation of the system.
Therefore, the provision of sufficient soldiers is one of the important factors
The large expenditure must be balanced by maximizing the benefits of this system. In the early period of this system, the government experienced an increase in coffee production and sales until at least the 1870s. This provided great benefits to the colonial government. According to Kenneth R. Young, there were at least three main factors that made this system successful until the 1870s.
The first factor is the imposition of a fixed price on all coffee in West Sumatra. The government estimated that at the time this system was introduced, merchant farmers received an uncertain amount of money.
When the price of coffee on the international market amounts to F20 a bushel, the estimated net cost to the farmer after deducting all factors of being able to sell coffee is F4. In such cases, the government sets a reasonable protected price for farmers. It is expected to increase the production of petai coffee in West Sumatra.
The government may experience losses when coffee prices on the international market are low.
The fluctuating price of coffee has also emboldened the government to take the risk of implementing this protected price system.
The protected price set by the government is F7 per pikul. The price proved to be an additional source of income for farmers in the early days of forced coffee cultivation. It also brings benefits to government coffers. At that time, the price of coffee on the international market exceeded F30 per pikul. In 1850, it even increased to over F50 per pikul.
The second factor for the success of coffee production in West Sumatra is the relatively low labor requirement.
The use of West Sumatra-style coffee forest plantation system can reduce the number of workers. The work was hard in the early days of planting, clearing the forest was not an easy task, roads had to be built and coercion was used, but these actions were taken when the protected price was set and coffee farmers’ incomes were higher than before.
After all the preliminary work is done, there is very little work involved in planting, as the processing steps are carried out just like planting in the days before the system was implemented.
Coffee farmers in West Sumatra burden this work on their household members. This work system was flexible enough to meet the heavy work requirements during the early days of forced coffee cultivation. Furthermore, the steady income from coffee sales also provides sufficient remuneration for small jobs such as picking coffee beans, drying coffee and so on.
The third factor that led to the success of the coffee Cultivation System between 1850 and 1870 was closely related to the economic conditions in West Sumatra. The nature of trading, selling and buying is ingrained in the daily lives of the people of West Sumatra.
Farmers’ cash income in the past has stimulated their appetite for merchandise
West Sumatran households were dependent on markets for basic goods, so the colonial government supported the textile and salt oligopolies in Padang, knowing that people in the villages needed the money they received from their coffee harvest to buy basic goods.
In addition, farmers saw an opportunity for coffee cultivation that was profitable for them, so they were keen to grow coffee, some of them selling some of the coffee to intermediary traders or smuggling it to be sold in Singapore.
The colonial government reached the peak of the coffee Cultivation System in West Sumatra when it purchased 173,000 pikuls from West Sumatran farmers in 1864.
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