ivated in a manner similar to that adopted for
sugar. But in the case of coffee, cinnamon, and pepper it was not found
necessary to have any manufacturers between the controleurs and the
peasants. Of these coffee, the most important, is grown on lands having
an elevation of from 2000 to 4500 feet. Each head of a family is
required to plant a certain number of trees in gardens (the maximum was
fixed in 1877 at fifty a year), and to keep a nursery of young trees to
replenish the plantations. These gardens and nurseries are all inspected
by native and European officials. The process of harvesting the berry is
similarly supervised, but after that is accomplished the peasants are
left to dry, clean, and sort the berries by themselves, and are allowed
to deliver the crop at the coffee stores at their own convenience.
Finally, private persons contract for periods of two or three years to
pack and transport the coffee to the central stores at the ports. Of the
coffee produced on Government account, one-fifth only is sold in Java,
and the remainder is sent home to Europe and sold there.

The culture system was so successful as a financial expedient, that
between the years 1831 and 1875 the colonial revenue yielded surpluses
to Holland amounting to 725,000,000 florins. This total seems the more
remarkable when we know that from 1838 onwards, the colonial revenue was
charged with 200,000,000 florins of the public debt of Holland, being
the proportion borne by Belgium before the separation of the two
countries, which took place at that date.

In 1876, however, the long series of surpluses ceased, and they have
since been replaced by deficits almost as continuous. These deficits
are due to three well-ascertained causes: (1) the Achin war, (2) public
works, and (3) the fall in the price of sugar and coffee. In order to
show that this remarkable change in the financial fortunes of Java is in
no way due to the culture system, it is necessary to go somewhat more
into detail.

(1) Before the outbreak of the Achin war in 1873, the average
expenditure of the Colonial Government for military purposes was
30,000,000 florins annually. During the period 1873-1884 this
expenditure rose to an average of 50,000,000 florins, and the total cost
of the war during that period amounted to 240,000,000 florins. Since
1884 the expenditure has been reduced by confining the operations of the
troops to such as are purely defensive; even then the average a