Themes

Max Havelaar

The regent of Lebak, His Highness Raden Tommogong Karta Nagara. Coloured lithograph made in 1845 by C.W.M. van den Velde, from 'Gezigten uit Nederlands Indië'.

Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappij (Netherlands Trading Society or NHM) was established by the Dutch king, William I, in 1824 to help reverse the decline of Dutch trade. Its main purpose was to promote trade with Holland's Asian empire, the Dutch East Indies. It was not until 1830 that this began to reap rewards with the introduction of the crop cultivation system, in which the colonial regime effectively levied taxes in kind, in the form of coffee, tea, sugar etc. NHM played a key role in implementing this policy.

Opposition to this system began to grow in the Netherlands around 1860. Opponents criticised the exploitation of the local population, often by their own rulers, and deplored the threat to the local culture. One of the most outspoken opponents of the system was Eduard Douwes Dekker (1820-1887). A month after being appointed assistant governor of Java's Lebak district in 1856, he brought charges against various people, including the local regent Karta Natta Nagara, for forcing the indigenous population to work for him and to supply cattle. However, Dekker failed to produce sufficient evidence, the charges were dropped and he was reprimanded. He resigned in protest.

Under the pseudonym Multatuli, Dekker proceeded to expose the malpractices in the East Indies in an autobiographical novel, Max Havelaar, of de Koffij-veijlingen der Nederlandsche Handelmaatschappij (Max Havelaar, or the Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappij NHM coffee auctions) published in 1859. It was a defence of the stand he had taken - a matter of principle that had almost reduced his family to poverty - and a plea for rehabilitation for himself, and recognition of the plight of the Javanese.

Dekker's main character is a coffee trader called Batavus Droogstoppel, a name that became synonymous in the Netherlands with tepid petit bourgeois officialdom. The subtitle is Droogstoppel's invention, to ensure that the book would be read by the 'right' people. NHM was Dekker’s real target: the embodiment and implementation of an unjust system.

Dekker received neither rehabilitation nor satisfaction. Max Havelaar was admired more for its literary merit than its moral stance. Yet it did help change Dutch perceptions about their colony, and eventually the crop cultivation system was abolished in 1870. Meanwhile a wind of change was sweeping through NHM, as it turned its focus from trade and transport of agricultural products to banking.

Max Havelaar first appeared in two volumes in 1860, at four guilders a copy. This was the equivalent of a week's wages for an average person at that time. A second impression was printed within a year, but Dekker failed to get a popular edition published, despite the obvious demand. He would have been pleased to see how widely read his novel is today, with translations in over forty languages.