the land tax, an additional source of income remained in the profit
arising from the sale of coffee, grown either by the Preanger Regents
and sold to the Government at prices fixed by treaty, or on the coffee
plantations established by Marshall Daendels, which were now restored.

These two methods of raising revenue were resorted to by the Dutch upon
their return to the island, and continued in force during the period
1816-1833. They were wholly inadequate. Whether the Dutch were right or
not in characterizing Raffles' reforms as a failure, it is certain that
nothing could be more desperate than the state of the island in the
years immediately preceding the introduction of the culture system. At
the end of the period 1816-1833 both revenue and population seem to have
become stationary. The mass of the natives were becoming so impoverished
that they ceased to be able to keep a supply of domestic animals and
implements necessary for the cultivation of their lands. Apart from the
princes, there was no class, merchants or tradespeople, possessing any
wealth that could be taxed. Not only was the revenue stagnant, but,
owing to a war with the sultans of the interior, a debt of over
35,000,000 florins was incurred by the Government. In a word, the colony
seemed likely to become an intolerable burden to Holland. It was at this
crisis that General Van den Bosch proposed the culture system as a means
of rescuing the island from its financial and social difficulties.

The immediate object of the culture system was to extend the cultivation
of sugar, coffee, and other produce suited for European consumption; its
ultimate object was to develop the resources of the island. This latter
was, of course, the most important. Van den Bosch saw that the natives
would never be able to do this by themselves. In the first place, they
were still organized on the patriarchal model in village communities;
and, in the second, owing to the tropical climate and the extreme ease
with which life could be sustained in so fertile a country, they were
naturally indolent and unprogressive. He therefore proposed to organize
their labour under European supervision. By this method he thought that
he would be able both to raise the revenue and to improve the condition
of the peasants by teaching them to grow valuable produce in addition to
the rice crops on which they depended for subsistence. Van den Bosch
became Governor-General of Java and its dependencies