Beginning date of the sugarestates' cultivation and the peasants in colonial Java

In colonial Java sugarestates developed their cultivation at the leased rice-field in rotation with the peasants' crops. In this circumstance they tried to have the peasants deliver lands as early as possible with various means, but often they couldn't get them at the beginning date of lease arranged in the contracts because of the delayed rice harvest. In this case there arose the problem of whether the unharvested rice could be removed or not. The Ducth colonial government, admitting this right to the estates generally, advised not to do so hastly primarily because it didn't want to disturb peace and order. And the estates, generally speaking, refrained from thier land use until the peasants' harvest, considering the danger of removal of their sugarcane by the peasants in case they couldn't finish their harvest by the end of the lease period. Finally, in 1919, the government denied this right because of the serious shortage of food at that time. For the peasants it was impossible to fix the date of land transfer to the estates previously. Most important thing for them was to defend the fruit of their rice cultivation. So they resisted the removal of rice but didn't object the estates' land use before the beginning date of lease if their harvest was finished