This dissertation is about the effects of Dutch private investment in the Netherlands Indies and early independent Indonesia. The aim of my analysis is to contribute to the current discourse about... Show moreThis dissertation is about the effects of Dutch private investment in the Netherlands Indies and early independent Indonesia. The aim of my analysis is to contribute to the current discourse about the extent to which the Dutch presence in Indonesia was beneficial, economically speaking. In this dissertation three different topics are discussed: investment, profits and linkages. With respect to investment, I focus on numbers of companies, their size and nationality, and the industry in which they operated. The relationship between economic development in the Netherlands Indies and foreign direct investment (FDI), in particular Dutch investment, forms the core of my analysis. In discussing profits, my purpose is to determine whether profit rates from investment in Indonesia were higher than elsewhere and whether they could be considered excessive, constituting a drain of resources away from the colony. The topic of linkages, serves to identify the economic impact of foreign private investment in terms of effects that could have compensated for the drain. Two time periods are considered: the late-colonial period from 1910-1942, and the time period from the Pacific War onwards, including early independence, up to about 1960, when full economic decolonization had been achieved. Three case studies are discussed: Billiton Maatschappij, Deli Maatschappij and Handels Vereeniging Amsterdam. Show less
Scarcity of water is a major problem in many parts of the Near East today and in the past. In order to survive in such a region people have to be able to structurally procure more water than... Show moreScarcity of water is a major problem in many parts of the Near East today and in the past. In order to survive in such a region people have to be able to structurally procure more water than rainfall alone can supply. The archaeology of this area should not only identify when people inhabited such a region and what the character of this habitation was, but also how people were able to survive in such a region and why they chose it in the first place. In this book these questions have been posed of the Zerqa Triangle: a region in the middle Jordan Valley around Tell Deir ‘All? (Jordan). The intensity of habitation of the region from the Neolithic to early modern periods was investigated by means of a detailed pedestrian archaeological survey. Efforts have been undertaken to reconstruct the agricultural practices in the various periods and simultaneously the means by which the different communities were able to practise agriculture; in other words, how did they irrigate the land? By focussing on the varying social responses of communities, conclusions have been drawn on how and why people created a living in this arid, but potentially very fertile region. Show less
