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
This dissertation points out the stark inequalities of segregated criminal justice in nineteenth-century Java and analyses this unequal system in practice, shown by an actor-focused approach... Show moreThis dissertation points out the stark inequalities of segregated criminal justice in nineteenth-century Java and analyses this unequal system in practice, shown by an actor-focused approach and through a framework of legal pluralities. Ravensbergen searched for the conflicts occurring around the green table of the 'pluralistic courts'(landraden and ommegaande rechtbanken) where the non-European population was tried by Javanese and Dutch court members, and Islamic and Chinese legal advisors. The pluralistic courts, the only places in Java where all regional power structures met and actively worked together, were courtrooms of many conflicts. The courts were also in interaction, and conflict, with other state institutions, together all furthering the project of colonial state formation. By taking this approach, Ravensbergen shows how it was not only inequality, but also uncertainty and injustice, that were central to colonial criminal justice imposed on the local population. Show less
