The manner in which the governor-general had to communicate with the
Minister of Colonies was specified in many instructions. The Commissioners-
General, who took over the administration from the British in 1816, were told
that proper minutes had to be made of all meetings and that these minutes,
including associated appendices, had to be periodically sent to The Hague. The
governor-general was supposed to maintain uninterrupted correspondence with
the Minister regarding all affairs that could be of interest.61 This correspondence
was conducted in two different ways: the so-called official correspondence
(which could be regular or confidential) with the ministry and the semi-private
(or sometimes named as semi-official) correspondence between the governor-
general and the Minister. This correspondence could be conducted without the
involvement of civil servants of the Ministry. Furthermore a copy of all decisions
taken by the governor-general also had to be sent to The Hague every three
months. Later, new and different forms of communication were invented to
improve the information, like the colonial report after 1848 and the mail-reports
since 1869.
One could say that the information network linking Batavia and The Hague was
focused on making the East Indies society legible for the Dutch government. This
'making legible' was not just unlimited and aimless gathering of information, but
rather a sophisticated process which determined in advance what information
was required for what kind of purpose or government intervention. In this
respect the many instructions are revealing.
Although the network between the governor-general in Batavia and the Minister
of Colonies formed the backbone of the colonial system, the value and the
power of this backbone depended completely on the quality of its branches and
the degree of penetration into the indigenous society. Repeatedly, the governor-
general was urged not only to provide faster, but also more precise information
to the Minister of Colonies and the King.62 Because the government in The
Hague became more and more demanding, one of the main concerns of the early
colonial administration in Batavia was to set up a stable and reliable information
network between Batavia and the rest of the archipelago to be able to fulfil the
information requirements of the Dutch government. Carel Siradus Willem van
Hogendorp (1788-1856), resident of Buitenzorg and later resident of Batavia
wrote about the effects of this insatiable hunger for information of the colonial
government in the East Indies. The governors, residents, assistant residents and
other employed officials 'conducted a large correspondence which resulted in
a flood of lists and reports; because bureaucracy and the trend to blot paper
with ink has gained ground like elsewhere'.63 His observation of a fast growing
bureaucracy is also confirmed by the figures. The number of incoming letters that
were registered in the agenda of the Algemene Secretarie increased from 512 in
the month of December 1816 to 814 in the month of March 1819.
CHARLES JEURGENS INFORMATION ON THE MOVE. COLONIAL ARCHIVES: PILLARS OF PAST
GLOBAL INFORMATION EXCHANGE
62 For instance: Nationaal Archief, 2.01.01 Ministry of Colonies, inv.no. 4188, verbaal dd 01 February 1826,
no. 8K confidential; Nationaal Archief, 2.10.01 Ministry of Colonies, inv.no. 4571, 10 Feb. 1826 La H.
Nr 14K
63 Hogendorp, Beschouwingen der Nederlandsche bezittingen in Oost-Indie, 110-111.
57