basis, based on information gathered by the local regents or bupati. One example
were the reports signed by the bupati of Galor in which he sent figures about
the number of children that had fallen ill and died of 'tjatjar batuk' (a kind of
smallpox).66 In the information collected by the assistent-residenten and district
heads of the police, we find reports and letters from village heads (demang),
written in the local language, in which they inform the Dutch authorities on
all kinds of more or less important events that happened in the villages.67These
reports and letters of course never reached the governor-general in that form,
let alone the Minister of Colonies in The Hague, but they were the needed and
expected information to provide the vital fuel to the backbone of the network
between Batavia and The Hague. It was however not only the information itself,
but also the transport of the information that immediately received attention
after the takeover in 1816. The resident of Cheribon for instance improved the
carriage of dispatches within his district and to the nodes of Semarang and
Batavia. Instead of three times a week, he organised daily transportation of
letters by the 127 horses and three mail carriages he had available within his
residentschap.68
The information sent from Batavia to The Hague depended fully on the quality
of the chain that connected Batavia to the inner areas in the archipelago. The
colonial state continuously tried not only to control and extend the information
structures, but also the quality and amount of information that was exchanged.
Tentative conclusions
The main question asked at the beginning of this chapter was whether the
theories on globalisation and networks can also be useful for our understanding
of the colonial archives. I gave special attention to the role of information and
information exchange in the period of the early colonial state. I want to refer to
Bayly, when he stated that the beginnings of the modern international system
were driven not so much by technological change as by prior political and
cultural change. Compared to the concerns of the former VOC, the role, focus
and interests of the ruling authority after 1816 seem to have changed in the
direction of full state interests and this also had its effect on the information
needs. The concerns of the colonial state and its consequent hunger for the
kind of information it believed was needed to exert control over the colony and
inhabitants defined the structure of the information network. The connection
of the villages to the apparatus of the colonial state resulted in a ramified
information network.
We must however stress the fact that this information exchange and
communication was not based on equality. Although the villages on Java and
elsewhere in the East Indies became more and more connected to the large global
CHARLES JEURGENS INFORMATION ON THE MOVE. COLONIAL ARCHIVES: PILLARS OF PAST
GLOBAL INFORMATION EXCHANGE
68 ANRI, Archive of Residentschap Cheribon 2/1, Report of the Resident, March 17, 1817. In a letter of
December 30 1816 the newly appointed governor-general and Commissioner-General Van der Capelle
wrote to Falck: 'De afstand van Batavia (37 Eng mijlen) [from Buitenzorg CJ] is wat groot. Wij leggen
dezelve echter in 3 uuren af, zoo goed zijn de wegen. Wij doen die tour met postpaarden en wisselen 6 maal.
Deze afstand veroorzakt echter dat ik eene dubbele huishouding en stallen moet hebben, zoodat ik hier en
te Rijswijk steeds alles gereed en in goede orde moet vinden, hetgeen aangenaam, ja noodzakelijk, maar ten
uiterste kostbaar is, daar beide huishoudingen altijd doorlopen. Het getal mijne paarden te Rijswijk en hier
beloopt thans 80 en ik kan er niet veel van afschaffen'. See Nationaal Archief, 2.21.006.48, Collectie Falck,
Inv. Nr. 82, Letter from Van der Capellen to Falck, December 30, 1816.
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