2007 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
A Study of the People's Tobacco Industries in the Late Colonial Java
| Project/Area Number |
16520418
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
Asian history
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| Research Institution | Hiroshima University |
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Principal Investigator |
UEMURA Yasuo Hiroshima University, Graduate School of Letters, Professor (40127056)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2004 – 2007
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| Keywords | people's tobacco industries / kretek / mountainous regions of central Java / Rembang / Chinese merchants / Semarang-Cheribon Stoomtram / National Archives of the Netherlands |
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| Research Abstract |
This study explored the people's tobacco industries in the late colonial Java from four sides, i. e. the commercial agriculture of the people, the trade and distribution of tobacco, manufacturing of kretek tobacco, and the consumption, and clarified the following. (1) The planting and processing methods of tobacco for the domestic market in the first half of the 20th century, which were on high technical level, did not differ from those at the beginning of the 19th century. (2) This cultivation was profitable for the peasants' economy. (3) Where the planting for the European market coexisted, the peasants chose the buyers viewing the market conditions. (4) In the tobacco trade Chinese merchants occupied the dominant position who, however, could not control the peasants one-sidedly despite the advances they offered. (5) Until about 1910 tobacco produced in the mountainous regions of central Java transported to west Java along the north coast and that in the residency Rembang was distributed eastward, but this division of the market was broken due to the expansion of Kedu tobacco eastward as a result of opening the railways like Semarang-Cheribon Stoomtram and of the development of kretek industries in Kudus, etc. (6) Processing tobacco into strootje, cigar or cigarette began in about 1850, and proceeded at full swing in the 1910s when keen competition arose among the imported cigarettes, locally produced ones and strootjes. (7) In the 1930s, due to the depression, consumption of the expensive imported cigarette decreased much and that of hand-made one and strootje increased, which were in turn challenged by the cheaper hand-rolled cigarette or strootje. These points can be clarified only by consulting the documents of the railway companies at the time which were in the possession of the National Archives of the Netherlands.
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