Hello, Google is leaving me in the cold for a long time. I’m looking for all there is to know about the history of tobacco in the former Dutch colony. Long time Holland was supplied with tobacco from here. If anyone knows of a site or book with more in depth information please let me know. I’m thinking of @snuffmiller who might know some starting points in Dutch history. So far I have found that tobacco was planted with Cuban seed on Sumatra around 1860, but on Java the Portugese already cultivated it around 1620. That’s all I could find.

@Salmiak: Give me some time and I’ll look into the matter. Jaap Bes.

I found couple of mentions of Indonesian tobacco cultivation in my ebooks. The first one: Tobacco: Growing, Curing, and Manufacturing - A Handbook for Planters - I all the Parts of the World. C.G. Warnford Lock, 1886, London Java. Tobacco, termed by the natives tombaku, or sdta, is an article of very general cultivation in Java, but is only extensively raised for exportation in the central districts of Kedu and Banyurnas. As it requires a soil of the richest mould, but at the same time not subject to inundations, these districts hold out peculiar advantages to the tobacco-planter, not to be found on the low lands. For internal consumption, small quantities are raised in convenient spots everywhere. In Kedu, tobacco forms, after rice, by far the most important article of cultivation, and, in consequence of the fitness of the soil, the plant grows to the height of 8-10 feet, on lands not previously dressed or manured, with a luxuriance seldom witnessed in India. Cultivated here alternately with rice, only one crop of either is obtained within the year ; but after the harvest of the rice, or the gathering of the tobacco leaves, the land is allowed to remain fallow, till the season again arrives for preparing it to receive the other. The young plant is not raised within the district, but procured from the high lands in the vicinity, principally from the district of Kalibeber, on the slope of the mountain Die"ng or Prahu, where it is raised and sold by the hundred to the cultivators of the adjoining districts. The transplantation takes place in June, and the plant is at its full growth in October. The exports in the year 1877-8 were 212,500 piculs* to Holland, and 213 to Singapore; in 1878-9, they were 248,566 piculs to Holland, and 872 to Singapore. The value of the export to Holland in 1879 was stated at 1,250,OOOZ. The exports in 1884 were 140,351 piculs to Holland, and 2490 to Great Britain. *(I had to look this up. A picul is a traditional Asian unit of weight, defined as “a shoulder-load, as much as a man can carry on a shoulder-pole”. Equals around 60 kg.). The book is available here: https://archive.org/details/tobaccogrowingcu00lock

The second one: TOBACCO IN HISTORY - The cultures of dependence Jordan Goodman, 1993 Nineteenth-century developments were stimulated largely by imperialism, particularly in the Dutch East Indies and in India. In the Dutch East Indies imperial control of economic resources was formalized in the 1830s under what was called the Culture System. This system, which operated mainly in the 1830s and 1840s, was designed to organize the production of export crops, primarily by the peasants of Java and, to a lesser extent, Sumatra. Peasants were compelled to allocate part of their lands to producing crops for the government. Sugar, coffee and indigo were the first crops to be included in the Culture System, but in time many others, including tobacco, were brought in. For various reasons the Culture System did not yield significant profits, and crops were dropped from the system and allowed to be cultivated on a private basis (Ricklefs 1981:114–18). Tobacco escaped the grip of the Culture System in 1866 (Caldwell 1964:83). Almost overnight production began to grow, partly, it has been argued, because of the advantages of private enterprise but also because one of the main tobacco estates, in the Deli district of Sumatra, successfully developed a very exportable kind of tobacco. Exports of Sumatran tobacco soared from an average level of 17 million pounds in the late 1860s to nearly 170 million pounds in the years before the First World War (Caldwell 1964: 83). The Deli region accounted for about one-third of the total crop of Sumatra (Jacobstein 1907:182). Before the First World War, on account of this vast expansion of tobacco cultivation, the Dutch East Indies were the second largest exporters of tobacco leaf, accounting for about 18 per cent of total world exports (US Dept of Agriculture 1913:630). Ironically, a significant proportion of total Sumatran exports went to the United States (Jacobstein 1907:181). In the 1880s, many planters from Deli, both Germans and Dutch, were attracted to North Borneo, and there, under the administration of the North Borneo (Chartered) Company, tobacco cultivation by Europeans expanded enormously (John and Jackson 1973). On the eve of the First World War the level of output exceeded 2 million pounds (John and Jackson 1973:105). — Caldwell, J.A.M. (1964) ‘Indonesian export and production from the decline of the Culture System to the First World War’ Ricklefs, M.C. (1981) A History of Modern Indonesia, London: Macmillan.

Found this site about a neighboring region, the Philippines: http://nta.da.gov.ph/about\\_tobacco.html

This book in Dutch looks interesting @snuffmiller‌ https://ia601403.us.archive.org/10/items/ziektenvandetaba00jens/ziektenvandetaba00jens.pdf

@Salmiak: Thanks, It looks interesting, I’ll look into it. Jaap Bes.