Even Strangled Entertainment Tax Occurs In The VOC Era

The activities of the Chinese in Batavia during the VOC period, one of which was trading meat. (Wikimedia Commons)

JAKARTA - The Dutch trading company, the VOC, has a great desire to build its government center, Batavia (now: Jakarta). Problems arise. The Company refuses to use a lot of money in the spice trade profits. The only option is to collect taxes from Chinese people.

All kinds of Chinese lives are subject to taxes. The Company also collects entertainment taxes, from wayang to gambling. The Company made a big profit. However, the narrative didn't always work. Many incidents of Chinese people failing to pay an entertainment tax that strangled.

The Company's intention to build a colony cannot be contested. They plan construction in Batavia since 1619. The Company wants to build a city that is comfortable for the Dutch / Europeans to live in.

The intention is only intent. Building a city is never easy. The Dutch did not want the money from the spice trade to be used to build Batavia. Even the Company realized that the Dutch were not strong enough to be or work in a tropical climate.

The option of bringing in Chinese people is done. The results are brilliant. Chinese people are able to play many roles. Among others, being a carpenter, builders, traders, businessmen, and so on. Colonials also give Chinese people privileges.

They are allowed to do business freely without any obligation to serve in the military or participate in the war. The privilege is given while giving Chinese people additional obligations. They have to pay a lot of taxes, from head taxes to entertainment taxes.

Chinese people are comfortable with the policy. The presence of taxes made them transform into the driving wheel of Batavia's economy. Something that then forms the symbiosis of mutualism.

The Dutch need Chinese people to build Batavia. On the other hand, Chinese people need Compenies so that businesses run smoothly. Moreover, the Company appointed a Chinese capitent to regulate the lives of migrants. The Dutch did not forget to determine those who collect taxes by auction.

The taxes make the Company's cash filled. Tax money was then used to build Batavia.

Road construction is financed from tax revenue. The Company government collects various taxes, such asHoofdgeld der Chinezen (tax per Chinese head), market tax, canal tax, sugar tax, gambling tax, fishing tax, wayang performance tax (women's skin), arrack drink tax, and so on. Construction of a new road from Batavia to Tangerang in 1685, for example, financed with taxes per head of Chinese.

Thus, tax revenue from the Ommelanden region (region outside the Batavia fort) is used not only to finance infrastructure work outside the city walls, but also to finance all kinds of needs within Batavia City. On March 22, 1708, the Batavia government issued a decision ordering every sugar factory in Ommelanden to pay a tax of 10 ringgit per year to support the construction of a new city hall, "explained historian Bondan Kanumayoso in the book Ommelanden: Community Development and Economics Outside the Batavia City Wall (2023).

It could be that the amount of tax withdrawn by the Company varies. However, taxes that bring large income, one of which comes from entertainment taxes. These include wayang taxes, prostitution, and gambling. The Company dares to give high taxes for entertainment matters.

All because the Company understands well the limited entertainment in Batavia. Every day there is entertainment, surely it will immediately become a prima donna. Take for example gambling. This entertainment has often been popular with the entire Batavia since the 1620s. This fact is supported along with the increase in gambling houses in Batavia every year.

The gambling tax has also become the number two revenue of the Company after the head tax. The Company prospered for a long time. This advantage made the Dutch often raise taxes. Problems arise. Economic matters that experience ups and downs are the estuary.

Chinese business is not always fine. Sometimes they experience bad luck. The Chinese economy also slumped. Those who previously had no tax problems became dizzy. The domino effect also touched the entertainment business.

The gambling house, which was once crowded, could be quiet. Individual and business taxes are starting to be considered strangling. The option to face the Company and ask for relief is done through the Chinese petition or Kapitan. Sometimes the Company hears. Sometimes it doesn't.

However, if there are no results and fail to pay. The only option that makes the most sense is to run away from Batavia. They are looking for other areas whose taxes are not too high.

The number of Chinese people is related to the ups and downs of the city's economy, because of the individual taxes imposed on them. when there was a sudden decline in the trading of the horizon from China the source of basic income for this merchant community "flows the Chinese people from Batavia to Banten and Mataram (Java)."

A place where they don't have to pay such a high tax. If so, they are persuaded to return, by lowering or even removing the applicable individual taxes," said historian Leonard Blusse in the book Persekutan Strange: Chinese Settlements, Women of Manikan, and the Netherlands in Batavia VOC (1988).