The Transformation of Urban Structure after the Plantation

Establishment in East Sumatera 1863-1942

Edi

Sumarno

, Nina Karina

, Junita

Setiana Ginting

, Handoko

Departement of History, Faculty of Cultural Science, Universitas Sumatera Utara

Post Graduate Student of Departement of History, Faculty of Cultural Science, Universitas Sumatera Utara

Keywords: city, plantation, East Sumatera

Abstract: There were many "traditional port cities" in East Sumatera, such as Tanjung Pura in the Sultanate of Langkat,

Labuhan in the Sultanate of Deli, Rantau Panjang in the Sultanate of Serdang, Tanjung Beringin in the

Sultanate of Bedagai, Bandar Khalifah in the Sultanate of Padang, Tanjung Balai in the Sultanate of Asahan,

and Siak Sri Indrapura in the Sultanate of Siak. The location of the ports generally located on the riverbanks,

either large or small. These traditional cities underwent some changes after the plantation establishment, from

riverside cities to in the middle of plantations. New cities emerged after the plantation were formed or initiated

by the planters and Dutch colonial government in East Sumatra. The purpose of the establishment was to

make the cities the administrative center of the government and plantation. This paper discusses how the state

of the traditional cities before the plantation establishment and how the new cities emerged after the plantation

establishment in East Sumatra.

1 INTRODUCTION

The Malay urban structure in East Sumatra was

originally a port or Bandar area with a power

structure. Bandar or traditional ports lied on the

riverbanks. However, this structure changed when

plantations established in East Sumatra. The

economic development of plantations began to occur

since the last four decades of the 19th century where

many changes ensued in East Sumatra. The expansion

had turned the face of East Sumatra from a wilderness

into a plantation area, making this area as the most

developed areas outside Java, which was later known

as het dollar landsch (dollar land). These changes

were very influential on the pattern of life of local

residents; among them was the existence of new cities

which originally were only ordinary villages.

The strategically located villages at the crossroads

and were close to the train station would later be

transformed into new cities. The implications of these

changes were also very influential on the port as a

center of economic activity, government, and culture

of the local people. Port as a traditional city then lost

ground due to the construction of roads and railways.

This was due to economic activity shifting from the

river to the land which caused the traditional ports

were relatively less needed. From the description

above, this paper will discuss how the state of

traditional Malay urban structures prior to the

presence of plantations and the development of land

transport and the emergence of new cities that were

deliberately formed by the colonial government as the

center of the economy and the new government.

2 METHOD

The technique of collecting primary and secondary

data are conducted through observation or direct

survey to research object and searching supporting

data to libraries and institutions that were considered

to be the source of data, for example the National

Archives of the Republic of Indonesia; National

Library of Indonesia, North Sumatra Provincial

Library and Achives and Tengku Lukman Sinar

Library; this stage is

Sumarno, E., Karina, N., Ginting, J. and Handoko, .

The Transformation of Urban Structure after the Plantation Establishment in East Sumatera 1863-1942.

DOI: 10.5220/0010068711591162

In Proceedings of the International Conference of Science, Technology, Engineering, Environmental and Ramiﬁcation Researches (ICOSTEERR 2018) - Research in Industry 4.0, pages

1159-1162

ISBN: 978-989-758-449-7

1159

conducted to collect archives, books, publications /

magazines and other materials related to

transportation and river. The data analysis method

applied is the historical and archaeological analysis

method that aims to study and explore facts or

experiences and developments of the past by trying

to draw conclusions and make interpretations of the

data from the events. The main data include data in

the form of archives, books, reports, and so forth

that most of which are still in Dutch. While

supporting data obtained from direct visits or field

observations by visiting the old cities and new cities

that emerged after the plantation establisment in

East Sumatera. After the data collection are

complete, the next step is to verify the data that have

been obtained and then interpret it into a complete

writing.

3 TRADITIONAL CITIES

BEFORE THE PLANTATION

IN EAST SUMATERA

The traditional cities in East Sumatra were generally

the Bandar or the port within which there was a

Malay power structure. The Malay powers that were

formed in East Sumatra prior to the Dutch colonial

entry were Langkat, Deli, Serdang, Asahan, and

several other small kingdoms. One of the busiest

traditional cities was Labuhan Deli, as the central

government of Sultanate of Deli. It also served as a

port city located half a mile downstream from the

river mouth (Veth, 1877). The name Labuhan

(berth) actually closely related to the name of the

Labuhan River which was a river to berth and which

also happened to be the other name of the Deli River

(Ratna, 2006). This kind of structure was identical

to the other traditional Malay kingdoms on Sumatra

Island. This system was formed due to the power in

the strategic areas or the downstream which were

the busy places to hold trade business. The traders

from upstream who wished to sell their agricultural

or forest goods would be charged with excise tax.

The traders from the opposite side who wished to

purchase the commodities would also be charged

with excise tax. These excise taxes helped

establishing the power which over time would form

the traditional Malay kingdom (Wells, 1993).

One of the references used to identify traditional

Malay cities in East Sumatra was a report from

Anderson (1823). In the report, there were

depictions or descriptions of every region he visited

including Deli, Serdang, Batubara, Asahan and

Bilah. Based on the descriptions, the structures of

the power center of the Malay Kingdom or the

traditional city of the Malay Kingdom were the

royal palaces, bandar or ports and densely

populated settlements (Anderson, 1840). In his

report, some of the areas he visited had been

categorized as traditional cities or Bandar such as

Labuhan in Deli, Tanjung Pura and Pangkalan

Bubun in Langkat, Rantau Panjang in Serdang,

Kampung Boga in Batubara, Kampung Balei

(Tanjung Balai) in Asahan, and some kampong

(villages) in southern Asahan which all had power

centers as well as Bandar or traditional ports

(Anseb, 1938).

4 THE EMERGENCE OF CITIES

AFTER THE PLANTATIONS

The first pioneer of plantation business in East

Sumatra was J. Nienhuys. His arrival to Deli after

hearing the story of the good quality and the large

profits of tobacco plants on the East Coast of

Sumatra. This information was obtained through a

Surabaya-born Arab named Sayid Abdullah Ibn

Umar Bilsagih (Said, 1977). During his first visit to

Sumatra, Nienhuys proved it by himself that

everything Sayid Abdullah had said about Deli

tobacco was true even though the amounts were too

small to be commodities. With the help of Sayid

Abdullah who gained the trust of the Sultan of Deli,

J. Nienhuys finally managed to get a land

concession to open a tobacco plantation in Deli. The

concession area for the first tobacco plantation was

located on the banks of the Deli River, which were

about 4,000 bouw. This concession was granted for

20 years. During the first 5 years, he was exempt

from tax but was required to pay 200 guilders per

year after (Kian, 1977).

Tobacco business initially failed and suffered

substantial losses, but Nienhuys insisted that Deli

land would bring huge profits, bigger than the losses

that he had been incurred. Its failure in

implementing the wholesale system and the

insistence of Van der Arend forced him to open

experimental plantation in the 75 ha of land he

rented in Tanjung Sepassai. He desperately needed

a lot of manpower for this experiment to work on

the vast land. The refusal of indigenous peasants

forced him to hire some of the Haji Jawa and their

followers from Penang Island. From this

experimental plantation, Nienhuys successfully

ICOSTEERR 2018 - International Conference of Science, Technology, Engineering, Environmental and Ramiﬁcation Researches

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produced 25 bales of tobacco worth f 0.48 per

pound. His persistence was proved when the

tobacco were exported to Rotterdam and later

gained high appreciation.

After the contract with Haji Jawa ended

unsatisfactorily, Nienhuys later brought Chinese

coolies from Penang Island and 88 Chinese coolies

directly from China near the planting season of

1865. At the end of 1865, they managed to produce

189 bales of good quality tobacco worth f. 2.51 per

pound in spite of the fact that they did not have any

knowledge about tobacco planting. In 1868, the

production cost reached 30,000 guilders but he

could make 67,000 guilders. The following year he

paid 36,400 guilders and made 87,200 guilders.

Nienhuys had proven that tobacco produced in Deli

was a very profitable product in the European

trading market and made Deli the world's best cigar

ingredient (S.

In order to run a larger business, more capital is

needed. Therefore, in 1869, Nienhuys founded Deli

Maatschappij, the first limited liability company

operating in the Dutch East Indies. Furthermore, he

established Senembah Maatschappij in 1871 and by

the end of 1873, there had been 15 onderneming, 13

in Deli and 1 each in Langkat and Serdang.

Arendsburg Tabak Mij. and Deli Batavia

Maatschappij were later built in 1875 and 1877

respectively. This number continued to grow, until

it reached 86 onderneming in 1884; 44 in Deli, 20

in Langkat, 9 in Serdang, and 3 in Padang Bedagai.

The expansion of onderneming in some areas

certainly took up a large area and spread out in some

areas in East Sumatra. This was due to the fact that

there were many investors making investments in

the plantation business which caused an impact on

economic improvement marked by the

establishment of new cities (Volker, 1918).

The colonial government built new cities for the

administrative centers of government, economic

activity, and the buffer zones or centers of periphery

(the onderneming in the hinterland). The colonial

cities were usually built on crossroads of roads,

railways, and rivers. Medan, for instance, originated

from the construction of Deli Maatschappij office in

1880 on the banks of the Deli River near the railway

station and the highway leading to Belawan.

Starting from here, Medan later developed into a

major city in the Residency of East Sumatra. With

similar patterns, other colonial cities were built,

such as Binjai, Tebing Tinggi, Kisaran, Pematang

Siantar and Rantau Prapat, in addition to other small

cities like Lubuk Pakam, Sungai Rampah, Pancur

Batu, Bangun Purba, and so on.

The emergence of colonial cities in strategic

places, largely due to the construction of roads and

railways, had great implications for the existence of

traditional port cities. The cutting of the old

channels with rivers as the main mode of transport

resulted in the changes of trade routes. If prior to the

construction of roads and railways river became the

main alternative where all economic activities were

conducted, then afterwards its role was largely

taken over by land transport. In fact, the source of

income of the traditional rulers was their hegemony

over the river. As a result, economic profits were

dwindling and the roles of traditional rulers were

waning. Along with this, some traditional cities

suffered setbacks; some even moved their power

centers close to newly built colonial cities. Sultanate

of Deli, for instance, Labuhan in the downstream of

Deli River to the more upstream area of Medan

Putri, moved alongside the newly developed Medan

in 1887. Afterwards, Labuhan then lost ground

(Sinar, 1986).

Sultanate of Serdang also had to move his palace

from Rantau Panjang in the downstream of the Ular

River, not to Lubuk Pakam but to Galuh

Perbaungan, a more upstream place in 1886

(Syaifuddin, 2003). Along with this, the abandoned

Rantau Panjang also suffered a setback. Later, King

of Padang also had to move its power center from

Bandar Khalifah in the downstream to the upstream

of Padang River at Bandar Sakti, Tebing Tinggi,

where the administrative center of Padang Bedagai

onder-afdeling took place. The King of Bedagai had

to move his governance office to Firdaus, Sungai

Rampah, about 6 km to the upstream of Tanjung

Beringin in the late 1920s, although the palace

remained at the downstream of Tanjung Beringin.

The development of Tanjung Beringin port city was

then like "not going anywhere" (Edi Sumarno,

2006).

5 CONCLUSIONS

From the descriptions above, it can be concluded

that the construction of roads and railways in East

Sumatra as a part of the expansion of the plantation

economy, greatly affected the existence of

"traditional port cities" in East Sumatra. The

impacts might be different, but it was still due to the

construction of land transports. The "port cities"

The Transformation of Urban Structure after the Plantation Establishment in East Sumatera 1863-1942

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suffered setbacks in the places where land transports

were built and followed by the establishment of new

colonial cities. This pattern occurred on Labuhan as

the "traditional port city" of Sultanate of Deli,

Rantau Panjang as the "traditional port city" of

Sultanate of Serdang, Tanjung Beringin as the

"traditional port city" of Kingdom of Bedagai, and

Bandar Khalifah as the "traditional port city" of the

Kingdom of Padang. On the other hand, in places

where the development of land transports was

relatively small or even none at all, the rivers

remained as the main mode of transport, for instance

in Southern Asahan afdeling and all Bengkalis

afdeling. In this case, the traditional port cities

continued to survive. This pattern occurred to the

traditional port city of Labuhan Bilik in Labuhan

Batu onder-afdeling and Bagan Siapi-api,

Pekanbaru, Siak Sri Indrapura, and Bengkalis in

Bengkalis afdeling. A different pattern occurred in

Tanjung Balai and Tanjung Pura. These traditional

port cities survived despite the fact that land

transports had already reached both places. Tanjung

Balai kept being maintained by the Sultanate of

Asahan as its central government as it turned out

solely due to the fact that it was also the central

government of Asahan afdeling. As for Tanjung

Pura, it kept being maintained by the Sultanate of

Langkat for he objected to move it to Binjai. This

reluctance was most likely on account of Binjai was

not located on the same river as Tanjung Pura.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This article couldn’t have been possible thanks to

funding of “Penelitian DRPM skema Penelitian

Dasar” with the contract number

73/UN5.2.3.1/PPM/KP-DRPM/2018. We also

thanks to Lembaga Penelitian Universitas Sumatera

Utara which has accomodated this research. Besides

that, we also thanks to Arsip Nasional Republik

Indonesia becasue the sources of this article are

widely available there.

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