But besides the rent which the cultivator paid for his land, he was liable to many more grievous burdens. The great objection to a tax levied on land, and consisting in a certain share of its produce, arises from the effect that it has in obstructing improvements; but there were other imposts and contributions exacted from the peasantry, which were positively and immediately oppressive. A ground-rent for houses, called _pachúmplang_, was prevalent over many parts of the island, amounting in the provinces subject to the native princes, to one-sixth or seventh of a dollar for each dwelling or cottage. The cultivator, in some parts of the country, instead of paying this tax, was obliged to pay for his fruit trees. In some districts there was a capitation tax; arbitrary fines were levied in others, and contributions on the birth or marriage of the children of the superior, regent, or the prince. There were several charges made on the villages, that had a more immediate reference to their own advantage, but which nevertheless were felt as burdens; such as contributions for the repair of roads, of bridges, for the making or repair of water-courses, dams, and other works necessary for irrigation. Demands on the inhabitants for charitable and religious objects or institutions are universal, though not very oppressive. Every village has its priest, who depends upon the contributions of the peasantry for his support, receiving so much rice or _pári_ as his salary. The taxes on the internal trade of the country extended to every article of manufacture, produce, or consumption, and being invariably farmed out to Chinese, who employed every mode of extortion that their ingenuity could invent, or the passive disposition of the people would allow them to practice, constituted an inexhaustible source of oppression: to these we may add the feudal services and forced deliveries required under the Dutch government.
The following observations extracted from two reports, the one on _Bantam_, at the western side of the island, and the other on _Pasúruan_, almost at its other extremity, were unhappily by no means inapplicable to the greatest part of the intermediate space, and contain by no means an exaggerated representation. "The holders of _púsaka_ lands in _Bantam_ were very seldom the occupants; they generally remained about court, and on the approach of the _pári_ harvest deputed agents to collect their share of the crop. But what proportion their share would bear to the whole produce does not appear to be well defined: it is by one stated at a fifth, and by some (which I suspect to be nearest the truth) at as much as the cultivator could afford to pay, the agents of the proprietors being the judges of the quantity. The proprietors of the _púsakas_ have also a claim to the services of the cultivators: a certain number of them are always in attendance at the houses of their chiefs, and on journies are employed in carrying their persons and baggage. The lands not _púsaka_ used to pay the same proportion of produce to the Sultan as the others did to the proprietors; but the cultivators of the royal dominions laboured under greater disadvantages than the others. Every chief or favourite about court had authority to employ them in the most menial offices; and chiefs possessing _púsakas_, often spared their own people and employed the others. The Sultan always had a right to enforce the culture of any article which he thought proper to direct; and, in such cases, a price was paid upon the produce, which was generally very inadequate to the expences."