Leiden University Student Repository

Willigen, Mees van (2025)

Van koffieboon tot kopje koffie: De handelsketen van Nederlands-Indië gedurende het cultuurstelsel (1830-1870) Een analyse van de rol van commissie De Vriese (1857-1862) in machtsrelaties en wereldwijde verbondenheid Mees

Bachelor thesis | Geschiedenis (BA)

This thesis examines the coffee trade chain in the Dutch East Indies during the Cultivation System (1830–1870), with a specific focus on the role of the De Vriese Commission (1857–1862). Through a detailed analysis of both primary sources from the De Vriese archive and secondary literature, this study reveals how coffee production and trade were embedded in global economic networks and shaped by colonial power structures. The research investigates each phase of the coffee commodity chain—from cultivation and processing in the colonies to transport and consumption in the Netherlands. Special attention is given to how scientific interventions, such as those by the De Vriese Commission, influenced agricultural practices, labor conditions, and trade patterns. This thesis argues that the coffee trade exemplifies both the asymmetrical power relations between the Netherlands and its colonies and the increasing transimperial connectivity of the nineteenth-century global economy.

Coffee, cultivation system, trans-imperial connections, power relations

Author

Willigen, Mees van

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Specialisation

Economische geschiedenis

Supervisors

Groten, M.

ECTS Credits

15

Language

nl