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archive access 1.04.02, inventory number 3497, page 29

On 14 February 1777, a report was made about Chinese people living under Touban and Lassuw who were allowed to obtain wood partly through purchase and partly through exchange for opium. The Chinese from Rembang and Padjangkoengang bought and traded their woodworks in the same way wherever they could get them, even from the forest people of the Blandong. This practice should be tolerated with a blind eye, as long as it did not go too far, because it provided a means of living for those people and this tolerance was the greatest protection for the Blandong. The population size and number of villages there should always be considered the main point. Through this wood trade in the mentioned districts under Rembang, a good quantity of opium was also sold annually. The sale of opium would necessarily have to decrease or stop as soon as the Chinese could no longer obtain woodworks from the forest people along the coasts for transport to Batavia. Besides this, stopping that trade would greatly depopulate the coasts along Java from Toeban to Padjangkoengang. The forest Javanese would be forced to leave with their buffaloes from the Company's territory, where they were only kept because of the profits from their woodworks, and go to Blora, Djipang and other places where more rice was available and it was easier to make a living. The Chinese would also leave for elsewhere, which would cause the small trade as well as the building of vessels for it to either stop or at least decrease. The Company's taxes and income would then suffer. The writer confirmed the statements of residents Domis van Hogendorp and Keijzer mentioned above. In answer to the question whether the transport of such a large quantity of woodworks by private individuals was harmful to the Company, the writer respectfully stated that the transport of wood from Grissee from the sultan's district Djipang did not harm the Company, and that from Joana and occasionally from Japara, Samarang, Paccalongang and Tagal was not harmful either, but rather served to preserve the forests and to allow the forest people a small living. This was the case when the transport did not extend to heavy wood but only to light wood that could be cut from old, unsuitable trees that prevented the growth of others by overshadowing them. The woodworks that were exported in larger quantities and of greater weight at Touban, Lassum, Rembang and Padjangkoengang were partly bought in Keijzer's district Blora.