Salatiga 1870s – 1930s: Institutionalization of Structural Inequality in the Age of Free Competition

DOI

10.2991/aebmr.k.210305.008How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Institutionalization, Structural Inequality, Free Competition, Salatiga

Abstract

Salatiga was an economically potential region. It was gifted with fertile soil, good climate, and strategic location. It used to bring fortune to its inhabitants, long ago, when the island of Java still play an important role in intra-insular Indonesian trade. As the trade relation changed when Western powers came, when for the first time an unequal relation positioned Salatiga as part of periphery country working for the fortune of core countries formed, this region lost its fortune. The economy of the region became inward-oriented and driven to a non-commercial direction for two and a half century since then. Only after the implementation of liberal policies, started in 1870, this region began to gain back its economic power. This paper employs the concept of structural inequality to answer the question of why actually this can happen. Is it because liberal policies, as claimed, were able to tear down the inequality that cursed this region in the previous period? By a careful reading and analysis of resources consisted of government official documents, publications from the same time, books, articles, newspapers, and photos, I can conclude that the hypothesis wasn’t true. Later data from the 1930s showed that most population of the region still lingered in poverty. What actually happened during the Liberal Period was an institutionalization of structural inequality formed in the previous period. Certain series of policies were implemented to organize a well-build, extensive, and effective system, but it was never a system that accommodates the indigenous inhabitants. The system solely stood on the side of private entrepreneurs who already and about to invest their money in this region. In facing this, indigenous people were actively playing their role, but all of those were only about being a second layer economic player.

Copyright

© 2021, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Yuanita Wahyu Pratiwi
PY  - 2021
DA  - 2021/03/08
TI  - Salatiga 1870s – 1930s: Institutionalization of Structural Inequality in the Age of Free Competition
BT  - Proceedings of the 2nd Southeast Asian Academic Forum on Sustainable Development (SEA-AFSID 2018)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 38
EP  - 43
SN  - 2352-5428
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/aebmr.k.210305.008
DO  - 10.2991/aebmr.k.210305.008
ID  - Pratiwi2021
ER  -