The situation on Maluku had the special attention of the governor-general Van der Capellen. He would visit the group of islands himself in 1824 in an effort to convince the population that the colonial government was doing good as well. Van der Capellen, born in Utrecht in 1778, during his education at the universities of Utrecht and Göttingen was influenced by works of Abbé Raynal. The last named had shined a light on the dark side of colonialism in his Histoire philosophique et politique des établissements et du commerce des Européens dans lex deux indes. In the first part he had also given big attention to the Dutch actions on Maluku and he plead for a more enlightened colonial rule. This didn’t cause Van der Capellen to be a radical reformer. In January 1815 he reported to King Willem I that, ‘however it’s very needed to introduce more liberal principals in the East Indies, (...) they had to be very careful not to be dragged out be theories, of which the implementation isn’t on time, or the people aren’t ready for it’. This was a good sign for the king to name Van der Capellen as one of the commissionaire-generals.

One of the most important matters Van der Capellen he had to worry about in Maluku, was the question whether the colonial government had to cling to the consisting monopoly of spices, or it had to switch to a more liberal exploitation system. Different reports had already convinced him that the monopoly system wasn’t good for the population at all. Also, the so-called ‘hongi-trips’ – during which ‘illegal’ spice trees were destroyed – and the other methods of which the VOC maintained to their monopoly, he discarded. ‘Humanity is shivering with that’, said Van der Capellen. ‘and people ask whether we can still maintain such a policy in our century’.

On Ambon the governor-general decided to propose the termination of the spice monopoly to King Willem I, while he was making an definitive end to the hongi-trips. A proclamation in Dutch and Malay by Van der Capellen was aimed at the population. Many Ambonese should not have been able to read the words of Van der Capellen because of the low level of Malay language in the archipelago at that time. ‘We haven't (...) come to you to punish you, but to safe you’, it was named, and was added that the population should see the colonial servants as ‘protectors’. These servants would – as Van der Capellen announced – be totally different than the former VOC-servants. ‘Receive the servants which we will send to you as bringers of peace which will announce prosperity in our name. They will not cut down your spice trees, but teach you how to treat and maintain is’. ‘They will not destroy your fields but teach you how to improve them to make more profit; they will not destroy your boats, but bring you to the harbors, so you can merchant (...) they will stop no one in performing their religion, but will learn you the pleasures of good people’. The colonial state as ‘good dad’: no miracle that Van der Capellen was once named ‘ethic avant la lettre’.

The governor-general wasn’t a supporter of an entire liberalization of the economical life in the Dutch-Indies. His stay in the East had thought him once again – in his own words – ‘things that are done 3000 miles away which are seen as liberal over here, can become something very illiberal’. The colonial government also had the task to protect the local population against local potents as well as European powers. However the government rules of December 1818 obliged the colonial government to support the settlement of European plantation-firms, Van der Capellen tried to block those in all possible manners. In his eyes they were nothing more than ‘a paraiting flower which strangles along dark paths, around the local population, suffocates it and obstructs it in their growth’, an explanation which was also pointed at by writer Johannes Olivier. In his Land- en zeetogten in Nederland’s Indië he wrote about these ‘cheap barbars’ which ‘saw their farmers equal to the animals’ and treated ‘both with the same inhumanity', 'without other target, than the most profit for their work’. A remark should be made here. The government could miss the competition of the private land owners very good, depending on the tax on coffee from the Preanger and Cheribon (Cirebon) regions. Maybe that Van der Capelle’s judgment over the private landowners was a little prejudiced.

However, in any way the European farming firms came under fire in the Javanese principalities. The Europeans and Chinese here rented farms, from the local royals as well as from several local servants which were paid out in estate (or apanages) The Europeans and Chinese did gain sovereign rights with that as well, among that the right for employment by people living on their soil. The resident of Jogjakarta and Soerakarta (Solo), H.G. Nahuys van Burgst, encouraged the renting of the soil by the Europeans, this in accordance to the sultan of Jogja, which didn’t get less money of it and thanked the resident with a big piece of private land on the slopes of Merapi – Bedaja – where he only had to pay a low rent for.

Van der Capellen thought several things were unacceptable. In May 1823 he decided that from 31 January the next year every rental contract would be dropped. The rental lords had to pay back the rent – often paid years in advance – and had to pay damages to their renters for investments. This law caused problems everywhere: among the rental lords which had other views of perspective; among the Jogja and Solo aristocracy which had trusted the government in the name of Nahuys van Burgst, which had already spend most of their rent already and now had to pay it back; among those who lived on the lands and suddenly had to produce indigo instead of coffee or rice.

Partially these actions were driven by economical motives, but Van der Capellen alto thought about the protection of the population against the repression and anything disorderly. The Dutch governmental servants had to take care of this protection. The residents were urged to stop anything bad happening against the locals. An important mean to this saw Van der Capellen in the rotation of the residents in their regions. Besides this, the regents had to be chairman of the local estate-council, they had to stimulate agriculture and work in their region, control the irrigation, bridges and roads and they were completely responsible for the financial administration in their region. In contrary to the VOC the colonial aspiration had a lot of everyday life aspects to focus on. The job of the residents were that big that some got an extra assistant-resident, while their so-called ‘surveyors on regional income’ were added.

Van der Capellen thought that the Dutch governmental servants had to cooperate closely with the local pendants. He didn’t mistrust the capacities and the meaning of the local royals and servants, like Raffles, Van Hogendorp and many other Dutch servants did. Van der Capellen thought that a colony couldn’t be controlled without help of the local elite. In practice the Dutch residents and assisting-residents didn’t interact with the Javanese regents, but they were seen as ‘extra’ people in the government, but Van der Capellen didn’t agree on that. The power, which ‘with only words and without the everlasting violence (..) could lead thousands of subjects’ could only exist when there was a ‘perfect agreement in language, religion, color and habits and they do not have to be only a part of the European servant.’ Van der Capellen decided in 1820 that the ‘Regents are trusted members of the local government and are trusted by the residents; which will treat them as their younger brothers’.

The enlightened character of the rule of Van der Capellen didn’t only become visible in the way he thought the Indies should be governed, but also in the relative boom in education, science and culture in the colony. The governor-general offered free construction estates near Weltevreden for the construction of a real opera house. Until that moment the amateur society ‘Inschikkelijkheid en Lof’ played their pieces in a by the British built emergency theater, built from bamboo. The opera house – designed by Lieutenant-Colonel J.C. Schultze and still in use today as Gedung Kesenian Jakarta – was opened in December 1821 with a performance of Othello of Shakespeare. Besides society ‘De Harmonie’ there now was a second building which could serve to please the life of the Europeans in Batavia.

Besides this Van der Capellen stimulated scientific education in the archipelago. He traveled to the Indies together with teacher in natural history C.G.C. Reinwardt to act as ‘managing director in effect of agriculture, arts and science’. Reinwardt first took care that a garden for ‘herbs and the growth of crops and agricultural tests’ was organized in Buitenzorg (Kebun Raya in Bogor). He created an unique foundation for study on tropical flora, located near the somewhat bombastic palace of the governor-general. ‘A nice garden of Eden (...) in which the useful is combined with the beauty’, as a visitor described the garden, in which ‘nature and art are competing about the same to create a paradise’. Besides the foundation of the Garden of the Country – nowadays to be visited as Kebun Raya Bogor – Reinwardt took care of the introduction of the smallpox vaccine (by using Islamic leaders), he became chairman of the ‘Bataafsch Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen’ (Batavian Society of Arts and Science) and he was the founder of the first governmental school in the Indies in Weltevreden.

The study of local languages and cultures was also stimulated by the government. As said the civil servants were obliged to learn the local language. In 1822 P.P. Roorda van Eysinga was appointed to the ‘Bureau voor Inlandse Zaken en Algemene Secretarie’ (Bureau of Local Affairs and Common Secretary) for a study on the Malay, Javanese and Sundanese languages. He published the Dutch-Malay and Malay-Dutch dictionary in 1824-1825. He also traveled through the biggest part of the archipelago, which he reported between 1830 and 1832 in Verschillende reizen en lotgevallen (Different travels and faiths). But Roorda van Eysinga could do more. He also rhymed Nederlands roem in Oost-Indië, (Dutch fame in the East-Indies), in which you can read the following:

Wie leidde ons op het spoor in ’t rijke der wetenschappen,
En klom manmoedig voort tot de hoogste trappen
Des tempels, die ’t geheim van volk en taal ontsloot,
Waardoor voor ’s lands bestaan de rijkse bronaâr vloot?
Wie schiep dat wijs bestuur, dat alles vorsten zaken
Naauwkeurig overwog, en voor ’t belang bleef waken
Van volk en Oppermagt, tot onderling geluk?
Capellen deed dien stap. Hij wrocht dat meesterstuk!.

More knowledge of the local languages sometimes also lead to a bigger understanding of the local cultures and societies. Especially the judgment over the ‘normal’ local population became – also under the influence of the enlightened spirit of time – more positive. Roorda van Eysinga wrote: ‘I’m ought to repair as much as possible of those things that the people before me have done to the nation.’ The bad name of the Javanese was mainly due to ‘a certain kind of readers, (...) which like to hear about murders, looting and everything they want to hear’. Java was also a very quiet place for the Europeans to stay. Especially the hinterlands were still very good, and there was an Arcadia where the ‘wild noble’ lived. ‘Truly, the faith of many Javanese is something to be proud of’, as Roorda van Eysinga.