Stories from Deli

Here I show a settlement for the field time of Lim Seng Moy, who served with the Deli-Mij in 1916. Any coolie has his card there, as it is printed here, with a credit at the front, a debit at the back. So that’s the calculation about 8 months field time, after which he was put in the fermentation shed
with sorting and bundling still earned for about 3 months at least f. 12.— per month and at the time of transition between barn work and new field time could still earn with pre-work on the fields.

According to calculation, the field coolies earn in 8 months field time average f. 26.37, but in the fermentation barn is the average less. In a large society the annual average was, calculated over a period of five years, f. 18.37 per month. After the settlement of Lim Seng Moy’s field time, one follows
settlement of a whole kongsie at the Senembah IVD also for the field time. In such a way, all companies address the bill in their Chinese field coolies, which matches the conditions of the contract.

Broersma, Oostkust van Sumatra