This article exploits a unique district-level dataset to investigate the relationship between sugar cultivation, property rights systems and land distribution in colonial Java around the turn of the twentieth century. We demonstrate a negative and statistically significant relationship between sugar cultivation and the landholder Gini. An IV strategy, employing a newly computed index of sugar suitability as instrument, suggests that this effect is causal. It is argued that sugar production in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries stimulated the expansion and persistence of communal landholding. This communal landholding consequently led to more equally distributed plots among landholders in the early twentieth century. We emphasize the importance of local property rights institutions in mitigating the effects of export production on socioeconomic outcomes.

本文利用一个独特的地区级数据集来调查 20 世纪之交殖民地爪哇的糖种植、产权制度和土地分配之间的关系。我们证明了糖种植与土地所有者基尼系数之间存在负相关且在统计上显着的关系。IV 策略采用新计算的糖适宜性指数作为工具，表明这种影响是因果关系。有人认为，19 世纪和 20 世纪初的食糖生产刺激了公有土地的扩张和持续存在。这种集体土地所有权导致 20 世纪初土地所有者之间的土地分配更加平均。