Utilization Of Archives In Historical Research Of Pepper Plantage Lampongsche Districten During The Liberal Economy Period In The Early XX Century

Pemanfaatan Arsip Dalam Research Historis Pepper Plantage Lampongsche Districten Pada Masa Ekonomi Liberal Awal Abad XX

Abstrak

This study aims to analyze the use of archives in Lampung pepper research during the liberal economic period of the early XX century. The research uses historical methods that are operationalized through search, selection, criticism, cross-comparison, interpretation, and historiography. The research corpus consists of 39 primary documents in the form of colonial government reports and publications, trade statistics, contemporary newspaper articles, and maps and visual documentation. Sources were obtained from the National Archives of the Republic of Indonesia, the National Library of the Republic of Indonesia, the Lampung Provincial Library and Archives Office, Delpher, Trove–National Library of Australia, and the KITLV–Leiden University Libraries collection. Digital searches use variations of the keywords "Lampong", "Lampongsche Districten", "peper", "zwarte peper", "peperhandel", "peperprijs", and "uitvoer van peper". Sources are selected based on their geographical, temporal, thematic, clarity of provenance, and verifiability. The results of the study show that Lampung pepper remained in demand in the export market at the beginning of the XX century, but the trade of this commodity was characterized by price instability. The trade news of April 13, 1911 showed the involvement of pepper in the export flow of Dutch East Indies commodities to Europe. Vulnerability increased after the 1929 crisis when a decline in export commodity prices suppressed Lampung's pepper trade. Thus, the development of Lampung pepper was determined by local production conditions, colonial economic structure, and changes in the international market. The use of digital archives allows for a more extensive, comparative, and verified search of these changes.