Jan Breman is emeritus professor of comparative sociology at the University of Amsterdam. He continues his scholarly research, mainly focused on work and labour in Asia, as Fellow at the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research and as a Honorary Fellow at the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam

• Prologue, Chapter I. The Company as a Territorial Power Chapter II. The Introduction of Forced Cultivation Chapter III. From Trading Company to State Enterprise Chapter IV. Government Regulated Exploitation versus Private Agribusiness Chapter V. Unfree Labour as a Condition for Progress Chapter VI. The Coffee Regime under the Cultivation System Chapter VII. Winding Up the Priangan System of Governance Chapter VII. Eclipse of the Coffee Regime from the Sunda Highlands, Epilogue, Bibliography