Wealthy Man in Jakarta with 200 Servants but Harsh—One Finally Seeks Revenge
Having a super-sized home naturally cannot be managed single-handedly. The homeowner must inevitably hire others to assist with domestic tasks. This is precisely what a wealthy European resident of Jakarta did in the 1770s, namely Reinier de Klerk.
He is recorded as employing 200 household workers (PRT) or servants, who at the time were called slaves or babu. For context, de Klerk was the Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies from 1778 to 1780. In addition to being a ruler, he owned businesses and frequently flaunted his wealth through grand and luxurious homes.
One of his residences was located in the Molenvliet area, now Jalan Gajah Mada in Central Jakarta. The building has since been repurposed as the National Archives Building.
Such a grand home was certainly not managed alone. Like other Europeans of that era, de Klerk employed hundreds of servants. All these workers lived in simple houses provided around his residence.
“In the simple houses on de Klerk’s estate, for example, hundreds of slaves lived there,” revealed Adolf Heuken in Tempat-Tempat Bersejarah di Jakarta (2016).
The hundreds of workers were divided into detailed tasks. Some handled household chores such as sweeping, washing, and cooking. Others worked outside the home to manage the gardens and lands. Even a dozen servants were specifically assigned to play musical instruments to entertain guests.
Unfortunately, de Klerk was also known for often acting harshly towards his servants. One of the most popular stories related to this comes from a servant named Leendert Miero.
Miero was a young Jewish man from Russia who arrived in Batavia in 1775. He then worked as a servant in de Klerk’s luxurious home.
However, after three years of work, Miero made a mistake that enraged his boss. He was caught sleeping while on duty. De Klerk, in a great fury, then punished him with punches and 50 lashes of the whip.
The incident made Miero swear to repay his boss’s treatment. However, the revenge intended was not through violence, but through success and wealth.
“By the ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, one day I will buy all this house and land!”
Miero then decided to quit being a servant and switched to becoming a gold entrepreneur. His determination gradually bore fruit. A few years later, he succeeded in becoming a successful businessman.
Historian Herald van de Linde in Jakarta: History of Misunderstood City (2020) recounts that in 1818, Miero managed to buy the property belonging to Reinier de Klerk. He even regularly held grand parties every year in that house as a form of commemoration of the event he had experienced.
“Every year, Miero regularly held grand parties in that house, exactly on the day he was once whipped, as a form of remembrance,” wrote Herald van de Linde.
Another success that recorded the former servant of de Klerk in history was his ownership of vast land in southern Batavia. There, he built a magnificent house that later became known to the public as ‘Pondok Gede’.
Today, that name has become the toponym for the Pondok Gede area in East Jakarta.