Colonial discipline targeted worker mobility and communication, not just labor binding.

Evidence

This is not quite a state of emergency but it is coming close. Some of these measures could be construed as reasonable strategies to deal with “vagabonds” and “robber bands,” if this is what they were. But the overall plan suggests that Locker de Bruijne took the rumors of popular revolt more seriously than his report admits. Each of the measures would effectively constrain and contain the movement of estate workers, intercept the lines of communication between Gayos, Malays, and Chinese estate coolies, and impose more stringent disciplinary measures. No enquiry was made to investigate the reasons for the “unrest” offered by Valck or the workers themselves. Like the first Coolie Ordinance three years later, Locker de Bruijne’s strategy was to keep workers bound to their contracts, but, as importantly, to keep them confined, isolated, and in place. — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 1222

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the later Coolie Ordinance and to theories of colonial labor control as spatial containment rather than merely contractual. — connects to: Colonial telecom infrastructure control persisted through independence — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 314