The Ngo Ho Tjiang ''

Kongsi Kongsi () is a Hokkien transcription term meaning "company", especially businesses which have been incorporated. However, the word has other meanings under different historical contexts. ''Kongsi'' were most commonly known as Chinese social organ ...

'' (; the 'Five Tiger Generals'), sometimes spelled Ngo Houw Tjiang, was a powerful consortium that dominated the opium ''

pacht The institution of the ''pacht'' or ''pacht-stelsel'' (revenue farm, pl. ''pachten'') was a system of tax farming in the Dutch Republic. In this system tax is not collected by the government, but by a private individual who has leased the right to ...

'' or

tax farm A tax is a compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed on a taxpayer (an individual or legal entity) by a governmental organization in order to fund government spending and various public expenditures (regional, local, or n ...

of the Residency of Batavia, Dutch East Indies (now

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

) in the early to mid-nineteenth century. The pacht was an outsourced tax operation, collecting customs, excise and indirect duties on behalf of the Dutch colonial government. The five partners of the consortium were the ''pachters''

Lauw Ho Lauw Ho (; died in 1863), also spelled Lauw Houw, was a prominent tax farmer ('' pachter''), tycoon and ancestor of the Lauw-Sim-Zecha family, part of the 'Cabang Atas' gentry of the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). Between 1845 and 1861, L ...

, Gouw Kang Soei, ''Luitenant-titulair der Chinezen'', Tan Ling, Khouw Siong Bo and Tan Kong Boen. The name of the kongsi refers to the five generals of the 14th-century Chinese classic novel, '' The Romance of the Three Kingdoms''. Of all colonial-era ''pachten'', opium was by far the most lucrative; and the five partners of Ngo Ho Tjiang were consequently among the wealthiest and most powerful tycoons of early to mid-nineteenth century Java. Ngo Ho Tjiang had very close ties to the colonial Chinese bureaucracy. One of the partners, ''Luitenant-titulair'' Gouw Kang Soei, sat on the

Kong Koan A kong koan (; Dutch: ''Chinese Raad''; Indonesian: ''Raad Tjina'') or "chinese council", was a high government body in the major capitals of the Dutch East Indies, consisting of all incumbent Chinese officers in those cities. It acted as both a ...

('Chinese Council') of Batavia, while the consortium's administrator, Lim Soe Keng Sia, was a son-in-law of Tan Eng Goan, the 1st ''Majoor der Chinezen'' of Batavia and the city's most senior Chinese official.

References

{{reflist Partnerships History of taxation Taxation in Indonesia Abolished taxes Pachters