The Ngo Ho Tjiang ''

Kongsi Kongsi () is a Hokkien transcription of a Chinese 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 Chines ...

'' (; 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 Revenue Farm, tax farming in Dutch Republic, the Dutch Republic and its Dutch colonial empire, colonial empire. In this system tax is not collecte ...

'' or

tax farm Farming or tax-farming is a technique of financial management in which the management of a variable revenue stream is assigned by contract, legal contract to a third party and the holder of the revenue stream receives fixed periodic rents from t ...

of the Residency of Batavia,

Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies (; ), was a Dutch Empire, Dutch colony with territory mostly comprising the modern state of Indonesia, which Proclamation of Indonesian Independence, declared independence on 17 Au ...

(now

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

) 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 ('Chinese Council') of Batavia, while the consortium's administrator,

Lim Soe Keng Sia Lim Soe Keng Sia (c. 1819–1883), also known as Liem Soe King Sia, Soe King Sia or Lim Soukeng Sia, was a ''Pacht, Pachter'', or revenue farmer, in Batavia, Dutch East Indies, Batavia, capital of the Dutch East Indies, best known for his rivalry wi ...

, 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 Taxation in the Dutch East Indies Partnerships History of taxation Abolished taxes Pachters