This article examines the consequences of the opium concession system in the Dutch East Indies—a nineteenth-century institution through which the Dutch would auction the monopolistic right to sell opium in a given locality. The winners of these auctions were invariably ethnic Chinese. The poverty of Java's indigenous population combined with opium's addictive properties meant that many individuals fell into destitution. The author argues that this institution put in motion a self-reinforcing arrangement that enriched one group and embittered the other with consequences that persist to the present day. Consistent with this theory, the author finds that individuals living today in villages where the opium concession system once operated report higher levels of out-group intolerance compared to individuals in nearby unexposed counterfactual villages. These findings improve the understanding of the historical conditions that structure antagonisms between competing groups.

本文考察了荷属东印度群岛鸦片特许权制度的后果——这是一个 19 世纪的制度，荷兰人通过该制度拍卖在特定地区出售鸦片的垄断权。这些拍卖的获胜者都是华裔。爪哇土著人口的贫困加上鸦片的成瘾性意味着许多人陷入贫困。作者认为，该机构实施了一种自我强化的安排，使一个群体变得富有，而使另一个群体变得痛苦，其后果一直持续到今天。符合这个理论，作者发现，与附近未暴露的反事实村庄的个人相比，如今生活在鸦片特许权制度曾经运作过的村庄的个人报告的群体外不容忍程度更高。这些发现提高了对构成竞争群体之间对抗的历史条件的理解。