A Philological Review of the Banten Sultanate Business Letters in 17th - 19th Century

Abstract

One of the products of the ancient culture created by the Indonesian ancestors is old manuscripts. Every kingdom is assumed to be a scriptorium, producing various royal manuscripts and documents. From a number of catalogues of these ancient manuscripts, the genre of the texts can be determined. This paper discusses a specific group of manuscripts: the business letters. So far, the ancient business letters have not been studied. The purpose of this study is to promote the local wisdom in the ancient Indonesian letters so that it will be known and made use of, not only for the significance of science, but also the knowledge of the ancient trade strategies. Based on the descriptions provided by the manuscripts, thirteen out of fifty letters from the Banten Sultanate were business letters. The problem of this study is how were the text and the caracter of these letters. To get accurate results, the thirteen business letters from Banten were examined in philological methods, with the texts critically edited. The results demonstrate that the business letters from the Banten Sultanate were international business letters written from the 17th to 19th centuries.