Trade and Ethnicity: Business Ethics and the Glory of Maritime Trade of The Makassar’s Wajorese in the 18th Century

Abstract

This article aims to trace the role of the book Amanna Gappa, also known as Ade Alopping-loping Bicarana Pabalue, as a set of business ethics practiced by the Wajo ethnic group in the city of Makassar in the 18th century. The Wajo people of Makassar at that time were one of the tribes that lost the war between the Goa-Tallo Sultanate and the alliance of the Sultanate of Bone and the Dutch trading company VOC (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie) in the 1660s. The Wajo people were famous as great traders in Southeast Asia and their communities are scattered across the Indonesian archipelago. This article argues that one of the factors for their success in maritime trade is their ability to create business rules and ethics in maritime navigation and trade. Some scholars refer to this set of rules as the law of navigation or the law of commerce. However, this research seeks to explain that this set of rules was a set of maritime business ethics practiced by the Wajorese as traders and sailors. The Wajo people were not rulers of a sovereign state and were unlikely to have been able to enforce their business ethics as a law.

Between tough voyages and empowering tourism: Can Muslim Bugis seafarers tackle the maritime-sector crises in Indonesia?

“…The researchers noticed that the shift in sailing activities is the proper condition in the contemporary era. The sea, which was the source of glory in the colonial era, had turned into a crisis when the Dutch controlled the archipelago's trading route system (Sulistyo, 2020). In the era following Indonesia's independence, uncertain sea conditions also made people have to change directions in search of other sources of livelihood.…”

“…Many studies have been conducted on the glorious history of the Bugis commercial sailing tradition. For example, Bambang Sulistyo revealed the success of the Bugis as maritime traders because of their ability to formulate an international trade law called Amanna Gappa in the 18 th century (Sulistyo, 2020). Mane and Ferse also discussed the success of the Bugis in selling Trepang, a type of fish that was the local commodity, as an export product with a high selling value (Máñez & Ferse, 2010).…”

Co-governance, Transregional Maritime Conventions, and Indigenous Customary Practices Among Subsistence Fishermen in Ende, Indonesia

“…Endenese rules reflect a blend of local beliefs and ethics with more general conventions found in classic nautical codices (Nooteboom, 1936). Treatises include the Undang Undang Laut Melaka (Liaw and Ahmad, 2003), the Makassar Annals and Buginese or Wajo Lontara from Ammanna Gappa (Noorduyn, 1957;Sulistyo, 2020), local adat from South Sulawesi polities such as Bone (Friedericy, 1932), and the broader Islamic jurisprudence that dominated maritime commerce in the previous centuries (Anand, 1981;Khalilieh, 2019;Azeem, 2020). Examples of transregional principles include the determination of the right of way, anchorage and navigation mechanics, boat design and building, and sailing techniques and directions, with the latter being determined by the type of vessel and mostly following Buginese practices (Ammarell, 2002b).…”

“…Most interestingly, works such as Ammanna Gappa also include what can be best described as a set of ethics or precepts regarding business in maritime navigation and trade (Sulistyo, 2020). Close to this moral philosophy that governs individual behavior is the belief in the observance of religious Islamic principles in conducting commercial activities such as distributing or buying goods, pecuniary transactions, and the hiring of people.…”

“…Close to this moral philosophy that governs individual behavior is the belief in the observance of religious Islamic principles in conducting commercial activities such as distributing or buying goods, pecuniary transactions, and the hiring of people. The Buginese and Wajorese polities that adhered to different versions of this code all were unified in the notion that as Muslims their actions were accountable to Allah, the causa prima that governs and controls the universe (Khalilieh, 2019;Sulistyo, 2020). Essential values to guide conducts were to be found in verses of the Qur'an or the hadiths, and included notions such as fairness, accountability, and practicing good to others.…”