Lieftinck’s budget box

The very first Prince's Day suitcase

The museum has Lieftinck’s ‘Third Tuesday in September’ (Budget Day) box in its collection. Just after the Second World War, the then finance minister acquired this case to present the national budget and the budget memorandum on Prinsjesdag (the state opening of parliament).

Statue of Indonesian tax official

Cultivation System and Colonial Rule

The cultivation system in the Dutch East Indies, between 1830 and 1870, brings in a lot of tax money for the Dutch colonizer. The cultivation system obliges Indonesians to cultivate one fifth of their land for the Dutch government. Those who do not own land pay the tax with 66 days of forced labor per year. Without local officials, the Dutch do not succeed in achieving this in the enormous archipelago of present-day Indonesia. The wooden statue shows an Indian official with a sarong, Indonesian headdress and slippers, but also a jacket, tie, watch chain and briefcase. The clothing shows the intermediate position of these officials. These officials receive Western education and more respect in the colonial class society.

Customs Officer's Night Cloak

Butter smuggling

After the Second World War, the border between the Netherlands and Belgium was closely monitored. At night, customs officers lay in the fields in sheepskin sacks covered in dark coats. This was to catch smugglers who were bringing kilos of butter across the border. In Belgium, a kilo of butter fetches more than three guilders more than in the Netherlands. In the late 1950s, criminals were making a lot of money smuggling the fat gold. The state treasury was losing income. As a result, customs took tougher action and an armed ‘butter war’ broke out. Both parties used studded tyres and crow’s feet to make the chase more difficult. When the European Economic Community drew up a joint agricultural policy in 1963, the price difference disappeared, and with it the smugglers’ business model.