Julius Herman Boeke was a Dutch economist and lawyer. He was a professor of Dutch Constitutional Law at Leiden University, where he lectured and published works on the subject of the economy of the Dutch East Indies.
Early life
Boeke was born in Wormerveer, Netherlands. His father was Izaäk Herman Boeke, a Mennonite preacher. He spent his primary and secondary school years in Amsterdam, passing his final exams at the Barlaeus Gymnasium in 1903. He then studied at the Faculty of Arts of Gemeentelijke_Universiteit. He graduated in 1906, obtaining a degree in law within eight months and completing his doctoral exam in 1909. In 1910, he obtained his PhD from Leiden University with Cornelis van Vollenhoven as his mentor. His thesis was focused on the Tropical-Colonial State Household. His dissertation described how the Indian population appeared to respond differently to economic incentives compared to Western populations.
On 1 September 1910 he traveled to the Dutch East Indies with duties to-be-determined by the Governor-General, ultimately finding a position at the General Secretariat. He worked there for a few months, after which he transferred to the Gymnasium Willem III in Batavia. He taught state design and economics. He was assigned a position as acting adviser for the Volkskredietwezen in 1914. In 1919, he was promoted to become an adviser. This was the highest position at the Volkskredietwezen at the time. He received a full professorship of colonial economics at the Nederlandsche Handels-Hoogeschool, and was offered a special professorship of tropical colonial economics at Leiden University. He was offered a chair at the Law School in 1924, assigned to the instruction of household economics and statistics. He gave his first lectures during the academic year 1926-1927. The following year he traveled to India, and then returned to the Netherlands. In 1929, Leiden University again offered him a professorship, which he accepted. He taught tropical colonial economics. The year before, he argued during his inaugural lecture for the introduction of a dualistic economic system in the Dutch East Indies. He contended that Western economy theory was not applicable to Asian village communities. He focused on the economic sciences and he expanded his research to Japan and India. In 1940, he published Indian Economics.
Imprisonment, postwar scholarship
During the Second World War, Boeke took part in the Leiden resistance. In 1941, he published his work National Socialist State Household, which criticized the National Socialist Movement. As a result, he was fired and deported to Buchenwald Concentration Camp. He survived the war and was reappointed as professor. He returned to Indonesia, to help with the reconstruction of the University of Indonesia, but an accident required his return to Leiden, as well as a period of convalescence. He ultimately resumed his activities at Leiden University. During academic year 1951-1952 he held the position of rector magnificus. He officially retired in 1955 to take a new teaching assignment. He died on 9 January 1956 after a brief illness.
Works
Tropisch-koloniale staathuishoudkunde. Het probleem. Amsterdam 1910
