The rationale behind this system was that by outsourcing taxation, local governments could exert less influence on collection.
[3][4][5][6][7] It formed one of the main sources of the colonial state revenue prior to the twentieth century.
[4][6] The pachters usually employed administrators, the kuasa pacht, to run the day-to-day operations of their pachten.
[5] A pacht territory could be managed as a discrete unit or divided further into smaller farms, sub-contracted to sub-farmers.
[5] The Dutch colonial authorities granted or auctioned off pachten for the sale of opium and salt, for the running of toll houses, pawnshops and gambling dens, for the collection of land, market and poll taxes, for the management of forests, and for the gathering of produce such as birds' nests, pearls, trepang and sponges.