In this paper the production of leaf tobacco for the European market in the residency Kedu (Central Java), developed since the second half of the 19th century, is explored. Kedu had been one of the centers of tobacco production from of old, which, however, was all oriented to the domestic market and the production for the European market began by the ntroduction of the Cultivation System in 1830. This system, however, could not operate well in the cultivation of tobacco and was abolished here as early as in 1842. After that eaf tobacco production for the European market was taken upon by the European private enterprises which started operation in 1860 by buying up leaf tobacco from the peasants. Since then the production continued to increase until the middle of the 1870s due to the high market price of leaf tobacco in Europe, but after that it rapidly decreased and all of he enterprises disappeared from Kedu by the beginning of the 1890s. In the first decade of the 20th century the production for the European market revived here and occupied a certain position in the leaf tobacco export to Europe from Java, but Kedu could not become the major center for its production. The reason was that the tobacco was cultivated here consistently for the domestic market which gave the higher income to the people, and so the production for the European market was done only incidentally.