This chapter discusses the transition from state-led exploitation to private capitalist expansion. The Agrarian Law of 1870 opened up land to foreign investors, fuelling plantation agriculture, mining, and infrastructure development. While economic output grew, the benefits were highly unequal, with wealth concentrated among colonial and Chinese elites. Labour migration, urbanization, and social dislocation intensified. The chapter also charts the emergence of a nationalist intelligentsia and labour movements that would challenge colonial capitalism. It argues that the liberal period deepened Indonesia’s integration into the global capitalist economy but failed to generate inclusive development or industrial transformation.