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The Economic Development of British Malaya to 1914: An Essay in Historiography with Some Questions for Historians

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 April 2011

P.J. Drake
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Extract

Malayan economic development in modern times can be split into three broad phases:

(1) establishment and vigorous growth of the staple industries (tin and rubber) — roughly from the middle of the nineteenth century to 1914;

(2) fluctuations of staple fortunes — the period between the two world wars;

(3) consolidation and rationalization of the staple industries together with diversification of the economy — post 1945.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Southeast Asian Studies , Volume 10 , Issue 2 , September 1979 , pp. 262 - 290
Copyright
Copyright © The National University of Singapore 1979

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References

1 Some indications of the number and range of writings may be gained from two bibliographical essays: Stockwell, A.J., “The Historiography of Malaysia: Recent Writings in English on the History of the Area since 1874”, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History 5 (1976): 82–110CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Ken, Wong Lin, “The Economic History of Malaysia: A Bibliographical Essay”, Journal of Economic History 25 (1965): 244–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 Valuable monographs are: Drabble, J.H., Rubber in Malaya. 1876–1922: The Genesis of the Industry (Kuala Lumpur, 1973)Google Scholar; Jackson, J.C., Planters and Speculators: Chinese and European Agricultural Enterprise in Malaya, 1786–1921 (Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, 1968)Google Scholar; Ken, Wong Lin, The Malayan Tin Industry to 1914 (Tucson, 1965)Google Scholar; Hoong, Yip Yat, The Development of the Tin Mining Industry of Malaya (Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, 1969)Google Scholar; Sandhu, Kernial Singh, Indians in Malaya: Immigration and Settlement, 1786–1957 (Cambridge, 1969)Google Scholar.

3 Yah, Lim Chong, Economic Development of Modern Malaya (Kuala Lumpur, 1967)Google Scholar. This work deals separately with primary production, population, financial arrangements, and infrastructure.

4 Drabble, J.H., “Some Thoughts on the Economic Development of Malaya under British Administration”, Journal of Southeat Asian Studies 5 (1974): 199–208CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

5 Sadka, Emily, The Protected Malay States, 1874–1895 (Kuala Lumpur, 1968)Google Scholar.

6 Ibid., notably pp. 248, 351, 362–63.

7 The books from which most of the factual material on which my analysis is based has been drawn are: Allen, G.C. and Donnithorne, A.G., Western Enterprise in Indonesia and Malaya: A Study in Economic Development (London, 1962)Google Scholar; Chan, Chai Hon, The Development of British Malaya, 1896–1909 (Kuala Lumpur, 1967)Google Scholar; Gullick, J.M., Malaya (London, 1963)Google Scholar; Lim Chong Yah, op. cit, Bee, Ooi Jin, Land, People and Economy in Malaya (London, 1963)Google Scholar; Winstedt, R., Malaya and Its History (London, 1966).Google Scholar

I have, on reflection, judged it unnecessary to give detailed citations to these works. Many of the facts of Malayan economic development are well known and may be found in any number of published works — it would be needless and tedious pedantry to acknowledge each of them here. However. I have tried in my citations to acknowledge original work of these (and other) authors and to call attention to important factors which have hitherto escaped wide notice.

8 Stockwell, op. cit., pp. 91–92; emphasis is mine.

9 Ibid., pp. 199–200, 208.

10 The Economics of the Developing Countries (1965), Ch. 1–5.

11 Ibid., See Ch. 3 and 4 respectively in Myint's book for a detailed account of these processes.

12 Ibid., p. 41.

13 Ibid., p. 40.

14 Ibid., p. 45.

15 Ibid., p. 47.

16 Ibid., p. 52.

17 Ibid., p. 55.

18 Ibid., p. 54.

19 Arndt, H.W., “The Economics of the Developing Countries”(Book Review), Malayan Economic Review 10 (1965): 124.Google Scholar

20 Economic development and the intrusion of foreigners will also promote a rise in the rate of growth of population. Myint, dp. cit., pp. 29–30.

21 Ooi. op. cit., p. 162.

22 Gullick, J.M., Indigenous Political Systems of Western Malaya (London, 1958), p. 125.Google Scholar

23 Gullick, Malaya, p. 23.

24 Winstedt, op. cit., pp. 35–37.

25 Gullick. Malaya, pp. 26–27; Winstedt, op. cit, p. 48.

26 Winstedt, op. cit., pp. 50–51; Gullick, Malaya, p. 27.

27 Winstedt, op. cit., p. 53.

28 Gullick, Malaya, p. 30. A mercantile sector had begun to develop in Malacca from the time of the Malacca sultanate, and it had expanded during the various regimes of the next 400 years. After the entry of the British, similar merchant facilities grew also in Penang and Singapore.

29 Ibid., p. 31. Cowan, C. D., Nineteenth Century Malaya: The Origins of British Political Control (London, 1961), p. 21Google Scholar, shows that of Singapore's total trade (1824–33) that with the Malayan peninsula constituted only 4% and by 1860 the peninsula share was 3%.

30 Allen and Donnithorne, op. cit., pp. 45, 149.

31 Ooi. op. cit., p. 106. John Fogarty (a lecturer in economic history at the University of Melbourne) has suggested to me that the diminution, if true, may have been because land was under pressure at the known state of techniques.

32 Allen and Donnithorne, op. cit., pp. 149–50, imply this and no other works deny it.

33 Gullick, Malaya, p. 33.

34 Cowan, op. cit., p. 169.

35 Chai, op. cit., p. 3; Allen and Donnithorne, op. cit., p. 40.

36 Chai, op. cit., p. 10.

37 Quoted by Chai, Ibid., p. 13.

38 Ibid., p. 20.

39 Ibid., p. 71.

40 Ibid., p. 19.

41 Ibid., p. 22.

42 Ibid., pp. 34–35.

43 Sadka, op. cit., pp. 339–40.

44 Quoted by Chai. op. cit., p. 66.

45 Ibid., p. 65.

46 Allen and Donnithorne. op. cit., pp. 154–55.

47 Chai, op. cit., p. 27.

48 Ibid.

49 Sadka, op. cit., pp. 341, 360–61.

50 Ibid., p. 327.

51 Drabble, op. cit., p. 202.

52 Allen and Donnithorne, op. cit., p. 110.

53 Chai, op. cit., pp. 25, 149.

54 Drabble, op. cit., p. 204.

55 Allen and Donnithorne, op. cit., p. 107.

56 Ibid.

57 Ooi, op. cit., p. 201; Sadka, op. cit., pp. 347. 357. In the absence of supporting evidence, I am inclined to disregard, as insubstantial, the coconuts and areca nuts mentioned by Sadka (p. 345) as Malay cash crops.

58 Chai, op. cit., pp. 99–101, 143–48.

59 Ibid.

60 Lim. op. cit., p. 175.

61 Sadka, op. cit., pp. 336–37.

62 Ibid., p. 333.

63 Lim. op. cit., pp. 261, 352.

64 See Chamberlain to Mitchell. 1895. and R-G's Report (Treacher), 1900. Both quoted by Chai, op. cit., p. 66.

65 Allen and Donnithorne, op. cit., p. 149; Chai, op. cit., pp. 101–2.

66 Chai, op. cit., pp. 102–4.

67 Ooi, op. cit., p. 113.

68 See Chai, op. cit., pp. 108–27, for a detailed account of Chinese immigration, the working conditions of Chinese immigrants, and the laws subsequently enacted for their protection.

69 Chai, op. cit., pp. 114–23. Note especially the table and explanation on pp. 122–23.

70 Wong, op. cit., pp. 100, 108.

71 Lim, op. cit., p. 73.

72 Ibid., pp. 108–9.

73 Drake, P.J., “Natural Resources versus Foreign Borrowing in Economic Development”, Economic Journal 82 (1972): 951–62CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

74 Allen and Donnithorne, op. cit., p. 112.

75 For a detailed account, see Allen and Donnithorne, op. cit, pp. 52–53; also Stahl, K.M., The Metropolitan Organization of British Colonial Trade: Four Regional Studies (London, 1951)Google Scholar.

76 Lim, op. cit., p. 45.

77 Allen and Donnithorne, op. cit., p. 151.

78 The reasons for failures have been colourfully outlined by Swettenham, and are quoted by Allen and Donnithorne, op. cit., p. 151; Chai, op. cit., p. 165, and Lim, op. cit., p. 50.

79 Allen and Donnithorne, op. cit., p. 152.

80 Ooi, op. cit., p. 294. See also Lim, op. cit., pp. 51–55 and Appendix 2.1.

81 Ooi, op. cit., p. 114.

82 Chai, op. cit., pp. 98–101.

83 Ibid., p. 65. Sadka, op. cit., pp. 327–30, 358–60.

84 C.A. Vlieland, quoted by Allen and Donnithome, op. cit., p. 45.

85 Chai, op. cit., p. 285.

86 Sandhu, Kernial Singh, “Some Preliminary Observations of the Origins and Characteristics of Indian Migration to Malaya, 1786–1957” in Papers on Malayan History ed. Tregonning, K.G. (Singapore, 1962)Google Scholar. Quoted in Lim, op. cit., p. 186.

87 Ooi, op. cit., p. 116.

88 Chai, op. cit., pp. 98–99,143; Sadka, op. cit., pp. 354–55.

89 Lim, op. cit., p. 121; Sadka, op. cit., p. 325.

90 Sadka, op. cit., p. 363.

91 Ibid., pp. 355–56.

92 Ooi, op. cit., p. 201. Sadka, op. cit., pp. 347, 360. Chat, op. cit., p. 162. however, gives the impression that this was very limited.

93 Allen and Donnithorne, op. cit., p. 115.

94 Chai, op. cit., p. 160.

95 Ooi, op. cit., p. 202.

96 Lim, op. cit., pp. 105, 110, 328.

97 Ibid., p. 184.

98 Allen and Donnithorne, op. cit., p. 115.

99 Ooi, op. cit., p. 202.

100 Allen and Donnithorne, op. cit., p. 42.

101 Work on these subjects seems to be emerging, e.g., Mahmud, Zaharah, “The Population of Kedah in the Nineteenth Century”, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 3 (1972): 193–209CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Ahmat, Sharom, “The Structure of the Economy of Kedah, 1879–1905”, Journal of Malaysian Branch, Royal Asiatic Society 43 (1970): 1–24.Google Scholar

102 Khoo, op. cit, pp. 226–27.

103 Drabble, op. cit., p. 200.

104 Ibid.

105 Ibid., p. 201.

106 This question was suggested to me by A.J. Stockwell.

107 This subject has been opened by: Sinclair, K., “Hobson and Lenin in Johore: Colonial Office Policy towards British Concessionaires and Investors, 1878–1907”, Modern Asian Studies 4 (1967): 335–52CrossRefGoogle Scholar; de V. Allen, J., “Johore 1901–1914”, Journal of Malaysian Branch, Royal Asiatic Society 45 (1972): 1–28Google Scholar; Robert, L.R., “The Duff Syndicate in Kelantan, 1900–1902”, Journal of Malaysian Branch, Royal Asiatic Society 45 (1972): 81–110Google Scholar; Sharom Ahmat, loc. cit.

108 Drake, loc. cit.; Drabble, J.H. and Drake, P.J., “More on the Financing of Malayan Rubber 1905–23”, Economic History Review 27, 2nd ser. (1974): 108–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

109 Drabble, op. cit., 206–8.