SSA2211 Lecture 5 Trading Networks

8/3/2019 SSA2211 Lecture 5 Trading Networks

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Lecture5

Dr Brunero

SSA2211

Semester 1, 2011-12


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Overview

Singapore as a colonial Port city

Entrept trade-The credit system

-The advent of steam shipping and the Suez Canal

Singapores early trading communities

-The Chinese, Arab and Indian communities


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Singapore 1819-

Early years as an EIC trading centre were filledwith UNCERTAINTY

FREE TRADE was a key enticement for traders

Questions:

Was the harnessing of trade routes a

CONTINUATION of earlier times?

Should we consider the importance of ethnictrading networks to Singapores growth?


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Anglo- Dutch treaty of 1824

Collapse of the EIC

Singapore -Penang - Melaka form the StraitsSettlement, a Crown Colony (1867)

Singapore as part of the British Empire


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Singapore

Three Branches of Trade:

1. Transshipment trade

2. Imports for local consumption exports of localproducts

3. Entrept trade


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Entrept Trade

A specialized port of call acting as a collection centre,where cargoes are held for loading or distribution

Free port status

Melaka an early entrept in the region

Singapore and Hong Kong - two key examples fromthe colonial era


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Why is an Entreptvaluable?

It provides a marketplace for the exchange of goods

It also provides a tax free location where goods canbe sorted, packed and repackaged

At the same time, other needs such as re-coalingcould be met


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Labour

Free trade

Location


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Singapore the East WestTrade

Commodities included:

Gambier

Pepper

Gutta Percha

Tin

Rubber

Tin and Rubber became the dominant products,fueled by strong demand.

Singapore not only exported these products butrefined themcanneries, smelting works etc.


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Singapore- the West-EastTrade

Cotton goods

Manufactured textiles

INTRA-ASIAN TRADE: opium,

rice and fish.

Coolies unloading rice on the Singapore River,C.1930


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How did trade operate?

An ethnic division of trading functions

European mercantile community

A middleman role the Chinese community

Local merchants and trade networks


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Western Trading Houses

Singapore: 20 Westernmerchant firms in late1890, over 60 firms by1908.

These firms handled thewestward trade of theport.

Generally, these firmsmaintained an office inLondon or Europe, withbranches in Asia. Emblem for Guthries and Co.


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The Chinese are indispensable to us, as theyestablished connections in almost all the islands towhich our foreign commodities are carried. Their

agents reside in Sumatra, Borneo, and on the Indo-

Chinese mainland, collecting produce by barterwith the natives, to whom they are frequentlyrelated by social, as well as by commercial ties.

Singapore Free Press, 1874


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How did these Merchants

conduct their trade?

The Chinese played a pivotal role

Chinese employees did the bargaining as well as theselling and buying on behalf of the Europeanmerchants

CREDIT system


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Tin and Rubber Tin a long history of tin mining in Malaya

Chinese migrants became a source of cheaplabor

British desire for a steady supply of tin led togreater British administrative control over theMalay states (then the Federated Malay states)

Rubber- Henry Ridley as the main promoter ofrubber

Rubber plantations in Malaya supplied the USmotor car industry

ROAD and RAIL links allowed a flow of goods

from Malaya to Singapores docks from 1880sonwards.

SINGAPORE AS A STAPLE PORT.


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What role did changes intechnology play in shaping

early Singapore?

QUESTION:

Shipping/telegraph/Suez Canal


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Sail

1750-1850 height of the European sailing vessel

Long distance travel, many stopovers

Did not require sophisticated port facilities

Dependent on monsoonal wind patterns


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From Sail to Steam

Trade conducted at a faster pace

More speculative trade

Peninsular and Oriental Steamship Company 1845

New Harbour


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Steam 1840s- Revolutionized shipping and trade

Scheduling

Inter-continental services

Originally carrying: mail, first-classpassengers and high-cost/low-volumecommodities


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Lady Mary Wood, c.1845


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What did Liners require? Fast turn around

Strategic ports

Agents

Facilities for passengers

Wharf/storage facilities


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Suez Canal Opened in 1869

Dramatically improved travel times, increased shipping toAsia

---Telegraph also

TRANSFORMED

communications.


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Summing up

Singapores natural focus was to the sea: entrept trade andshipping.

Singapore rapidly became a HUB for trade, traders, commodities.

Over time a Malay HINTERLAND became important as tin and

rubber dominated the export market.

The ethnic division of trade roles was not necessarily a newconcept but Western trading firms capitalized on this.

Credit systems were important for facilitating trade and the

Chinese community played an important part in this system.

Technological advances in shipping and demands fromindustrialized economies had an impact on Singaporesdevelopment.


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In the first census, of 1824. Singapores population10,683: 3,317 Chinese, 756 Indians, 4,580 Malays and74 Eurasians.

From 1849 Chinese represented the majority 28,000

Hokkiens, Cantonese, Teochews,

Hainanese and Hakka


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Chinese interests

Shipping (Singapore River and Boat Quay as

centres for Chinese interests)

Commercial agriculture pepper, gambier,opium, sugar, tapioca

Tin mining

Rubber plantations


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Coolie Labour - Singapore

Tanjong PagarDock 1880

-Employed 3,000- 4,000coolies

-Coolies supplied by GanEng Seng for Guthriesand Co.


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Straits Chinese

From Guangdong andFujian.

Settling throughout

Southeast Asia (Nanyang)

Known as Peranakan (Localborn), Baba or StraitsChinese

Strong diasporic links toChina and other SoutheastAsian settlements.

Sometimes merchantsmaintained families inChina and also a local wife(and family) in Southeast

Asian trading centres suchas Manila, Batavia, Melaka.

Example of a hybrid cultureinfusing Chinese andMalay/regional elements.


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European merchants relied onthese Straits Chinese and thetrading networks they

commanded.

Many peranakan families relocatedto the Straits Settlement to takeadvantage of trading

opportunities. Acting as translators, traders,

financiers, and formed a Chineseelite.

By 1867 Baba given status asBritish citizens by fact of birthwithin British empire.


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Arab Trade in SoutheastAsia

A long history of trade and contact with theregion

Trade and the spread of Islam (11th Centuryonwards)

Spice trade

Singapore as an entrepot became a port ofcall for Arab travellers and traders


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Arab Community inSingapore

Year Arab population

1824 15

1860 115

1871 465

1901 919

1921 1282

Part of the larger Hadrami diaspora

First Arab, a trader, moved to Singapore in 1819


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Only men migrated butintermarriage with

Malay-Muslims wascommon

They came withalmost nothing. Butthey are very shrewd.They started hawkingsarongs, taking a lot ofsarongs on their

shoulders and movingabout among theMalays

Textile shop, Arab Street.

(National Archives of Singapore)


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Key families - Alkaff, Alsagoff and Aljuneid

Trading in spices, cloth, ready made clothes

Maritime transport--Using their own vessels for inter-island trade, conveying pilgrims

Steamship companies

Real Estate

-By 1908 Alkaff and Co were one of the biggestproperty owners

- Owned substantial numbers of shophouses

Founded or owned leading hotels


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Indian Community in

Singapore The earliest pattern of migration was that of convict

settlement (the first convicts arrived in 1825)

The development of Singapore, Penang and Melaka called forcheap and subservient labour.

Traders

Administrative assistants

Labourers

Dairy farmers

Shopkeepers

Laundry dhobie (washermen)


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Chettiars

From Chettinad

Arriving inSingapore in the1820s

Establishedthemselves on thefringes of the

commercial centre Market andChulia Streets

Traders and

money-lenders


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Money-lending activities financed agriculture, tin

mining and other industries Played an important role for Asian commerce

Year Number of Chettiar

Money-lending firms

Number of European

Banks

1883 28 4

1900 19 6

1910 35 9


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It is well known

that many asuccessful Chinese

merchant began his

climb on a loan

from a Chettiar.


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Thoughts to consider

Singapores growth in the early colonial era can belinked to entrept trade a dynamic market anddistribution centre - attracting a diverse tradingcommunity.

How important were trading communities and colonialpolicies in ensuring the success of Singapore as a tradingcentre?

Did early colonial Singapore display a continuation of pre-colonial trading patterns? If so, were thesecomplemented by newer forms of trade, dictated by

changing global demands? In what ways had Singapore taken on strategic

significance? Empire? Trade demands? Commodities? Regional and

international shipping routes? Ethnic trading networks?

SSA2211 Lecture 5 Trading Networks

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