British Economic Development in South East Asia, 1880–1939, Volume 1: Agriculture

415 Pages·2016·2.67 MB·English

by  David Sunderland (editor)

BRITISH ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN
SOUTH EAST ASIA, 1880–1939
CONTENTS OF THE EDITION
volume 1
General Introduction
Agriculture
volume 2
Mining, Trade and Industry
volume 3
Th e Building Blocks of Development: Governance, Transport and
Communications, and Human and Financial Capital
Index
BRITISH ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN
SOUTH EAST ASIA, 1880–1939
Volume 1
Agriculture
Edited by
David Sunderland
First published 2014 by Pickering & Chatto (Publishers) Limited
Published 2016 by Routledge
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british library cataloguing in publication data
British economic development in South East Asia, 1880–1939.
1. Great Britain – Commerce – Southeast Asia – History – 19th century – Sources.
2. Great Britain – Commerce – Southeast Asia – History – 20th century – Sources.
3. Southeast Asia – Commerce – Great Britain – History – 19th century – Sources.
4. Southeast Asia – Commerce – Great Britain – History – 20th century – Sources.
5. Economic development – Southeast Asia – History – 19th century – Sources.
6. Economic development – Southeast Asia – History – 20th century – Sources.
7. Agriculture – Economic aspects – Southeast Asia – History – 19th century –
Sources. 8. Agriculture – Economic aspects – Southeast Asia – History – 20th
century – Sources. 9. Great Britain – Colonies – Asia – Economic policy – Sources.
I. Sunderland, David, 1958– editor of compilation.
330.9’5904-dc23
ISBN-13: 978-1-84893-488-7 (set)
Typeset by Pickering & Chatto (Publishers) Limited
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements vii
General Introduction ix
Editorial Selection and Textual Principles lvii
Agriculture 1
R. G. Watson, Th e Land Laws and Land Administration of the
Federated Malay States (1908) 17
D. H. Grist, Malaya: Agriculture, ‘Land Tenure’ (1929), extract 51
Anon., Th e Land Regulations of British North Borneo, 1894:
Approved by the Court of Directors of the British North Borneo
Company, on the 5th Day of June, 1894 (1894) 59
L. Wray Jr, Notes on Perak with a Sketch of its Vegetable, Animal and
Mineral Products (1886), extract 67
Anon., General Cultivation (1924) 77
G. E. Shaw, Malay Industries. Part 3. Rice Planting (1911), extract 87
Anon., ‘Report of the Rice Cultivation Committee, 1931. Volume 1’
(1931), extract 101
A. B. Jordan, ‘Memorandum. Rice Cultivation by Chinese in Malaya,
11th October, 1930’ (1930), extract 115
F. Noel-Paton, Burma Rice (1912) 121
E. Macfadyen, Rubber Planting in Malaya (1924), extract 143
D. H. Grist, Nationality of Ownership and Nature of Constitution of
Rubber Estates in Malaya (1933) 161
Anon., Report of the Commission Appointed by His Excellency the High
Commissioner for the Malay States to Enquire Whether Any Action
Should be Taken by the Government to Give Protection or Assistance
to the Rubber Industry (1918) 181
Anon., Economic Survey of the Sugarcane Industry in the East Central,
Tenasseria and Northern Agricultural Circles (1926) 191
D. H. Grist, Malaya: Agriculture, ‘Oil Palms’ (1929), extract 211
H. L. Coghlan, Coconut Industry in Malaya (1924), extract 217
vi British Economic Development in South East Asia, 1880–1939: Volume 1
Anon., Report of a Committee … to Investigate and Report on the Present
Economic Condition of the Coconut and Other Vegetable Oil
Producing Industries in Malaya (1934), extract 237
G. E. S. Cubitt, Wood in the Federated Malay States: Its Use, Misuse
and Future Provision (1920), extract 255
J. P. Mead, Annual Report on Forest Administration in Malaya
including Brunei, 1939 (1939) 271
‘Notes on Forest Exploitation and the Forestry Service in British
North Borneo and Dutch N.E Borneo’ ([1937]), extract 285
Anon., Forestry in Brunei: A Statement Prepared for the British Empire
Forestry Conference, South Afr ica, 1935 (1935) 295
Anon., Burma Teak (1935), extract 307
R. L. German, Handbook to British Malaya (1927), extract 311
R. Winstedt, Malay Industries. Part 2. Fishing, Hunting and Trapping
(1909), extract 317
C. Maxwell, Preliminary Report on the Economic Position of the
Fishing Industry of the Straits Settlements and Federated Malay
States (1919), extract 335
Editorial Notes 349
List of Sources 355
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank the staff of the British Library, London; of the National
Archives, Kew; of the British Library of Political and Economic Science,
London; of the Bodleian Library, Oxford; and of the John Rylands Library,
Manchester. I am also extremely grateful to Pickering & Chatto’s reviewers for
their useful comments; Imogen Facey, who collected the sources; and Stephina
Clarke for editing the collection.
– vii –

GENERAL INTRODUCTION
Among the many motivations behind Britain’s involvement in South East Asia
the most important were economic. It was believed that the continent would
supply the raw materials and foodstuff s required by its ever-expanding industries
and population, furnish guaranteed markets for some of the goods produced
by those industries, and provide investment opportunities and high returns for
the large amount of capital unable to fi nd employment at home. Th ere was also
a wish to protect this supposed economic Eldorado from exploitation by other
European powers, which were increasingly threatening Britain’s dominance of
the world economy. Th is introductory essay, the thematic introductions and the
collection sources examine the extent to which these goals were realized.
Spheres and Nature of British Infl uence
Th e region hosted three colonial powers – the Netherlands (the Dutch East
Indies), France (Indo-China), the United States (the Philippines) and Britain,
whose sphere of infl uence comprised Malaya, Burma, Sarawak, British North
Borneo, Brunei and Siam, all of which possessed diff erent constitutions. Malaya
encompassed the Straits Settlements, the Federated Malay States (FMS) and the
Unfederated Malay States (UFMS). Over the period 1870 to 1930, the coun-
try’s GDP per capita almost tripled, and, from 1900 to 1929, it was twice that
of Japan and over a third that of the United States (see Table 1). Growth then
slowed, but still remained relatively high. Th e fi rst of the Straits Settlements to
become British was the island of Penang, off the West coast of the Malay Pen-
insula, which was acquired in 1786 by the East India Company from the Sultan
of Kedah, to which was added in 1800 a small strip of the adjacent mainland,
named Province Wellesley. Th e next settlement, the island of Singapore, was
purchased by the Company from the Sultan of Johore in 1819, and, fi ve years
later, the territory of Malacca to the South of the Malay Peninsula was acquired
from the Dutch and the three possessions were jointly administered as the Straits
Settlements. On the loss of the Company’s trading functions in 1833, adminis-
tration passed to the Indian government, and, in 1867, the settlements became
a Crown Colony under the jurisdiction of the Colonial Offi ce and a Governor,
the cost of administering the colony being met primarily from excise duties.1
– ix –