British Economic Development in South East Asia, 1880–1939, Volume 2: Mining, Trade and Industry

493 Pages·2016·5.195 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 2
Mining, Trade and Industry
Edited by
David Sunderland
First published 2014 by Pickering & Chatto (Publishers) Limited
Published 2016 by Routledge
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© Editorial material David Sunderland 2014
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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
Mining 1
L. Wray Jr, Notes on Perak with a Sketch of its Vegetable, Animal and
Mineral Products (1886), extract 7
Anon., Golden Raub: A Series of Articles on the Raub Gold Mines and
their Prospects (1897), extract 13
G. E. Greig, Mining in Malaya (1924), extract 25
Anon., ‘Report on Mining in Malaya, 1939’ (1939), extract 47
F. Noetling, Report on the Petroleum Industry in Upper Burma fr om
the End of the Last Century up to the Beginning of 1891 (1892),
extract 89
Anon., Report on the Mineral Production of Burma 1939 (1939),
extract 101
H. L. Chhibber, ‘Th e Salt Industry of Amherst District’, Journal of the
Burma Research Society (1929) 127
Cowie Harbour Coal Co. Ltd, ‘Report on the Silimpopon Coal Mines
and Property, 1926’ (1926), extract 137
‘Labuan. Lease of Coal Mines in the Island of Labuan dated 14th
November, 1889’ (1889) 145
Trade 153
Anon., Return of Imports and Exports, Straits Settlements, 1889 (1890),
extract 163
C. S. Alexander, British Malaya: Malayan Statistics (1928), extract 199
Anon., Report of Sub-Committee with respect to Exports to Germany
and Austria fr om the Straits Settlements (1914), extract 251
G. D. Kirsepp and C. A. Bartlett, Report of a Mission Appointed to
Investigate the Clove Trade in India and Burma, Ceylon, British
Malaya and the Dutch East Indies (1933), extract 257
Anon., ‘A Short History of the Port of Singapore’, in Anon.,
Th e Singapore Manufacturers Exhibition (1932) 271
Anon., Memorandum on the Proposed Singapore Harbour Improvement
Scheme Drawn up by a Member of the Committee of the Singapore
Chamber of Commerce (1904), extract 281
vi British Economic Development in South East Asia, 1880–1939: Volume 2
Anon., Report on the Maritime Trade and Customs Administration of
Burma for the Offi cial Year 1924/5 (1925) 291
Anon., Foreign Trade and Navigation of the Port of Bangkok for the Years
1918/9 (1919), extract 327
P. K. Maitri (ed.), Siam: Treaties with Foreign Powers, 1920–1927
(1928), extract 333
Industry 345
R. Winstedt, Malay Industries. Part 1. Arts and Craft s (1909), extract 357
H. N. Carvalho, Th e Manufacturing Industries of the British Empire Over-
seas. Part 5, Newfoundland, West Indies, Ceylon, Malaya, Hong Kong,
Sarawak, Drunci, Borneo (1931/2), extract 371
W. B. J. Johnson, ‘Preliminary Memorandum on Conditions in
Pineapple Factories in Malaya’ 403
Anon., ‘Minutes of a Meeting Held at the Gardens Club, Singapore, at
2.30 p.m. on April 17th, 1936, between Pineapple Packers and
Offi cers of the Agricultural Department’ (1936) 413
Anon., ‘Quality Products of the Ho Hong Mills’, Malayan Tribune
Memento, 2–9 June 1932 (1932) 419
Anon., ‘World’s Biggest Tin Smelters. Growth of Straits Trading Co.’,
Th e Singapore Free Press Exhibition Supplement,
2 January 1932 (1932) 425
Anon., ‘Tampenis Cement Tile Works’, Malayan Tribune Memento,
2–9 June 1932 (1932) 431
Anon., ‘Steel Castings for all Purposes. Machinery Making in the
Tropics’, Th e Singapore Free Press Exhibition Supplement,
2 January 1932 (1932) 435
G. F. Arnold, On Cotton Fabrics and the Cotton Industry of Burma
(1897), extract 439
A. P. Morris, ‘Th e Lacquerware Industry of Burma’, Journal of the
Burma Research Society (1919) 455
Anon., Memorandum on Business Methods and Trading Regulations in
Siam (1917), extract 465
Editorial Notes 479
List of Sources 485
MINING
Mining in Malaya
Th e most important metal extracted in Malaya was tin, discussed in the General
Introduction. Other minerals included iron ore, coal, granite, tungsten, bauxite,
gold and oil. Th e iron ore sector was controlled by the Japanese. Japan’s iron and
steel industry had an insatiable need for ore, which could not be met by its domes-
tic mines, and British administrators welcomed Japanese investment, aware that
there was little interest in the industry in the UK and that it would generate use-
ful revenue. Th e proximity of Malaya and the dearth of home cargos for ships
returning to Japan also minimized transport costs. Th e fi rst mine was opened near
Batu Pahat in Johore in 1921, and, as these deposits became exhausted, shift ed
to Trengganu, Pahang and, from 1935, to the Temangan district of Kelantan. In
1937, of the 2.438m tons extracted (1.4 per cent of world output), 620,000 tons
came from Johore, 827,000 tons from Kelantan and 991,000 tons from Treng-
ganu. Th e industry was dominated by four companies. Ishihara Sangyo Koshi
Ltd established the fi rst mine in Johore, obtaining from the Sultan a twenty-one-
year concession. High returns prompted the fi rm to open two further mines at
Machang Satahun near Kemaman, Trengganu and, when the Johore workings
became depleted, to sink a shaft at Sri Medan, Johore and begin prospecting at
Ulu Rompin and Sungei Bebar in Pahang. Unfortunately, the outcrop at Treng-
ganu proved limited and inaccessible and the exploitation of the Sri Medan mine
was delayed by the International Tin Scheme, the iron being inter-bedded with
tin, and by labour problems sparked by the Sino-Japanese war, which in 1937
led to the entire Chinese workforce walking out. Other important miners were
Shigeru Iizuka, who sank a shaft at Bukit Langkap, Endau in Johore and obtained
concessions at Sambang and Tanjong Tuan; the Nippon Mining Co., which in
1930 took over the Kuhara mine at Bukit Besi, Trengganu; and the South Seas
Iron Mining Co. fl oated in Tokyo with a capital of 1m yen to take over a Kenan-
tan concession developed by a syndicate of six fi rms.1
Coal was discovered at Batu Arang in Selangor in 1913. Th e deposits were
estimated to comprise 10 to 20 million tons of coal spread over an area of fi ve
– 1 –
2 British Economic Development in South East Asia, 1880–1939: Volume 2
square miles. To exploit the seam, in the same year Malayan Colleries Ltd was
founded, raising $1.5m from British and Chinese shareholders, some of which
was used to purchase leases covering 9,000 acres of land. Its mine was opened in
1915 aft er a seven-mile $1m branch line had been constructed by the Federated
Malay States Railway (FMSR) to link Batu Arang to Kuang, the closest mainline
junction. Th e company used the latest technology in the form of coal cutters,
hammer drills and air compressors; owned a brick and cement factory and a saw
mill, which supplied the colliery and sold their goods locally; and employed in
1918 and 1937 respectively 1,000 and 5,000 Chinese miners. Workers were dif-
fi cult to recruit, rubber planting off ering a lighter workload and higher wages,
and, in the late 1930s, there was signifi cant labour unrest, supposedly incited by
Communists. Output rose from 10,725 tons in 1915 to 781,509 tons in 1940,
most of which was bought by the FMSR (450 tons per day in 1937), tin mines
(700 tons per day), the Bangsar Power Station in Selangor and the Perak River
Hydro-Electric Co. (700 tons per day) and local steamers.2
Of the other minerals mined, the most important were probably gold and
bauxite. Gold had been extracted on the east coast of the Malayan peninsula from
the early nineteenth century by Chinese miners. During the colonial period,
Chinese entrepreneurs, encouraged by British administrators, established lode
mines in Pahang, Negeri Sembilan and Kelantan, extracting 15,070 ounces in
Pahang/Negeri Sembilan (1903) and 40,000 ounces in Kelantan (1906/12).
Th ere was also an Australian mine at Raub, West of Pahang, operated by Aus-
tralian Syndicate Ltd (1889), later to become Australian Gold Mining Co. Ltd
(1912). Bauxite, by comparison was only exploited in the early 1930s when the
metal, smelted to produce aluminium, began to be used in the manufacture of
aeroplanes. Th e sector produced 66,700 tons in 1939 and again was controlled
by the Japanese, the majority of the output coming from Ishihara Sangyo Koashi
Ltd’s Sri Medan mine at Johore. Other minerals excavated include granite and
limestone at the FMSR-owned quarries at Segamat (Johore), Ipoh (Perak),
Kodiang (Kedah) and Kuala Lipis (Pahang); Tungston, much of the 673,000
metric tons produced in 1938 coming from a British-owned mine at Pulai,
Perak; and oil from the Royal Dutch Shell wells in Miri, Sarawak.3
Mining Elsewhere in British South East Asia
Th e two most important Burmese mining sectors were oil and rubies. Th e coun-
try also produced 18,000 tons (1885) of salt, extracted through the boiling
of sea water and largely used in the manufacture of fi sh paste, and respectable
quantities of tin, lead, zinc, tungston and silver, mainly at the Bowdwin mine,
forty miles north-east of Lashio. Th e mine went through a number of owners
before being taken over by the Burma Co. and largely produced lead, which was
Mining 3
smelted at Mandalay and, as production increased, at smelters constructed at
Namtu, connected to the mine and the Lashio–Mandalay railway by privately
owned branch lines.4
Oil had a long history. Hand dug wells existed in Twingon and Beme long
before the arrival of the British, the oil extracted used as a wood preservative
and as a source of light and for the caulking of boats. Th e industry was com-
mercialized from the turn of the century, mainly due to the construction by
the Admiralty of oil powered destroyers and submarines and the 1911 decision
to convert the Fleet to oil, and was dominated by the Burmah Oil Co., which
drilled 75 per cent of the country’s output. Founded in 1886 as the Rangoon Oil
Co., the fi rm benefi tted from the exclusion for strategic reasons of non-British
companies from the sector; the government turning down requests for prospect-
ing licences from Royal Dutch Shell and two subsidiaries of Standard Oil. It
sank its fi rst well in the Yenangyaun oil fi eld in 1887 and in the Singu fi eld in
1902, initially buying sites, and, from 1906, leasing them from the Twinzayo and
Twinza, the owners of the reserves. To increase margins, a fl eet of oil tankers was
purchased, storage tanks constructed at the main Indian ports and, in 1909, a
refi nery built at Syrium (close to Rangoon) connected to the Yenangyaung and
Singu fi elds by a 325-mile pipeline. Other major players in the sector included
the British Burmah Oil Co. (1910), which took over the Rangoon Oil Co.’s
operations in Singu and the assets of the Rangoon Refi nery Co. and the Aung-
ban Oil Co., and the Indo-Burma Petroleum Co. Th e latter’s fi rst well (1918) at
Indow in Lower Chindwin proved disappointing, producing only 3m gallons by
1930. Luckily its facilities at Lanywa were more successful, supplying 13m gal-
lons in their fi rst year of operation.
Of the two fi elds, the Yenangyaun reserves were the most productive, yield-
ing 2.3m gallons in 1887, 10m gallons in 1893, 57m gallons in 1903 and 200m
gallons in 1913. Output then fell to 130m gallons in the late 1920s, by which
time the Singu oil fi eld was fully on-stream, supplying 23m gallons in 1904, 50m
gallons in 1911 and 100m gallons in 1921. Eighty per cent of the $55m of oil
produced in 1939 was exported tariff free to India, increasingly as kerosene –
Burma by 1900/1 supplying 10 per cent of the sub-continent’s requirements,
and, by 1938/9, 58 per cent. Th e remainder was mainly shipped to the UK.5
Th e award of the Burmese ruby concession was the subject of some contro-
versy. Th e outcry that followed the award of a temporary lease on generous terms
to Gillanders, Arbuthnot & Co., a long established Calcutta-based Agency house
with a large share of the oriental ruby market, forced the Burmese government
to put the concession up for tender, which was won by a syndicate led by Edwin
Streeker, a Bond Street Jeweller. Claims by Motitz Unger, a French jewel seller,
who secretly represented the Exploration Co., a Rothschilds backed concern,
that Streeker’s bid contained fraudulent claims resulted in a further competition