Joseph Conrad and Britain's Dream of Empire

This article explores the first chapter of Joseph Conrad's Lord Jim focusing on the possible meanings of the word "Patna". I argue that Conrad intended the term to suggest that the ship and its fate was a metaphor for the British Empire. "Patna" was a reference to opium upon which the empire was built. The book was intended as a critique of empire and as an antidote to the popular literature of the day which glorified the empire as a field for adventure in the "Boy's Own" writing of the late Victorian era

Opium and the Beginnings of Chinese Capitalism in Southeast Asia

This paper deals with the relationship between opium revenue farming and the development of capitalist enterprises in Southeast Asia. It examines the role which opium played in the transformation of all Asian economies during the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. While few would argue that the unprecedented expansion of the opium trade by European traders had a major, usually destructive impact on Asian economic systems and political and social institutions, the long term results of opium in the Asian, particularly in the Southeast Asian economies is less well understood. Most specifically, the opium farming systems, which existed in, virtually every Southeast Asian state (as well as parts of China and India) were important adjuncts of capitalist development in the region

David Marshall and the struggle for civil rights in Singapore

This paper looks at the career of David Marshall during the years in which he was a "peripheral politician", as Chan Heng Chee has called him. It was in these years that his commitment to the causes of human rights and civil rights in Singapore came to the fore. During his career as an opposition politician and later as a barrister he regularly championed the causes of freedom of speech and freedom of conscience in Singapore. He stood against increasing odds for the rights of those who were detained without trial and who were persecuted for their political beliefs. His career between 1956 and 1972 saw him take a leading role in a number of significant issues. These included his opposition to the government’s move to eliminate trial by jury in Singapore; his campaign for humane treatment for the detainees of Operation Cold Store; and his defense of freedom of the press when government critics were arrested, among other actions. This paper will look at Marshall’s role in these three occasions and evaluate his contribution to the practice of politics in Singapore and will evaluate the long term impact of his defense of the rule of law. It will be based on an examination of his speeches and on the materials in the David Marshall papers

Borders and the Mapping of the Malay World

The Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 24 March 1824 was signed partly to legitimize British control of Singapore, and also to settle outstanding issues between the British and Dutch following the Napoleonic Wars. It effectively divided the Malay world down the Straits of Melaka. It gave the Dutch Sumatra and the islands to the south of the Straits of Singapore, while the British received the Malay Peninsula and Singapore Island. This paper examines the history of this border and the development of a new consciousness about borders, mapping and territoriality among Southeast Asian peoples in the Malay world between 1800 and the early 20th centur

The Origins of Chinese Maritime Expansion

One of the key issues we need to think about when we look at Southeast Asia at the beginning of the 18th century is the question of labor, or manpower, or population in general. All estimates (Reid 1988) of the period (and they are very rough) show a relative dearth of population in comparison to East Asia, South Asia and the Mediterranean basin. This was particularly true of the parts of Southeast Asia washed by the South China Sea, with the possible exception of the upper Gulf of Tongkin region. Thus the need to gather together and control population was always one of the main concerns of states

A Drug on the Market: Opium and the Chinese in Southeast Asia, 1750-1880

There has long been a problematic relationship between the Chinese and opium. The issues so far as most historians have been concerned, however, have revolved around a limited range of issues. Much work has been done on the opium trade to China in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries; the “opium wars‿ between China and Britain; and the campaigns to suppress the opium trade to and in China around the end of the nineteenth century and the early twentieth century. Until recently, there have been relatively few studies of the opium trade in the context of the Chinese diaspora, particularly within Southeast Asia. I argue here that opium, both the opium trade and opium use, have played a major part in the formation of the culture, economy and politics of the Chinese in Southeast Asia. I would like, with these general remarks, to sketch in a number of these influences and their long-term significance for the history of the Chinese presence in the region

Chinese capitalism and the British Empire

The historical moment of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in Southeast Asia can be characterized as the meeting of two great waves of global expansion. On the one hand, coming from the east were the Chinese junk traders in search of cargoes of pepper, spices and the products of the forests and seas of Southeast Asia. On the other, from the west, were the British: the East Indiamen coming to buy tea in China and the “country traders‿, based in India coming with increasingly large cargoes of opium. We should understand this as a clash of empires, despite the differences in the manner in which we have typically interpreted imperialism and colonialism. We all, I think, know the story of how the opium trade came to finance the tea trade, since it was an import for which the Chinese would pay silver. By the early nineteenth century, opium purchases by the Chinese had come to equal the cost of tea purchases by the East India Company. Most historians have seen this trade as the frontier of British expansion in Asia and the first thrust of imperial expansion, but most have concentrated on the role of opium in China and have tended to ignore its role in Southeast Asia. Fewer still have seen the Chinese movement as a kind of colonial expansion. Because Chinese traders and migrants came without the support of their government, and in most cases were not seen to be organizing political domain over the region, they have not been portrayed as the frontiersmen of empire. There is likewise, little evidence that the Chinese involved, at least at the beginning, had the intention of forming an empire. Nevertheless, if we look at what had come to be in Southeast Asia at the end of the nineteenth century, it is clear that a Chinese empire of sorts had been created. It may have lacked navies and governments and may not have seemed unified, but it was one of traders, colonies of population, an economic system and a set of cultural characteristics that gave it a sort of cohesion. If we strip away the soldiers and administrators, the Chinese “empire‿ in Southeast Asia was not so different from the British Empire. What really drove it were groups of traders who were bound together by family connections, voluntary organizations and place-of-origin links. What I would like to do with this paper is to examine the manner in which this “clash‿ occurred and to trace its permutations over the course of the nineteenth century and into the twentieth. In most cases it did not seem to be a conflict. Many have treated it as partnership, or have even tended to argue that the Europeans themselves created the Chinese presence. I would take issue with those propositions and argue that there were two quite distinct movements in progress. Over time, both changed their character and objectives over time, and both shifted their strategies as conditions changed. There were gains and losses on both sides and there were periods of truce and cooperation as well as of conflict. It is also important to understand that neither “side‿ represented a fully unified front, and that subgroups could, from time to time, switch sides and ally with the “enemy‿. In the final analysis, the empire itself was a joint enterprise, but the purposes of all actors were not the same. Chinese relied on the European umbrella of security and found it possible to exploit the global reach of the European infrastructure. Europeans found they needed the Chinese to produce wealth for them and to manage the mundane tasks of retail and second-level wholesale trade. Neither could have prospered without the other but each was guided by their own aims. Each was capable of taking measures to frustrate or divert the projects of the other. We could say that Chinese and Europeans were sleeping in the same bed, but were dreaming different dreams

Knowledge management in the world of eighteenth century Chinese business

This paper looks at the rise of new forms of Chinese business relationships with Southeast Asia in the eighteenth century. I have identified the beginning of the eighteenth century as an important era because it ushered in a new stage in China’s economic relationship with the region. It led to changes which were crucial for the foundation of Singapore and which became the basis of Singapore’s trade and economic position during much of the nineteenth century. It also highlights the role of the Straits-born or Baba Chinese who were resident in Southeast Asia at the time as the key knowledge managers in these events

Singapore: Wealth, Power and the Culture of Control

This volume examines Singapore's culture of control, exploring the city-state's colonial heritage as well as the forces that have helped to mould its current social landscape. Taking a comparative approach, Trocki demonstrates the links between Singapore's colonial past and independent present, focusing on the development of indigenous social and political movements. In particular, the book examines the efforts of Lee Yew Kuan, leader of the People's Action Party from 1959 until 1990, to produce major economic and social transformation. Trocki discusses how Singapore became a workers paradise, but what the city gained in material advancement it paid for in intellectual and cultural sterility. Based on the latest research, Singapore addresses the question of control in one of the most prosperous and dynamic economies in the world, providing a compelling history of post-colonial Singapore