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
