Colony and Commerce (1867–1942)

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• 1 April 1867: The Straits Settlements pass from the India Office to the Colonial Office and become a Crown colony. A Legislative Council of four members is formed, and the silver dollar replaces the rupee as the standard currency.¹
• 1868: The Supreme Court Ordinance replaces the Court of Judicature with the Supreme Court of the Straits Settlements.²
• 17 November 1869: The Suez Canal opens. Steam now carries the bulk of the cargo trade between Europe and Asia through Singapore.³
• 1870–1871: Telegraph cables link Singapore with India and Europe. The sources diverge between December 1870 and January 1871 for the first connection with London.⁴
• 1871: Cables from Singapore reach Hong Kong, Saigon and Port Darwin. The census counts 306,775 inhabitants of the colony.⁵
• 16 September 1872: The Penal Code of the Straits Settlements, enacted as Ordinance No. 4 of 1871 on the Indian model, comes into force. It remains in force today as the Penal Code 1871.⁶
• 1873: The Courts Ordinance gives the Supreme Court jurisdiction to sit as a Court of Appeal.⁷
• 20 January 1874: The Pangkor Treaty introduces British Residents in the Malay tin states.⁸
• 1875: In Yeap Cheah Neo v Ong Cheng Neo, the Privy Council holds that a trust for ancestor worship is not a charitable purpose.⁹
• 1877: The first rubber seedlings arrive in Singapore from Kew. William Pickering becomes the first Protector of Chinese on 3 May. HSBC opens its own office in Singapore.¹⁰
• 1878: The Civil Law Ordinance applies English mercantile law in the Straits Settlements.¹¹
• 2 May 1884: The Oriental Bank Corporation suspends payment.¹²
• 8 November 1887: The Straits Trading Company is incorporated with a capital of 150,000 dollars to smelt Malayan tin.¹³
• 1889: The Societies Ordinance outlaws the secret societies from 1890. A Companies Ordinance modelled on the English Companies Act 1862 provides for the registration of companies.¹⁴
• 1897–1899: Ordinance VIII of 1897 creates a Board of Commissioners of Currency. Its first government notes reach the public on 1 May 1899 and end the circulation of private bank notes.¹⁵
• 1 July 1902: The International Banking Corporation, forerunner of Citibank, opens as the first United States bank in Singapore and finances the export of tin and rubber.¹⁶
• 1903: The Kwong Yik Bank, the first modern bank of the ethnic Chinese, is founded. A new Straits dollar coin is issued, and Guthrie & Co. becomes a limited company on 28 February.¹⁷
• 1905: The colonial government expropriates the Tanjong Pagar Dock Company. Its successor becomes the Singapore Harbour Board in 1913.¹⁸
• 1906: The Straits dollar is fixed to sterling at two shillings and four pence. The Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce is founded in the same year.¹⁹
• 1910: Rubber prices peak and set off the colony’s first speculative mania in securities. A proposal for an income tax fails at the bill stage.²⁰
• 12 September 1911: The first rubber auction of the association formed by the Chamber of Commerce takes place.²¹
• 20 November 1913: The Kwong Yik Bank ceases operations after a run. Its voluntary liquidation continues under the supervision of the court from January 1914.²²
• 2 April 1917: The Ho Hong Bank begins business.²³
• 1919: The Oversea-Chinese Bank is founded by Hokkien merchants with a paid-up capital of 5.25 million dollars.²⁴
• 20 March 1920: Cantonese businessmen incorporate the Lee Wah Bank.²⁵
• 1922: The Stevenson restriction scheme for rubber takes effect. The sources give 1 October and 1 November as starting dates.²⁶
• 1923: Britain announces the naval base scheme for Singapore. The Anglo-Japanese Alliance formally terminates on 17 August.²⁷
• 1928–1933: The Immigration Restriction Ordinance and the Aliens Ordinance of 1933 cut Chinese immigration from 242,000 in 1930 to 28,000 in 1933.²⁸
• 1929–1932: Malaya’s export earnings fall by 73 per cent in the Depression. By 1932 rubber sells in London at about a hundredth of its 1910 peak.²⁹
• 31 October 1932: The Chinese Commercial Bank, the Ho Hong Bank and the Oversea-Chinese Bank merge into the Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC).³⁰
• 1935: The United Chinese Bank, the forerunner of UOB, opens for business in October.³¹
• 14 February 1938: The King George VI graving dock of the naval base is opened. The kangany system of Indian labour recruitment ends in the same year.³²
• 1939: The Malayan dollar replaces the Straits dollar at par.³³
• 10 December 1941: Japanese aircraft sink the Prince of Wales and the Repulse.³⁴

Notes

1. Wikipedia, “Transfer of the Straits Settlements”, “Legislative Council of the Straits Settlements” and “Straits dollar” (accessed October 2026); see Chapter B.I. ↩
2. Supreme Court of Singapore, “Celebrating 200 years of upholding the Rule of Law”; see Chapter B.I. ↩
3. Wikipedia, “Suez Canal” (accessed November 2026); see Chapter B.V. ↩
4. Library of Congress Country Studies, Singapore; “The Eastern Telegraph Company’s Silver Jubilee”, 1894; see Chapter B.V. ↩
5. Ulrich Speidel, “A short history of Singapore’s role in the cable world”; Wikipedia, “Straits Settlements”; see Chapters B.I and B.V. ↩
6. Wikipedia, “Penal Code (Singapore)”; Singapore Statutes Online, “Penal Code 1871”; see Chapter B.I. ↩
7. Supreme Court of Singapore, “Celebrating 200 years of upholding the Rule of Law”; see Chapters A.III and B.I. ↩
8. Wikipedia, “Pangkor Treaty of 1874” (accessed November 2026); see Chapter B.IV. ↩
9. Yeap Cheah Neo v Ong Cheng Neo (1875) LR 6 PC 381; see Chapter A.III. ↩
10. Wikipedia, “Singapore Botanic Gardens” and “William A. Pickering”; HSBC Singapore, “HSBC in Singapore”; see Chapters A.V, B.II, B.IV and B.V. ↩
11. Civil Law Ordinance 1878 (Straits Settlements), later s. 5 of the Civil Law Act; see Chapters A.III and B.II. ↩
12. Wikipedia, “Oriental Bank Corporation” (accessed November 2026); see Chapter B.II. ↩
13. Wikipedia, “Straits Trading Company” (accessed November 2026); see Chapter B.IV. ↩
14. “Heaven, Earth and Brotherhood”, BiblioAsia; on the Companies Ordinance, see Chapter B.I. ↩
15. Wikipedia, “Straits dollar”; Monetary Authority of Singapore, “History of Currency in Singapore”; see Chapters B.I and B.IV. ↩
16. Wikipedia, “Citibank Singapore” (accessed November 2026); see Chapter B.II. ↩
17. Wikipedia, “Kwong Yik Bank” and “Straits dollar”; AIM25, “Guthrie & Co”; see Chapters B.II, B.III and B.IV. ↩
18. Wee Beng Geok, “The Story of Two Shipyards”, BiblioAsia; Wikipedia, “Tanjong Pagar Dock Company”; see Chapters B.II and B.V. ↩
19. Wikipedia, “Straits dollar”; HC Deb 30 October 1906, vol. 163, cc. 864–865; see Chapters B.III and B.IV. ↩
20. John H. Drabble, “The Economic History of Malaysia”, EH.Net Encyclopedia; on income tax, see Chapter B.I. ↩
21. Wikipedia, “100 Robinson Road”, citing The Straits Times; see Chapter B.IV. ↩
22. Wikipedia, “Kwong Yik Bank” (accessed November 2026); see Chapter B.III. ↩
23. Wikipedia, “Lim Peng Siang” (accessed November 2026); see Chapter B.III. ↩
24. NLB Infopedia, “Tan Ean Kiam”; see Chapter B.III. ↩
25. Wikipedia, “Kwong Yik Bank” (accessed November 2026); see Chapter B.III. ↩
26. Drabble, “The Economic History of Malaysia”; Wikipedia, “Stevenson Plan”; see Chapter B.IV. ↩
27. Wikipedia, “Anglo-Japanese Alliance” and “Singapore strategy” (accessed November 2026); see Chapter B.V. ↩
28. Library of Congress Country Studies, Singapore; see Chapter B.V. ↩
29. Drabble, “The Economic History of Malaysia”; see Chapter B.IV. ↩
30. NLB Infopedia, “Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation”; Wikipedia, “OCBC Bank”; see Chapter B.III. ↩
31. Wikipedia, “United Overseas Bank” (accessed November 2026); see Chapter B.III. ↩
32. Wikipedia, “Singapore strategy”; see Chapter B.V. ↩
33. Wikipedia, “Malayan dollar” (accessed November 2026); see Chapters B.I and B.IV. ↩
34. Wikipedia, “Singapore strategy” and “Fall of Singapore” (accessed November 2026); see Chapters B.V and C.I. ↩

For general information only. This article does not constitute legal or tax advice, does not replace advice on an individual case and creates no lawyer-client relationship. It reflects the legal position as of October 2026.