Singapore was founded as a trading port. The articles collected here follow the entrepôt economy of the nineteenth century: the junk trade from the southern Chinese ports, Bugis, Arab, Indian and European traders, country traders and the opium economy, gambier and pepper, the agency house as intermediary, and the credit chains that held it all together. They also compare the entrepôt with Geneva. Part G of the book, on the commodity trading hub of today, is still to come.
From 1819 ships of every nation could enter the harbour and trade without paying customs duties on their goods. Junks, country traders and European houses met in the port, and the agency house acted as the agent of principals in Manchester, Calcutta and London.
The port's modern scale is on another order: a record 44.66 million TEU in 2025 and 56.77 million tonnes of bunker fuel.
The entrepôt rested on information, on warehouses at the river and on credit between people who knew each other's standing. Each of those needs a modern equivalent in a trading company's documents and in the checks of its bank.
Today's trader also has 29 implemented free trade agreements to work with, and has to watch sanctions and the rules of origin that go with them.
Start with the entrepôt economy, the agency house as intermediary or the comparison with Geneva.
The Entrepôt Economy: Junks, Country Traders and Merchant Networks
The free port of 1819 created the conditions for trade. The traders themselves came from every direction, bringing their own ships, goods, customs and systems of credit. Read more Singapore · OriginsThe junk trade from the southern Chinese ports
The oldest commercial link of Singapore was the link with China. Chinese junks had sailed to the ports of the Nanyang for centuries, as the first chapter of this part has shown. Read more Singapore · OriginsBugis, Arab, Indian and European traders
The Bugis traders of Sulawesi, who had made Riau prosperous in the eighteenth century, followed a different rhythm. Read more Singapore · OriginsCountry traders and the opium economy
No account of the entrepôt economy can omit opium. In the ports of Southeast Asia, Indian opium was a trade good, a medium of exchange and a source of government revenue. Read more Singapore · OriginsThe hinterland: gambier, pepper and the planter’s credit
The entrepôt did not live from transit trade alone. From its earliest years the island had a plantation economy, run almost entirely by Chinese planters, most of them Teochew. Read more Singapore · OriginsThe agency house as intermediary
The agency house was the central institution of the European commercial community. Its name described its function: it acted as agent for principals elsewhere. Read more Singapore · OriginsThe infrastructure of the entrepôt: river, godowns and information
The physical infrastructure of the early port was simple. Read more Singapore · OriginsCredit chains between Europe, India, China and the archipelago
The entrepôt economy ran on credit. A typical transaction in cotton goods illustrates the chain. Read more Singapore · OriginsThe entrepôt economy and the comparison with Geneva
Geneva and Singapore both built their early commercial prosperity on networks of merchants who trusted one another because they belonged to the same community. Read more Singapore · OriginsThe Entrepôt Economy: Junks, Country Traders and Merchant Networks: summary
The entrepôt economy of nineteenth-century Singapore brought together Chinese junk traders, Bugis prahu fleets, Arab and Indian merchant houses and European and Indian country traders, each… Read more Singapore · Colonial EconomyTin, Rubber and the Straits Dollar
Singapore has never mined a ton of tin or tapped a commercial rubber estate of any size on its own soil. Read more Singapore · Colonial EconomyThe tin boom and the Malayan hinterland
Tin had been worked in the Malay Peninsula for centuries, but the modern industry began with a discovery in the district of Larut, in northern Perak. Read more Singapore · Colonial EconomyRubber: from botanical experiment to global commodity
Tin had been known in the peninsula for centuries, whereas rubber was a botanical import. Read more Singapore · Colonial EconomyPrice cycles, speculation and commodity crises
An economy built on two commodities lived with their price cycles. The tin industry experienced its first serious slump in the mid-1870s, just as the Residential system was being established. Read more Singapore · Colonial EconomyThe Straits dollar and the currency board system
The tin and rubber trades were conducted in silver dollars. Read more Singapore · Colonial EconomyCommodities as the first link to the trading hub
The tin and rubber economies taught Singapore the functions that a commodity hub performs. Read more Singapore · Colonial EconomyTin, Rubber and the Straits Dollar: the comparison with Geneva and Hong Kong
Geneva and Singapore reached monetary stability by different routes. Switzerland introduced the Swiss franc by the federal coinage law of 1850 and joined the Latin Monetary Union in 1865. Read more Singapore · Colonial EconomyTin, Rubber and the Straits Dollar: summary
The discovery of tin in Larut in 1848 drew Chinese miners and Straits capital into the western Malay states, whose disorders led to the Pangkor Treaty of 1874, the Residential system and in 1896 the… Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingFrom Entrepôt to Trading Hub: The Global Trader Programme
Singapore was founded as a place where goods changed hands. Two centuries later it is a place where commodities change owners, often without ever touching its shores. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingThe legacy of the entrepôt
The commercial identity of Singapore was defined at its foundation. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingThe Global Trader Programme
The modern incentive framework began in 1989. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingTax incentives and substance requirements
The Global Trader Programme is an administrative label. Its legal basis is section 43I of the Income Tax Act 1947, headed “Concessionary rate of tax for global trading company and qualifying company”. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingEnterprise Singapore and the trading sector
The agency that administers the programme has changed its name several times. Trade promotion was long the task of a statutory board that was later known as International Enterprise Singapore. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingMeasuring the weight of commodity trading
The simplest indicator of the trading hub is the number of companies under the programme. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingPractical consequences for trading companies
For a trading company considering Singapore, the programme is one element in a broader decision. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingFrom Entrepôt to Trading Hub: The Global Trader Programme: Singapore and Geneva compared
The comparison with Geneva shows two different paths to the same result. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingFrom Entrepôt to Trading Hub: The Global Trader Programme: summary
Singapore’s trading hub continues the commercial functions of the nineteenth-century entrepôt in a new form, with trading desks in the city managing cargoes that often sail directly between foreign… Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingOil: Refining, Storage and Asian Price Benchmarks
Singapore has no oil of its own. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingRefining on Pulau Bukom and Jurong Island
The oil business of Singapore began as a storage and distribution trade. In the early 1890s the London firm M. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingStorage and blending
Storage is the second pillar of the oil hub. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingPrice assessment and Asian benchmarks
Oil products in Asia are rarely sold at a fixed price. Most term contracts and many spot deals set the price by reference to published assessments, usually averaged over a pricing period. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingPaper markets and derivatives
The physical market in Singapore is surrounded by a much larger paper market. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingEnergy transition and the refining sector
Refineries and crackers are among the largest emitters of greenhouse gases in Singapore. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingOil: Refining, Storage and Asian Price Benchmarks: practical consequences
For lawyers and advisers, the oil hub creates a recognisable set of questions. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingComparison with Geneva and other oil centres
The Geneva volume describes how independent oil traders established themselves in Switzerland from the 1960s and 1970s. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingOil: Refining, Storage and Asian Price Benchmarks: summary
Singapore’s oil business began in the early 1890s with a kerosene depot on Pulau Bukom and turned into refining when Shell opened the first refinery there on 26 July 1961, followed by Mobil, Esso… Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingBunkering: The World's Largest Bunkering Port
Every ship that passes through the Strait of Malacca must sooner or later take on fuel. For more than a century and a half, a large share of the world’s merchant fleet has done so in Singapore. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingSingapore as a bunkering port
Bunkering in Singapore began with coal. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingLicensing of bunker suppliers
Bunkering in the port is regulated by the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingQuality, quantity and fraud
For decades the most common complaint in Singapore bunkering was short delivery. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingAlternative marine fuels
The first great change in marine fuels came from the regulation of sulphur. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingBunkering disputes
The structure of the bunker market produces a characteristic type of dispute. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingBunkering: The World's Largest Bunkering Port: practical consequences
Singapore’s bunkering regime gives buyers substantial protection, but it works only if buyers use it. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingComparison with Geneva, Rotterdam and Fujairah
Geneva has no port, but it hosts many of the decision-makers of the bunker trade. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingBunkering: The World's Largest Bunkering Port: summary
Singapore owes its position as the world’s largest bunkering port, with record sales of 56.77 million tonnes in 2025, to its location on the Strait of Malacca, to the refineries, storage terminals… Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingLNG, Metals and Agricultural Commodities
Oil made Singapore a trading hub, as the preceding chapters have shown. Refineries, storage tanks and bunker barges gave the city a physical market around which traders, banks and brokers settled. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingLiquefied natural gas trading
Singapore has no gas fields of its own. From the 1990s it imported natural gas by pipeline from Malaysia and later from Indonesia, which allowed its power stations to switch from fuel oil to gas. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingMetals and minerals
Singapore produces no metal ores and refines almost none. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingPalm oil, grains and soft commodities
Singapore grows almost no food, yet it is the headquarters of some of the largest agricultural trading groups in the world. The connection began with palm oil. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingSustainability requirements in agricultural supply chains
The sustainability of agricultural supply chains became a public issue in Singapore through the haze. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingCarbon and the trading of environmental commodities
Carbon credits are the newest commodity traded from Singapore. Their market rests on law, since a credit has value only to the extent that a regulator or a buyer’s commitment recognises it. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingLNG, Metals and Agricultural Commodities: practical consequences
The diversification of the hub creates opportunities and obligations for trading companies. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingLNG, Metals and Agricultural Commodities: Comparison with Geneva
Geneva’s trading centre grew from grains and softs to oil and then to metals, in a sequence driven by firms that chose the city for its banks, its neutrality and its international organisations. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingLNG, Metals and Agricultural Commodities: summary
Singapore has diversified its trading hub beyond oil into liquefied natural gas, metals, agricultural commodities and carbon credits, in each case with the help of targeted state measures. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingThe Trading Houses: Global Players and Asian Champions
A commodity hub is made of firms. Tax incentives, storage tanks, banks and courts create the conditions for trade. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingThe Asian offices of the global trading houses
The global trading houses came to Singapore for the same reason that the agency houses of the nineteenth century had come, which Chapter IV of Part A and Chapter II of Part B described: the city… Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingAsian agricultural champions
The agricultural champions of Singapore have roots in the Chinese trading networks of Malaya, which Chapter V of Part A and Chapter IV of Part B described. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingState-owned and national trading companies
The third group of firms in the Singapore hub belongs to states. National oil companies from China, the Gulf, India and Southeast Asia have established trading subsidiaries in Singapore. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingGovernance and ownership structures
The large independent houses are owned by their managers and employees. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingSingapore and Geneva as trading hubs compared
Geneva and Singapore are two of the principal homes of commodity trading, together with London, Houston and Dubai. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingThe Trading Houses: Global Players and Asian Champions: summary
Singapore’s commodity hub consists of some 400 firms, more than 60 per cent of them of Asian origin, ranging from the Asian offices of the global houses to Asian agricultural groups, state-linked… Read more