Origins: From Temasek to the Free Port — a part of the book Singapore as an International Financial Centre by Dr Alexander Ressos.
Part A traces the formation of Singapore as a place of exchange, from the fourteenth-century port of Temasek to the free port founded under the East India Company in 1819, and the commercial culture that grew around it.
This part belongs to Singapore as an International Financial Centre by Dr Alexander Ressos, published here in full, section by section.
A Place on the Strait: Temasek, Singapura and the Maritime Trade of the Malay World
Every financial centre begins with a place. Read more Singapore · OriginsThe Strait of Malacca as a corridor of trade
The Strait of Malacca owes its importance to the winds. Read more Singapore · OriginsTemasek and Singapura in the fourteenth century: archaeology and chronicle
The history of the island before 1819 rests on three kinds of written evidence: Chinese travel and geographical literature, Javanese court poetry and the Malay historical tradition. Read more Singapore · OriginsMalacca, Johor and the Riau archipelago
Malacca, founded around 1400 by the refugee prince from Singapura, became within a few decades the greatest port of Southeast Asia. Read more Singapore · OriginsPortuguese, Dutch and British rivalry in the Straits
The Portuguese who conquered Malacca in 1511 brought a new model of trade to the Strait. Read more Singapore · OriginsWhat the pre-colonial port teaches about location and trust
The history of the Strait before 1819 shows that geography creates opportunity. The island of Singapore occupied an exceptional position that remained unchanged throughout the period. Read more Singapore · OriginsA Place on the Strait: Temasek, Singapura and the Maritime Trade of the Malay World: summary
The island of Singapore controls the southern exit of the Strait of Malacca, the shortest sea route between the Indian Ocean and China, a position that made it a potential market from the earliest… Read more Singapore · OriginsRaffles, the East India Company and the Free Port of 1819
On 6 February 1819, in a ceremony on the plain beside the Singapore River, a servant of the English East India Company signed a treaty with a Malay prince whom he had recognised as sultan a few days… Read more Singapore · OriginsThe East India Company and the China trade
The English East India Company, chartered in 1600, was by the early nineteenth century a hybrid without parallel: a joint-stock company whose shareholders met in London and a sovereign power that… Read more Singapore · OriginsStamford Raffles and William Farquhar
Thomas Stamford Bingley Raffles was born on 5 July 1781 on board the ship Ann off Port Morant, Jamaica, and entered the service of the East India Company in London as a clerk in 1795, at the age of… Read more Singapore · OriginsThe agreements with Sultan Hussein and the Temenggong
Raffles’ expedition landed on St John’s Island on 28 January 1819 and arrived at the Singapore River the next day. Read more Singapore · OriginsThe free-port principle: open to every flag
The decision that shaped Singapore more than any other was the decision to make it a free port. Read more Singapore · OriginsEarly growth and the first merchant community
The growth of the settlement in its first years was spectacular. In the first year, the value of trade was reported at 400,000 Spanish dollars. Read more Singapore · OriginsWhat 1819 means for the financial centre
The founding of 1819 established the institutional foundations on which the financial centre was later built. Read more Singapore · OriginsRaffles, the East India Company and the Free Port of 1819: summary
The East India Company founded Singapore in 1819 to secure the route of its China trade and to break the Dutch hold on the southern Strait, under a cautious mandate that sought a British station… Read more Singapore · OriginsThe Treaties of 1824 and the Legal Foundations of British Singapore
The treaty of 6 February 1819 gave the East India Company a trading post on an island whose legal status was contested. The Dutch disputed the authority of the sultan who had signed it. Read more Singapore · OriginsThe Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824
The dispute over Singapore was one of several questions that divided Britain and the Netherlands in Asia after the Napoleonic Wars. Both powers had an interest in a settlement. Read more Singapore · OriginsThe Treaty of Friendship and Alliance of 1824
The agreement of 7 June 1823 had already transferred the judicial powers and land rights of the sultan and the Temenggong to the British in exchange for lifelong monthly payments of 1,500 and 800… Read more Singapore · OriginsThe Straits Settlements and the Second Charter of Justice
In 1826, the East India Company combined its three possessions in the Strait – Penang, Malacca and Singapore – into a single administrative unit, the Straits Settlements. Read more Singapore · OriginsThe reception of English law
The Second Charter did more than establish a court. Read more Singapore · OriginsLand, title and the security of property
A financial centre depends on secure property rights. Land is the most important form of collateral. A mortgage is worth only as much as the title on which it rests. Read more Singapore · OriginsPractical consequences for today’s practitioner
The history examined in this chapter is not merely of antiquarian interest. Several of its consequences confront the practitioner who advises on Singapore matters today. Read more Singapore · OriginsLegal foundations and the comparison with Geneva
Geneva and Singapore built their financial centres on different legal traditions. Read more Singapore · OriginsThe Treaties of 1824 and the Legal Foundations of British Singapore: summary
The Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 17 March 1824 ended the Dutch objection to British Singapore, exchanged Bencoolen for Malacca and drew a border through the Singapore Strait that still separates Singapore… Read more Singapore · OriginsThe 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 · OriginsClan, Kongsi and Credit: The Moral Economy of Chinese Commerce
The Geneva volume opens its account of the financial centre with Calvin, because the moral economy of the Reformed faith shaped the way Geneva thought about credit, interest, work and wealth. Read more Singapore · OriginsConfucian ethics and commerce: a debate revisited
The debate about religion and capitalism in China began with Max Weber. Read more Singapore · OriginsDialect groups, clan associations and huiguan
The Chinese population of Singapore was divided by dialect, by district of origin and to a considerable extent by occupation. Read more Singapore · OriginsKongsi and secret societies: governance beyond the colonial state
The word kongsi has several meanings that shed light on the history of Chinese organisation. Read more Singapore · OriginsXinyong: reputation as collateral
Chinese merchants used the word xinyong to describe the quality that made a person worthy of credit. Read more Singapore · OriginsRemittance houses and the qiaopi networks
Chinese migrants in Singapore sent a large part of their earnings to their families in China. The instrument was the qiaopi, a letter accompanied by a remittance of money. Read more Singapore · OriginsThe Straits Chinese: a bridge between two legal worlds
Not all Chinese in Singapore were recent migrants. Read more Singapore · OriginsFrom personal trust to institutional trust
The transition from personal to institutional trust took place gradually. Read more Singapore · OriginsThe moral economy of the Strait and the comparison with Geneva
The first chapter of this part argued that the ports of the Strait succeeded when they offered protection, predictability and moderate costs. Read more Singapore · OriginsClan, Kongsi and Credit: The Moral Economy of Chinese Commerce: summary
Singapore’s counterpart to the Calvinist ethic of Geneva was an institutional economy of trust built by Chinese migrants from families, dialect and district associations, temples, sworn brotherhoods… Read more