History of Regional Trade in Southeast Asia

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This book explores maritime Southeast Asia’s trade development during the long 19th century, with a focus on the role of Singapore as a regional trade hub.

This book explores maritime Southeast Asia’s trade development during the long nineteenth century, with a focus on the role of Singapore as a regional trade hub. Classical literature attributes the trade growth in modern Southeast Asia to the progress of Western colonisation and assumed Singapore’s prosperity as a result of her status as a free port-city for British economic influence over Asia. Challenging this conventional historiography, this monograph sheds fresh light on the role of Singapore as a global entrepôt.

A series of quantitative and qualitative analyses reveals that intra-Southeast Asian trade grew based on Singapore’s entrepôt functions, such as its ability to act as a financial hub for multilateral trade settlements. Drawing on Singapore’s foreign trade statistics, including statistics of monetary imports and exports, particularly of silver, and augmented with other quantitative and qualitative sources of newspapers, where available, the book provides readers with a new understanding of Singapore’s role in intra-regional trade.

In addition to Southeast Asian economic historians, this book will appeal to those working on wider themes such as global history, maritime Asian trade, and colonialism.

Obsah

Introduction: The Modern Global Economy, Regional Trading System, and Entrepôt

PART I Emergence of the Lion City and Intra-Regional Trade

1 Origins of Singapore’s Prosperity: Entrepôt for the Pre-1820 Intra-Asian Trade

2 Emerging Singapore: Quantification of Southeast Asian Trade, 1828–73

3 Evolution of Intra-Regional Trade Centred on Singapore, 1874–1913

PART II Commodity Circulation, Merchants’ Businesses, and Market Integration

4 Formation of Entrepôt System in Singapore: Trade of Cotton Goods and Southeast Asian Products, 1830–70

5 Intra-Regional Market Integration via Singapore: Development of Rice Trade, 1828–70

6 From Entrepôt to Staple Port: Macroeconomic Transformation and Mercantile Adaptation

PART III Money Flows, Settlement Systems, and Macroeconomic Adjustment

7 Entrepôt Settlement System: Development of Money Supply and Foreign Exchange in the Mid-Nineteenth Century

8 Bimetallic Exchange Rates in Singapore: Adjustment for the Balance of Payment and Bullion Market in the Mid-Nineteenth Century

9 Money, Price, and Gains of Intra-Regional Trade: Purchasing Power Parity and Terms of Trade

Conclusions: The Rise of Global Entrepôt