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It took about a decade of protracted negotiations after the London Convention before the British and the Dutch could settle their commercial, political, and territorial disputes in the East. By the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824, the Dutch agreed not to exclude British trade in the Archipelago and also consented to British dominance in the Straits of Malacca. The Dutch ceded their factories in India and Malacca to Britain, withdrew from the Malay Peninsula, and gave up all claims to Singapore, thus Singapore was saved from being Dutch.
In return, the British abandoned their possessions and future territorial ambitions in Sumatra, the right to conclude treaties with any Sumatran chief, and, finally, all claims to Belitung, Kerimun, Batam, Bintang, Lingga, and 'any of the other islands south of the Straits of Singapore'.
The Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824 virtually made the Straits of Malacca the dividing line between a British and a Dutch sphere of influence. The economic factor that makes Singapore grow - Free Trade The EIC acquired Singapore largely for strategic reasons but Raffles saw the settlement as a springboard for the expansion of British trade in the East, especially in the Malay Archipelago.
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To counter the Dutch, Raffles made Singapore into a "free" port. Free trade was a radical idea against the background then of the importance of "mercantile" trade. Its mercantilist measures against Dutch monopoly worked.
This is so as when Europe opened up to what the voyages of discovery brought back in the 15th century; one propelling force was the idea that the wealth of a nation depended on its "bullion".
The driving force was mercantile trade or the excess of exports over imports. Bullion of international wealth was the basis of domestic money. Trade at ports was taxed. The Dutch were primarily interested in profits only.
Raffles is willing to try out what Adam Smith, a Scottish moral philosopher wrote in 1783 with his "The Wealth of Nations" arguing that trade leads to specialization which increases productivity through specialization. Specialization increases wealth, not bullion. Raffles saw that the extent of trade, not the balance of trade is what matters. The practice of "mercantilism" required the building up both of a merchant marine and a carrying trade that would be able to exclude competitors.
Except for a short interlude at Penang between 1786 and 1801, the idea of permitting free trade is virtually unknown in the East at this time. Trade sometimes seemed to be tolerated rather than encouraged. Singapore established as a free port and no taxes. Means of financing free trade With free trade, there is no bullion earned. So how is the government able to finance the free trade? The British had opium farms in India to earn revenue. They used the receipts of selling opium to finance Singapore's free trade.
EIC began licensing private traders from 1750 onwards and its monopoly of China trade was lost in 1833. British demand for Chinese tea led to its demand that China buy its Indian opium. Opium imports rose dramatically in China after about 1810, and by 1820s the favorable balance of trade that she had enjoyed in the 17th and 18th centuries was reversed.
The EIC encouraged its cultivation as a cash crop to pay for its purchases of tea and silk in Canton. Chinese empire cut off opium imports and sent an imperial commissioner, Lin Tse-hsu to Canton in 1839 to stop the illegal and damaging traffic in opium. Lin ordered the stocks of the drug stored there destroyed, most of which was technically the property of British merchants. British used the incident as a pretext to declare the Opium War (1840-42) (1856-60). The main reason behind the initiated war is to force the Chinese government to open up their country for trade.
Since Singapore was finance by opium sales, it had gone into a slump. It is because some of the Chinese immigrants were hooked on smoking opium and spent most of their hard earned income on it. The employers of those coolies gave them opium to 'relieve them of their hardship', but the main reason was the employers can control the coolies and earn income from selling opium. The other reason was due to the male-female population ratio at that time was seriously unbalanced. There were approximately ten to fifteen male against one female. So the only 'leisure activity' the coolies can enjoy was smoking opium.
Other important factors that lead to the subsequent growth The geographical location of Singapore gave it an advantage over other British ports in the Straits of Malacca in attracting the Bugis merchants in those days of sailing vessels. Singapore became the center for the spice trade through the Bugis. Situated at the southern end of the Straits of Malacca, Singapore suited the needs of the Bugis traders as the range that they could cover and the timing of sailing schedules were determined by the monsoons. At that time, not only the bugis's ships were powered by the monsoons, but the Chinese's junks and other ships as well. Singapore at its tip of the Straits of Malacca was a good turnaround point for monsoons. Perahu and junks complemented each other.
The military defense of British navy is one of the factors of growth. As piracy was a way of life in the Malay Archipelago, Junks and perahus were victims of attacks from forested river mouths and numerous islands. The combined though uncoordinated efforts of British, Spanish and Dutch navies feed Singapore and other Straits ports from pirates. Without piracy, more merchants were encouraged to come to the Straits to trade.
The people factor is another reason that leads to success in Singapore's subsequent growth. Singapore provided a solution in terms of being a well-sited British port, where British and Asian traders could transact business through intermediaries in whom both parties had confidence, namely Chinese dealers. Many Chinese immigrants, called sinkheh, bonded themselves to work for a fixed period for their employers who had paid for their cost of passage to Singapore, a system of indentured labor that smacked of slavery but significantly helped to populate Singapore with hard-working and enterprising Chinese. Chinese traders found it profitable to move to Singapore from other places. Other than Chinese immigrants, Indians and Indonesians also migrated from their country to Singapore.
The technological change in the 19th century such as the use of steamships and the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 also contributed to Singapore's growth. With steamships, despite improvements in technology, it will still require frequent replenishing of coal and fresh water. Hence, the set up of a stretch of coal-depots along the Suez route was feasible. The new route made the Straits of Malacca even more important than the Sunda Straits. Singapore eventually became another coal-depot, thus acquiring a new strategic and economic significance in the trade between Europe and the Pacific. It was Singapore's good fortune to lie on the natural routes of both sailing and steam vessels.
In 1870, Singapore was linked by telegraphic communication with the main industrial nations of the west. With that, goods can be bought and sold while in transit across the oceans, resulting in larger volume of business with the same capital. The Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824 returned Malacca returned to the British, which ran Penang, Malacca and Singapore as one administrative unit from Calcutta.
The capital of the Straits Settlements transferred from Penang to Singapore in 1836, although still subject to the British government of India.1858, the EIC was abolished by an Act of the British Parliament. From 1867 onwards, an India Office ran India but the Straits Settlements was transferred to the Colonial Office in London. Clearly, all the above factors contributed more or less to the economic development of Singapore. Therefore, the subsequent growth of the outpost was more of design than of circumstance.
Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824. (2017, Aug 23). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/anglo-dutch-treaty-of-1824-essay
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