This classic work by the late Professor Wong Lin Ken (1931 – 1983) has been acclaimed highly for its meticulous research and penchant for detail and is widely recognized as making a valuable contribution to Southeast Asian economic history. It was written when the author was only 24 years old and submitted as part of his Master’s thesis at the University of Malaya, then in Singapore. This study was first published as an MBRAS monograph in 1961 and has since been out of print. At a gathering of historians of Southeast Asia in Singapore in October 2002, a warm tribute was paid to Wong Lin Ken’s scholarship and several requests were made to the MBRAS for a reprint of his classic study. The current reprint of his monograph was meant as a tribute to this elusive yet brilliant scholar. The current reprint comes with a short preface by Professor Wang Gungwu about the author, whom he first knew when they were both undergraduates and graduate students at the University of Malaya in Singapore in the 1950s.

The Author:

Wong Lin Ken’s exceptional academic attainments led to his being awarded the Queen’s Scholarship in 1954 after completing his Master of Arts degree at the University of Malaya in Singapore, the thesis of which had been revised and published as the current reprint. Soon after his return from London where he completed his doctorate on the tin mining industry in Malaya, Professor Wong returned and served as lecturer at the University of Singapore and later at the National University of Singapore where he was head of the History Department. He was Raffles Professor of History in 1966-1983 and while he held this chair, briefly entered politics. In the political trajectory of his all too brief life, he achieved some distinction as Singapore’s first ambassador to Washington DC, a Member of Parliament for the Alexandra constituency and the Minister for Home Affairs. This outstanding scholar, who had been suffering from mental strain for a time, took his own life in unusual circumstances in 1983 at the age of 51.

Contents:

Foreword: The Wong Lin Ken Memorial Reprint
Wong Lin Ken (1931 – 1983) by Professor Wang Gungwu
Introduction

1. Singapore and British Trade in the East: 1819 – 1924
2. Trade with Dutch Possessions in the Malay Archipelago: Java
3. Trade with Sumatra, Bali and Lombok, and the Extension of Dutch Influence
4. Singapore and the Malaysian Traders
5. The Rise of Free Ports in the Malay Archipelago
6. The Trade of Singapore with China
7. Trade with Siam and Indo-China
8. The Entrepot Trade of Singapore:1819 – 69
9. Struggle of a Free Port: 1819 – 69
10. The Rise of Singapore: 1819 – 69

Appendix A The Trade of Singapore with Various Countries: 1824 – 69
Appendix B Miscellaneous Statistical Tables
Appendix C Shipping in the Harbour of Singapore
Sources Cited
Maps