For this aspect, we will be looking at Port and Trade Facilities under the British.
Read pages 81 - 83, 104, 111-113, 115 - 119 of your history textbook for the background information.
Then, refer to the sources provided below and select 3 sources each. Note that the sources you select must ALL be different from those that your group members select.
Source A1: Singapore’s trade under British colonial rule as a result of its free port status*.
Adapted from "Singapore: A Journey through Time, 1299 - 1970s," CPDD, Star Publishing Pte Ltd, 2021, p. 84.
Source A2: An adapted extract from an Infopedia article about the port of Singapore in the latter half of the 19th century by the British Government.
When the Suez Canal opened in 1869, a ship’s journey from Southeast Asia to Europe and vice-versa was reduced by about one-third as it no longer had to go around the African continent via the Cape of Good Hope. The second half of the 1800s, therefore, saw a steep climb in the number of steamships calling at Singapore for repairs, refuelling with coal and the loading and unloading of cargo. Machines such as cranes and steam winches were employed in 1874 to replace the manual loading and unloading of cargo…By the early 1900s, Singapore was the seventh busiest port in the world.
https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/infopedia/articles/SIP_2018-04-20_085007.html#:~:text=From%20the%20early%20days%20of,in%20terms%20of%20container%20volume.
Source A3: A 1902 photo of a few of the many oil tanks of a British petroleum company on Pulau Bukom. By then, it was the oil supply centre for the Far East (Asia).
Source A4: An adapted extract from an Infopedia article about the port of Singapore in the first half of the 19th century by the British Indian Government.
Towards the mid-1800s, steamships requiring the use of coal were calling at the port for refuelling. Coal was brought in for storage in the warehouses on the Singapore River (Old Harbour) and then transported to the steamships by lighters when they arrived, which created further congestion at the already-overcrowded river. A deep-water harbour was thus needed and New Harbour (today’s Keppel Harbour) was the natural choice…In 1852, a wharf was opened at New Harbour. New Harbour was the preferred choice of ocean shipping while Old Harbour continued to be used for coastal shipping. Soon, wharves, warehouses and coal stores were opening up around New Harbour. Shipping traffic increased quickly with the greater availability of wharves and more shipping companies starting regular steamship services through the port of Singapore.
https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/infopedia/articles/SIP_2018-04-20_085007.html#:~:text=From%20the%20early%20days%20of,in%20terms%20of%20container%20volume.
Source A5: A late 19th century photo of Albert Dock in Keppel Harbour with its warehouses and machines shops of the British-owned Tanjong Pagar Dock Company in 1879.
Source B1: An adapted extract from a history book about telecommunications in Singapore during British rule, which were important for business and trade.
The undersea telegraph* from Europe was extended to Singapore in 1870, and during the 1880s telegraph communication was built up with Malaya. Singapore’s first private telephone service was opened in 1879 and in 1882, it was taken over by the Oriental Telephone and Electric Company, which extended the telephone service to Johor, Malaya.
* A system for transmitting messages and signals from a distance along a wire through an electrical connection.
"A History of Singapore," C.M. Turnbull, NUS Press, 2020, p. 168.
Source B2: An early 1900s photo of the tin smelting* buildings and chimneys on Pulau Brani belonging to the British-owned Straits Trading Company. By then, it was well-known for producing the purest quality of tin in the world.
Source B3: An adapted extract from a history book about piracy in the region during British rule.
In answer to a written petition from the European merchants of Singapore, a British warship, HMS Wolf, was sent here to join another warship, HMS Diana, in hunting down pirates…For a few years the waters around Singapore were quite safe, but in the early 1850s, a new and more serious threat came in the form of large-scale piracy from China. The British India government did not have the legal authority to arrest the pirates and only had a small fleet of three warships. It was not until the 1860s that the threat of piracy in Southeast Asian waters was coming to an end due to co-operation between the British and the Chinese governments and greater involvement by the British navy in the Far East (Asia).
"A History of Singapore," C.M. Turnbull, NUS Press, 2020, pp. 96 - 97.
Source B4: A 1932 photo of Tanjong Pagar Railway Station in the year of completion by the British. It was the terminal of a railway connecting Singapore with Malaya and Thailand.
Source B5: An adapted extract from a history book about the rubber industry in Malaya and Singapore during British rule.
In 1877 the first Brazilian rubber seeds were sent from England to the Singapore Botanic Gardens. The potential of rubber as a cash crop was ignored until the arrival of Henry Ridley as Director of the Botanic Gardens in 1888. By 1897 he had come up with a method of tapping rubber tree without damaging the bark and encouraged planters to grow rubber in Malayan plantations. The first rubber trees grown commercially in Singapore was in Ponggol about 1907. The demands of the new motorcar industry for rubber tyres brought a boom in Malayan rubber production, most of which were exported through Singapore. In 1911 the Singapore Chamber of Commerce set up a Rubber Association to organise sales of rubber to the world.
"A History of Singapore," C.M. Turnbull, NUS Press, 2020, p. 167.
Source B6: A 1924 photo of the causeway linking Singapore to Malaya in the year of completion by the British. Malaya was the source of tin and rubber exported through Singapore.
Source B7: An extract from a history textbook about trade in Singapore during British rule.
The British set up agency houses, which were companies that helped British factory owners sell their goods to other traders in Singapore. They earned a commission* for their services. Goods they sold included cloth, clocks, knives, nails, iron, steel, guns and glassware. In return, the agency houses would export good brought by traders from China, India and the Malay Archipelago to Britain and other parts of Europe.
*A fee paid to an agent for performing a service, which is paid in the form of a percentage of money received from the sale of the goods.
"Singapore: The Making of A Nation 1300- 1975," CPDD, Star Publishing Pte Ltd, 2015, p. 124
