British Intervention in the Malay States

Before 1873, the British government adopted a policy of non-intervention in the Malay states as it was considered undesirable as it could lead to conflict, disrupt trade and drain Britain's resources. Their main interest was to make profit through peaceful trade. However, the Industrial Revolution in the 1870s created a need for a continuous supply of raw materials for the expansion of industries. The demand for tin continued to rise as the tin-plating and tin-canning industries grew. The British looked to Malaya for supplies because of her rich tin deposits. Besides, Malaya could also serve as markets for British goods.

Intervention became even more necessary when the major tin-producing states of Malaya, especially Perak, Selangor and Negeri Sembilan experienced widespread anarchy in the 1870s. There were constant civil wars caused by feuds between Chinese secret societies and succession disputes among the Malays, making the local government weak and unstable. Another problem was piracy off the Malayan coast. The chaos was detrimental to British trade and the Straits merchants began to clamour for British intervention to bring about law and order.

The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 boosted European interest in overseas expansion as the East-West route was shortened. Since most of the territories which lay along the way had either been colonized by other powers or had friendly treaties with Britain, it became necessary for the British to intervene in the Malay states to ensure the safety of their trade route to the East.

The British also feared intervention by other foreign powers such as the French, Dutch, Germans and the Americans who were also interested in overseas colonies as sources of raw materials for their home industries and markets for their manufactured goods. British intervention was vital as another Western power might secure a firm footing in the Malay states and threaten their interest.

In 1874, the Conservatives came into power in Britain replacing the Liberals. The new government reversed the policy of non-intervention to one of imperialism to boost Britain's prestige. An official policy of intervention was adopted when the Governor of the Straits Settlements, Sir Andrew Clarke, signed the Pangkor Treaty with Perak and set up the Residential System there. Later, the same system was extended to the other Malay States like Selangor, Negeri Sembilan and Pahang.

The Chinese laboured in tin mines and on plantations and operated the tax farms.

Chinese continued to come as labourers to the Malay states under the credit ticket system, but there were an ever-growing number of assisted migrants sponsored by family or friends, especially after the Chinese government abolished restrictions on emigration in 1893. Until the twentieth century no attempts were made to stem this flow and, despite the relatively high death rate and the numbers returning home, the Chinese population grew steadily. Chinese were drawn to the new towns developing around tin mines.

In 1877, the British colonial authorities set up a Chinese Protectorate in Singapore under William Pickering to oversee the Chinese community. Reforms were instituted to protect the Chinese labourers and their exploitation at the hands of tin mines owners or plantation owners. The role of secret societies no longer had a monopoly on force. In the late nineteenth century there was a blossoming of clan associations and mutual aid societies that filled the functions formerly the preserve of the secret societies.

Labourers were often paid by the truck system, by which goods, especially liquor and opium, were given in lieu of money. Addiction to alcohol and opiates among Chinese workers was high, and the cycle of constant indebtedness all too common.

At that time, there was a steady flow of people to and fro between southern China and Malaya. Many who had worked in Malaya for a number of years went home to China for a short holiday, or to see to some business, and from these people, the poor mainland Chinese peasants heard about Malaya, and the opportunities there. How prosperous and tranquil Taiping was, compared to the wretched and chaotic state that southern China was in.

Towards the end of the 19th century, huge influxes of Chinese workers came to Malaya to work in the tin mines and plantations. The Straits Settlements - Penang, Melaka and Singapore - had attracted a wide variety of immigrants and traders. Penang thrived as an entrepot for the lucrative tea and opium trade between India and China and the tin trade in nearby Perak.

The discovery of rich deposits tin in around Klian Pauh in Larut in 1840s attracted an influx of Chinese immigrants. There was rapid success of the tin industry in Perak as demand for tin rose with European industrialization. Renowned in the early days for fierce fighting between rival tin-mining factions, the Larut Wars finally ended with the signing of the Pangkor Treaty in 1874. Two towns were established - Klian Pauh was renamed Taiping, while Klian Bahru became Kamunting. This made Taiping the oldest town in the Malay States.

By 1877, Taiping finally lived up to its Chinese name - 'Everlasting Peace' and became the administrative capital of Perak. It became the most important town in the Malay Peninsula. In 1910, it was called one of the most picturesque in Malaya with many firsts such the train station built in 1885. Many tin mines were still labour-intensive while others were becoming increasingly mechanized with hydraulic elevators and gravel pumps needed to extract tin below the water table. From 1880 onwards, when discovery of fabulous tin deposits in the nearby Kinta Valley sparked a Tin Rush, the Chinese population increased tremendously. Rubber was planted commercially in the mid-1890s on estates previously developed for other crops such as coffee. Rubber cultivation grew and maintained the local economy. Taiping, at that juncture, had a lot of opportunities for immigrants who just arrived in the Malay Peninsula.

Between 1911 and 1931 the colonial government encouraged unrestricted immigration from India, China and the Netherlands East Indies to provide much-needed workers for the still considerable tin-mining enterprise and especially for the booming rubber industry.

By 1919 the entire Malay Peninsula had come under some kind of British control. Some law and order had been established. It also established a communication system - roads, railways, telegraph, wharves, developed a profitable export economy based on tin, plantation crops such as sugar cane, tea, coffee, rubber, palm oil and rice or padi farming.

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