The
foundation of the British Empire was trade. Those who assert
that the British, like other world empires, was based on military
conquest against indigenous populations, ought to more closely
inspect the historical record. The founding of that great
colony, Singapore, at the southern end of the Malay peninsula
is typical of how trade rather than military action laid the
foundation upon which rose the Empire.
In 1819 the Dutch were paramount in the highly competitive
East Indies spice trade. Sir Stamford Raffles was dispatched
by the British East India Co. to establish a trading station
‘beyond Malacca’. He settled upon the 217 square
miles, swampy, jungle-clad island of Singapore, the beaches
of which were strewn with human skulls, the victims of pirates
who used the island as a lair.
Raffles entered into an agreement with the Sultan of Johore,
and the “chieftain” of the island providing for
the cession of the site in return for an annual payment of
$5000 to the former and $3000 to the latter. Within 6 months
5,000 souls has gathered under the British flag on the heretofore
virtually uninhabited island. Prosperity has never ceased
as the trading situation has grown to a city of 4 million. |
