East India Company Strategies in the Development of Singapore

Singapore in the Malay Peninsula was targeted by the British East India Company (EIC) to be the epicentre of their direct rule in Southeast Asia. Seeking new sources of revenue at the end of the 18th century, after attaining domination in India, the Company sought to extend its reach into China, and Malaya was the natural region to do this, extending outposts to Penang and Singapore. The latter was first identified as a key site by Stamford Raffles. The EIC Governor General Marquess Hastings (r. 1813-1823) planned to facilitate Raffle’s attention on the Malay Peninsula from Sumatra. Raffles’ plan for Singapore was approved by the EIC’s Bengal Government. The modern system of administration came into the Straits Settlements under the EIC’s Bengal Presidency. In 1819 in Singapore, Raffles established an Anglo-Oriental College (AOC) for the study of Eastern languages, literature, history, and science. The AOC was intended firstly to be the centre of local research and secondly to increase inter-cultural knowledge of the East and West. Besides Raffles’ efforts, the EIC developed political and socio-economic systems for Singapore. The most important aspects of the social development of Singapore were proper accommodation for migrants, poverty eradication, health care, a new system of education, and women’s rights. The free trade introduced by Francis Light (and later Stamford Raffles) in Penang and Singapore respectively gave enormous opportunities for approved merchants to expand their commerce from Burma to Australia and from Java to China. Before the termination of the China trade in 1833 Singapore developed tremendously, and cemented the role of the European trading paradigm in the East.

The Dutch took control of Riau and acknowledged Abdul Rahman (r. 1812-1819) as the Sultan. Riau was an important native port in the Riau-Lingga Archipelago, which was the principal station of the Arab and Bugis traders, not far from Singapore. Raffles formally approached Sultan Abdul Rahman to approve his arrangements in Singapore, but realised that the Sultan's Dutch advisors would refuse any such proposal. In order to give a cloak of legality his action decided to negotiate with Hussein as the rightful Sultan (Note 15). The Governor General Marquis Hastings's (r. 1813Hastings's (r. -1823 observed Raffle's attention on the Malay Peninsula from Sumatra, and Raffles had insisted on assuming the control of Malacca Straits by means of a station in Johor, for the benefit of the EIC's commerce (Note 16).
Raffles took the opportunity to make a secret plan with Hussein to come to Singapore (Note

Political Developments
Singapore town was planned by the EIC and Raffles became its first Resident. Singapore River was the heart of the town. The East bank, the "Mayfair of Singapore", was reserved for the government and  Vol. 2, No. 3, 2021 until the transfer question was settled. However, the naval and military commanders all bore witness to the excellence of the harbour of Singapore, and it remains one of the greatest ports in the world to this day (Note 29). Besides development of Singapore, the EIC also concentrated on efforts to eradicate piracy in the surrounding sea lanes.

Social Developments
Fear of poverty was common for all the migrants who came to the Straits Settlements, particularly in Singapore. They comprised a diverse mixture of people who settled in this new place, including imported labourers from southern India and China and sailors from Europe. As with all port cities it was associated with various "social ills", including bohemian opium dens and associated gang activities.
Poverty was common due to social instability, corruption, high mortality largely associated with epidemics, drug addiction, slavery, and natural disasters like earthquakes, cyclones, floods, etc., in Singapore itself and the surrounding lands; Singapore became a major destination of economic The port of Singapore was a planned development and for a few years it was pollution free.
John Crawford (the second British Resident in Singapore) wrote in 1828 claiming that no-one had fallen victim to fever since Singapore was founded. The town remained fever free, but in the 1840s, when Europeans began moving to live on the outskirts of town, and convicts were sent to labour in swamp drainage and road construction, many cases of intermittent fever were reported. Attempts to grow rice in Singapore's plains to the east had to be abandoned because farmers fell sick with fever.
This area was originally inhabited mainly by Bugis, but nearly all of them died of fever; by 1848 only two Bugis households survived. For a few years the Government kept a signal station on the island, but was forced to abandon it since most of the men died. This anomaly aroused the curiosity of doctors and sparked off an international controversy about the origin of fever, particularly malaria (Note 31). It was commonly assumed that the revolting stench of sulphured hydrogen was a major cause of malaria, as per the miasma theory of the time (later in the 19 th century it came to be accepted that infected water was the main source of most urban illnesses at the time, and not pestilent air) (Note 32).
Pauperism was common in the Straits Settlements and many people suffered from it. In 1844 the wealthy merchants Tan Tock Seng contributed $7,000 to build a hospital for diseased paupers, but 42 www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/sshsr Social Science, Humanities and Sustainability Research Vol. 2, No. 3, 2021 while the hospital was under construction the situation became desperate (Note 33). Leprosy was another fatal disease, and there was no permanent leprosy hospital in Singapore. The EIC was reluctant to pass extraordinary legislation to empower the Straits' authorities to seize and seclude lepers when they had no intention of passing such legislation for India as a whole. The Singapore government could only make minor improvements in the new House of Correction, and in 1861-1862 a separate shed was built for twenty inmates of Tan Tock Seng's hospital who were suffering from advanced leprosy.
Without a leper colony and legal powers to isolate patients in it, little could be done to rid Singapore of this scourge, which was on the increase in the last years under the Bengal Presidency (Note 34).
The worst scourge was cholera, which was endemic in the Straits towns, and there were frequently serious outbreaks. Cholera was widespread in Province Wellesley all the time, and infected George Town nearly every year. In Singapore outbreaks were somewhat less frequent, but on occasions were severe (Note 35). Up to 300 people died in an outbreak which persisted in Singapore from 1841 to 1843, and over 200 in another epidemic in the early months of 1851. The disease took a heavy toll of deaths in 1852 and 1853. Normally it was confined to the overcrowded slums of Singapore, but in 1858 it swept through the Seamen's Hospital and produced a scare among the well-to-do. In 1861-1862 over a third of the patients in the Singapore Lunatic Asylum fell ill with cholera, of whom twelve died. In 1873 more than a hundred people died of cholera in Singapore in one month (Note 36).

Modern Education in Singapore
In Singapore, Raffles first dreamed of resurrecting an old indigenous civilization and revitalising it through the spread of British influence and the benefits of Western economic progress and education: "Of my plan for a college at Singapore, I feel no doubt you will approve generally. The British authorities finally came to conclusion that women's freedom is the backbone of a civilized society, and the old system was seen as one of religious bigotry and misogyny (Note 50).

Economic Developments
The Straits Settlements under the Bengal Presidency was the Golden age for the British imperial capitalism, a time of confidence and easy resources, with entrepreneurs ready and willing to invest in plantations furnishing commodities for the industrialised world. Crawford commented that gambier and pepper were the main crops grown in Singapore, although they rapidly exhausted the soil (Note 52).

Short-term commercial investments in plantation ventures were ideal for Chinese immigrants in
Singapore, who were not interested in settling permanently. Gambier leaves had to be boiled soon after picking, so that it was necessary to have large areas of forest to supply wood for the burners, and the  Vol. 2, No. 3, 2021 Singapore, and was the second most important crop in 1848. Coconut trees did not produce marketable fruit for the first ten years, and only a modest profit thereafter. Thomas Crane, the leading coconut producer, spent over $18,000 on his estate and after eleven years had realised only $200 net profit (Note 57).
Other crops like cotton and indigo were attempted unsuccessfully (Note 58). Only pineapples flourished, but no one tried to grow them commercially due to their easy spoilage during transit. Some Chinese cleaned pineapple leaf fibres for export to China, and J. R. Loghan tried to stimulate interest in the pineapple fibre industry, but nothing came of this venture (Note 59). However many attempts were made with sugar cane, pepper, nutmeg, cloves, gambier, tea, cinnamon, cotton, indigo, tobacco, coffee, and coconut for the purpose for land revenue. Notably, sugar and coconut plantation owners became successful.
Under the EIC, the trade grew rapidly with the new innovations of modern technology such as railway, telegraph, and steamships. In 1813, the EIC's trading monopoly in India ceased, and India was opened to free trade. Free trade was also introduced by Francis Light and (later) Sir Stamford Raffles in Penang and Singapore respectively, which gave enormous opportunities for merchants to expand their commerce from Burma to Australia, and from Java to China. When the Straits Settlements were officially constituted in 1826, Singapore was already prosperous from its trade. Lady Raffles commented: "We must be satisfied with the entrepot which we have established at Singapore, whether their junks regularly come with a large portion of the produce of the country, and can afford to sell it at a lower rate than foreigners can procure the same articles in Siam itself; and now under the protection of the British flag the exchange must take place. In the extension of this trade, the King and his court are so much interested, that he will in a manner feel dependent on us for the accommodation and protection afforded" (Note 60).
It is interesting to compare the relative value of trade in Singapore, Penang, and Malacca. Table 2 shows the value of their imports and exports for the period 1827-1828: (Note 61). In 1833 the EIC's China trade monopoly was closed, but before that the EIC had already created a firm buttress for its activities in the Straits Settlements. The strategic importance of Singapore as a port was immense, such that it was able to replace China as a source of revenue for the Company,
www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/sshsr Social Science, Humanities and Sustainability Research Vol. 2, No. 3, 2021 as it funnelled the majority of European and world trade to and from China, which was second only to India as a market. Among the important articles for the China markets from the Malay Peninsula were pepper, nutmegs, cloves, mace, cinnamon, and timber (Note 62). Those items were in a considerable demand for the Chinese market, as well as for Arabia and Persia. In addition pearls, mother-of-pearl, tortoise-shell, ivory, swallows' nests, sea-slug, fish-maws, sharks-fins, ebony, black and coloured woods, for furniture and dye-stuffs, were actively imported yearly to the Chinese market from the Malay Peninsula. The quantity of pepper yearly required for the Chinese market had been estimated at 50,000 piculs, that of sandal-wood about 6,000 piculs, and a variety of valuable gums, the production of which was nearly confined to the Malay territories (Note 63). All the merchants involved in these trades could be considered as the pioneers who contributed to the development of Straits' trade (Note 64). The Straits Settlements under the Bengal Presidency was the golden age of the Company, with entrepreneurs ready and willing to invest in plantations furnishing commodities for the industrialised world. Thus, the EIC concentrated on agriculture and land revenue to avoid repeating its infamous mistakes in Bengal. Revenue was an essential economic resource of the Straits Settlements for the Company.

EIC Commercial Strategy
The EIC developed modern technology and military discipline for growth of the trade, including important developments in astronomy and navigation necessary for shipping (Note 65 more than four times the figure of 1823-1824. These changes brought to an end the fears and uncertainties of the precarious and vulnerable position which Singapore held during her first half century and throughout the Indian regime. Thus, Singapore was established for permanent supremacy as the preeminent port in Southeast Asia and as the gateway to the Far East (Note 78).

Conclusion
The EIC incorporated governance of Bengal and subsequently all of India under various nefarious and blood-drenched escapades, and by the early 19 th century it entered a period of introspection and reorientation. Southeast Asia became an essential artery and bastion of Company interest, manifest in the Straits Settlements, which dominated Southeast Asian trade and politics. Their deft and well-crafted expansionist strategies, supported by strong and shrewd leadership and British naval hegemony, enabled them to expand from their solidified position in India to control the Chinese market, via Southeast Asia, which itself was a satellite hinterland of the Company's ports in Penang and Singapore.
This paper has charted the details of how EIC created Singapore as the preeminent port of Asian trade.
Stamford Raffles played a decisive role in making Singapore one of the Company's territories, and in introducing the idea of social responsibility in governance. Rising from the entry position of clerk, he was aware of the problems inherent in British imperialism in Asia, and sought to mitigate some of its worse ills, particularly emphasizing the importance of educating native elites, as Lieutenant Governor of Java and later as the mastermind of Singapore. As a strategic move he made an agreement with the then Sultan of Johor to establish a port there, and by 1826 the three port towns of Penang, Malacca, and Singapore were under direct control of EIC as the Straits Settlements, of which Singapore became the capital in 1832, reflecting is clear pre-eminence. From the outset is strategic location made it incredibly important to Asian trade and global history, and the ethos of responsibility inaugurated by Raffles laid the foundations for subsequent improvements in Southeast Asia in general, with political, social, educational, and economic development ultimately improving the quality of life of most inhabitants, albeit with uneven progress, and Southeast Asia today continues to face many of the same challenges with independence.