Opium in the Straits Settlements, 1867-19101
- 1 March 1961
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Cambridge University Press (CUP) in Journal of Southeast Asian History
- Vol. 2 (1) , 52-75
- https://doi.org/10.1017/s0217781100100390
Abstract
Throughout the nineteenth century, the revenue of the Straits Settlements Colony was derived to a very considerable extent from opium. Imported from India, opium in bulk was sold by the Government to Chinese merchants in Malaya who applied for the right to retail it. This monopoly, or farm, supplied the Government with almost half of its annual revenue. By 1904, in fact, it accounted for 59% of the revenue, and although measures of control were introduced in 1910, leading reluctantly to measures of restriction, the sale of opium provided Singapore and the two other Straits Settlements (Penang and Malacca), with a revenue right up to the outbreak of the Pacific War.Keywords
This publication has 1 reference indexed in Scilit:
- The Malayan Tin Industry to 1914.Published by JSTOR ,1965