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Singapore Early Administration and Growth
Although the India-China trade was partly responsible
for the
overnight success of Singapore, even more important was
the wellestablished entrepôt trade of the East Indies that the new
port
captured from Riau and other trade centers. The news of
the free
port brought not only traders and merchants but also
permanent
settlers. Malays came from Penang, Malacca, Riau, and
Sumatra.
Several hundred boatloads of Hussein's followers came from
Riau,
and the new sultan had built for himself an istana
(palace
in Malay), thus making Singapore his headquarters. The
growing
power of the Dutch in Riau also spurred several hundred
Bugis
traders and their families to migrate to the new
settlement.
Singapore was also a magnet for the Nanyang Chinese who
had lived
in the region for generations as merchants, miners, or
gambier
farmers. They came from Penang, Malacca, Riau, Manila,
Bangkok, and
Batavia to escape the tariffs and restrictions of those
places and
to seek their fortunes. Many intermarried with Malay
women, giving
rise to the group known as the
Baba Chinese (see Glossary). The
small Indian population included both soldiers and
merchants. A few
Armenian merchants from Brunei and Manila were also
attracted to
the settlement, as were some leading Arab families from
Sumatra.
Most Europeans in the early days of Singapore were
officials of the
British East India Company or retired merchant sea
captains.
Not wanting the British East India Company to view
Singapore as
an economic liability, Raffles left Farquhar a shoestring
budget
with which to administer the new settlement. Prevented
from either
imposing trade tariffs or selling land titles to raise
revenue,
Farquhar legalized gambling and the sale of opium and
arak,
an alcoholic drink. The government auctioned off monopoly
rights to
sell opium and spirits and to run gambling dens under a
system
known as tax farming, and the revenue thus raised was used
for
public works projects. Maintenance of law and order in the
wideopen seaport was among the most serious problems Farquhar
faced.
There was constant friction among the various immigrant
groups,
particularly between the more settled Malays and Chinese
from
Malacca and the rough and ready followers of the
temenggong
and the sultan. The settlement's merchants eventually
funded night
watchmen to augment the tiny police force.
When Raffles returned to Singapore from Bencoolen in
October
1822, he immediately began drawing up plans for a new town
(see
fig. 3). An area along the coast about five kilometers
long and one
kilometer deep was designated the government and
commercial
quarter. A hill was leveled and the dirt used to fill a
nearby
swamp in order to provide a place for the heart of the
commercial
area, now Raffles Place. An orderly and scientifically
laid out
town was the goal of Raffles, who believed that Singapore
would one
day be "a place of considerable magnitude and importance."
Under
Raffles' plan, commercial buildings were to be constructed
of brick
with tiled roofs, each with a two-meter covered walkway to
provide
shelter from sun and rain. Spaces were set aside for
shipyards,
markets, churches, theaters, police stations, and a
botanical
garden. Raffles had a wooden bungalow built for himself on
Government Hill.
Each immigrant group was assigned an area of the
settlement
under the new plan. The Chinese, who were the fastest
growing
group, were given the whole area west of the Singapore
River
adjoining the commercial district; Chinatown was further
divided
among the various dialect groups. The temenggong
and his
followers were moved several kilometers west of the
commercial
district, mainly in an effort to curtail their influence
in that
area. The headmen or kapitans of the various groups
were
allotted larger plots, and affluent Asians and Europeans
were
encouraged to live together in a residential area adjacent
to the
government quarter.
In the absence of any legal code, Raffles in early 1823
promulgated a series of administrative regulations. The
first
required that land be sold on permanent lease at a public
auction
and that it must be registered. The second reiterated
Singapore's
status as a free port, a popular point with the merchants.
In his
farewell remarks, Raffles assured them that "Singapore
will long
and always remain a free port and no taxes on trade or
industry
will be established to check its future rise and
prosperity." The
third regulation made English common law the standard,
although
Muslim law was to be used in matters of religion,
marriage, and
inheritance involving Malays.
Raffles was an enlightened administrator for his time.
He
believed in the prevention of crime and the reform, rather
than the
mere punishment, of criminals. Payment of compensation to
the
injured by the offender was to be considered as important
as
punishment. Only murder was to be considered a capital
offense, and
various work and training programs were used to turn
prisoners into
useful settlers. Raffles shut down all gambling dens and
heavily
taxed the sale of liquor and opium. He abolished outright
slavery
in 1823, but was unable to eradicate debt bondage, by
which
immigrants often were forced to work years at hard labor
to pay for
their passage.
Raffles felt that under Farquhar the temenggong
and the
sultan had wielded too much power, receiving one-third of
the
proceeds from the opium, liquor, and gambling revenues,
and
demanding presents from the captains of the Asian ships
that
dropped anchor there. Hussein and the temenggong,
however,
viewed Singapore as a thriving entrepôt in the mold of the
great
port cities of the Malay maritime empires of Srivijaya,
Malacca,
and Johore. As rulers of the island, they considered
themselves
entitled to a share of the power and proceeds of the
settlement. In
June 1823, Raffles managed to persuade Hussein and the
temenggong to give up their rights to port duties
and their
share in the other tax revenues in exchange for a pension
of
Sp$1,500 and Sp$800 per month, respectively. Because the
Dutch
still contested the British presence in Singapore, Raffles
did not
dare push the issue further. On March 17, 1824, however,
the AngloDutch Treaty of London was signed, dividing the East
Indies into
two spheres of influence. The British would have hegemony
north of
a line drawn through the Strait of Malacca, and the Dutch
would
control the area south of the line. As a result, the Dutch
recognized the British claim to Singapore and relinquished
power
over Malacca in exchange for the British post at
Bencoolen. On
August 3, with their claim to Singapore secure, the
British
negotiated a new treaty with the sultan and the
temenggong,
by which the Malay rulers were forced to cede Singapore
and the
neighboring islands to the British East India Company for
cash
payments and increased pensions. Under the treaty, the
Malay chiefs
also agreed to help suppress piracy, but the problem was
not to be
solved for several more decades.
In October 1823, Raffles left Singapore for Britain,
never to
return. Before leaving, he replaced Farquhar with the
Scotsman John
Crawfurd, an efficient and frugal administrator who guided
the
settlement through three years of vigorous growth.
Crawford
continued Raffles' struggles against slavery and piracy,
but he
permitted the gambling houses to reopen, taxed them, and
used the
revenue for street widening, bridge building, and other
civic
projects. He failed to support, however, Raffles' dream of
higher
education for the settlement. As his last public act,
Raffles had
contributed Sp$2,000 toward the establishment of a
Singapore
Institution, which he had envisioned as a training ground
for Asian
teachers and civil servants and a place where European
officials
could gain an appreciation of the rich cultural heritage
of the
region as Raffles himself had. He had hoped that the
institution
would attract the sons of rulers and chiefs of all the
region.
Crawfurd, however, advised the company officials in
Calcutta that
it would be preferable to support primary education. In
fact,
education at all levels was neglected until much later.
Data as of December 1989
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