The RGA History of the Plantation Industry in the Malay PeninsulaThis is a straightforward history of the modern plantation industry in Peninsular Malaysia, from its origins on the new British settlement of Penang in the 1780s till the days of the Mahathir era 200 years later. During this period the industry evolved from an amateurish affair, centred on the cultivation, mainly in Chinese hands, of spices and pepper, sugar and tapioca, into a highly sophisticated and professional one, the mainstays of which were the rubber tree and the oil palm. The period also saw plantation agriculture evolve from an industry whose contribution to the Peninsula's economy was peripheral into one which, for the greater part of the twentieth century, formed its mainstay. This book deals not only with the introduction of crops, but also with immigration and settlement, issues of land legislation, revenue and taxation, the politics of rival professional organizations, the labour movement and trade unions, the development of the industry into an adjunct of colonialism, up to the time when the industry was Malaysianized under the New Economic Policy. |
Contents
PRELUDE | 1 |
PLANTERS IN SEARCH OF A CROP | 9 |
THE ERA OF THE AMATEURS | 19 |
Copyright | |
43 other sections not shown
Common terms and phrases
acquired administration agency houses agricultural already amongst Association Batu became become boom British cent Ceylon chairman Chinese coconut coffee planters Colonial Office commercial Committee concession coolies costs crop cultivation decade Director Dutch early employer enterprise established European planters export Government Guthrie's hand Harrisons & Crosfield Indian Immigration interests island issue Johore kangani Kedah Klang Kuala Lumpur labour land later London Malacca Malay Malay Peninsula Malaya Malaysian manager ment monopoly natural rubber Negri Sembilan Netherlands East Indies Nevertheless nineteenth century nutmeg official oil palm Pahang Penang Peninsula pepper and gambier Perak pineapple pioneer planters problem producers Province Wellesley recruitment Report restriction RGA Council RGA's Ridley Rubber Company rubber estate rubber plantation industry scheme Selangor Singapore smallholder Stevenson Plan Straits Settlements sugar sugar-cane Sungai Ujong supply Swettenham tapioca Teochew tion took trade trees world market