Presented to you through Paradigm Publishing Services
Boydell & Brewer
Book
Licensed
Unlicensed
Requires Authentication
Singapore, Chinese Migration and the Making of the British Empire, 1819-67
Language:
English
Published/Copyright:
2019
About this book
Discusses how Britain replicated the "Singapore model" - the use of imported "industrious" Chinese labour - to other parts of its empire, with varying degrees of success.
The transformation of Singapore, founded by Stamford Raffles in 1819, from a trading post to a major centre for international trade was a huge commercial and colonial success for Britain. One key factor in all of this was the recruitment of Chinese migrant labour, which by the 1850s made up over half of the population. The transformation, however, was not limited to Singapore. As this book demonstrates, colonial administrators saw that the "model" of whathad been done in Singapore, especially the use of Chinese migrant labour, could be replicated elsewhere. This book examines the establishment of the "Singapore model" and its transference - to Assam in India, Sri Lanka (then Ceylon), Mauritius, Australia and the West Indies. It examines the role of the key people who developed the model, including the Hong Kong merchant houses and their financial expertise, discusses central ideas which lay behind the model, notably free trade and the use of "industrious" Chinese rather than "lazy" natives, and assesses the varying outcomes of the different colonial experiments. The themes discussed - economic opportunities and globalisation; theneed to find labour without recourse to slavery, indentured labour or convict labour; migration, ethnicity and racism - all continue to have great significance at present, as does the idea that Singapore, still, is a model to be replicated more widely.
STAN NEAL is Lecturer in Modern British Imperial History at Ulster University.
The transformation of Singapore, founded by Stamford Raffles in 1819, from a trading post to a major centre for international trade was a huge commercial and colonial success for Britain. One key factor in all of this was the recruitment of Chinese migrant labour, which by the 1850s made up over half of the population. The transformation, however, was not limited to Singapore. As this book demonstrates, colonial administrators saw that the "model" of whathad been done in Singapore, especially the use of Chinese migrant labour, could be replicated elsewhere. This book examines the establishment of the "Singapore model" and its transference - to Assam in India, Sri Lanka (then Ceylon), Mauritius, Australia and the West Indies. It examines the role of the key people who developed the model, including the Hong Kong merchant houses and their financial expertise, discusses central ideas which lay behind the model, notably free trade and the use of "industrious" Chinese rather than "lazy" natives, and assesses the varying outcomes of the different colonial experiments. The themes discussed - economic opportunities and globalisation; theneed to find labour without recourse to slavery, indentured labour or convict labour; migration, ethnicity and racism - all continue to have great significance at present, as does the idea that Singapore, still, is a model to be replicated more widely.
STAN NEAL is Lecturer in Modern British Imperial History at Ulster University.
Topics
-
Download PDFPublicly Available
Frontmatter
i -
Download PDFPublicly Available
CONTENTS
vii -
Download PDFPublicly Available
List of Illustrations
viii -
Download PDFPublicly Available
Acknowledgements
ix -
Download PDFPublicly Available
Language Usage
xi -
Download PDFPublicly Available
Chronology: Singapore, the British Empire and Anglo-Chinese Relations, 1819–67
xii -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
Introduction
1 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
Chapter 1 The Singapore Model
13 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
Chapter 2 The Chinese Character: Race, Economics, Colonisation
41 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
Chapter 3 Crossing the Indian Ocean: Chinese Labour in South Asia and Beyond
69 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
Chapter 4 From Singapore to Sydney: Race, Labour and Chinese Migration to Australia
99 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
Chapter 5 Hong Kong versus Singapore: The Dawn of Mass Migration
125 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
Conclusion
151 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
Bibliography
159 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
Index
177
Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
January 23, 2024
eBook ISBN:
9781787445529
Original publisher:
Boydell Press
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook ISBN:
9781787445529
Keywords for this book
Singapore; migrant labour; Chinese workers; colonial history; globalisation; migration; indentured labour
Audience(s) for this book
For an expert adult audience, including professional development and academic research
