Write up

History Project Write Up

In the 1819s, Singapore was keen to attract Asian and European traders. To attract Asian and European traders to the new port, Raffles directed that land along the banks of the Singapore River, particularly the south bank, be reclaimed where necessary and allocated to Chinese and English country traders to encourage them to establish a stake in the port-settlement. Chinese traders, because of their frequent commercial interactions with Southeast Asian traders throughout the year, set up their trading houses along the lower reaches of the river, while English country traders, who depended on the annual arrival of trade from India, set up warehouses along the upper reaches. The port relied on three main networks of trade that existed in Southeast Asia at that time: the Chinese network, which linked Southeast Asia with the southern Chinese ports of Fujian and Guangdong; the Southeast Asian network, which linked the islands of the Indonesian archipelago; and the European and Indian Ocean network, which linked Singapore to the markets of Europe and the India Ocean littoral. These networks were complementary, and positioned Singapore as the transshipment point of regional and international trade.

• Trades

       Singapore was a busy place for trading and settlement before 1819.From the sources examined
       such as the portrait of old ships, I can tell that monsoon winds enabled traders to sail to
      Singapore for trading. The fragments of Chinese stoneware also show that there was trade in 
      Singapore. Thus these sources prove to us that many groups of traders came to Singapore for
      trading and settlement before 1819.

•  Economic

       Before 1819, Singapore was already a very well known trading spot from the set of gold
       ornaments that was being found at Fort canning Hill, which was being posted. The symbols on
       this gold ornaments represents a hindu god. So, we can infer that there were wealthy people who
       were living in Singapore that can afford to buy such expensive gold ornaments.

• Political 

       This source Sejarah Melayu ( The Malay Annals ) was first written in the 1437. It documents the
       history, the law and ceremonies of the malay kings or sultans that were ruling the malay
       Kingdom. The words that are being written on the Malay Annals as shown in the picture of the
       source posted, is the malay language.