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ports in the region with indigenousproducts that were demandedby the international markets.Blackwood (a generic termused by Europeans to indicaterosewood timber) was exportedby Singapore to Malacca, whichwas in turn purchased by Chinesetraders and shipped to Chinafor use by the furniture-makingindustry.Pre-1819 Singapore’s role asan international trading port,which lasted for more than threehundred years since the late 13 thcentury, came to an abrupt endin the early 17 th century, whenthe island’s main settlement andits port was destroyed by apunitive force from Aceh. Thereafter, Singapore was devoid of anysignificant settlement or port until1819, when Sir Thomas StamfordRaffles founded Singapore and reestablishedan international port onthe island.The Junk Trade of Southeast Asiaincludes translations of Japanesesource materials of trade betweenChina and Southeast Asia in the17 th and early 18 th century. The bookconsist mainly of letters by Chinesejunk captains visiting various ports inSoutheast Asia.All Rights Reserved, Institute of SoutheastAsian Stuides, 1998.Singapore as a ColonialPort-city (1819 to 1963)Upon creating a strategic presencein Singapore, one of the first issuesthat Raffles dealt with was theestablishment of a commercialport on the island. Identifyingthe Singapore River basin as thenascent location of internationaltrade, Raffles was keen to attractboth Asian and European tradersto the new port. Land along theriverbanks, particularly alongthe south banks of the river, wasreclaimed where necessarily, andallotted to Chinese and Englishcountry traders to encourage thesecapitalists to establish a stake inthe newly founded port-settlement.While the Chinese traders, becauseof their frequent commercialinteractions with Southeast Asiantraders through the course of theyear, set up their trading housesalong the lower reaches of theSingapore River, the Englishcountry traders, who dependedon the annual arrival of trade fromIndia for their livelihood, set uptheir warehouses along the upperreaches of the river.The nature of Singapore’s port trade,at least up until the late 19 th century,was very much the same as thatof coastal Southeast Asia. The portrelied on three main networks oftrade that were existent in SoutheastAsia during that time for itseconomic viability: 1) the Chinesenetwork, which linked SoutheastAsia with the southern Chinesecoastal ports of Guangdong andFujian; 2) the Southeast Asiannetwork, which linked the islandsof the Indonesian Archipelago; and3) the European and Indian Oceannetwork, which linked Singaporeto the markets of Europe andthe Indian Ocean littoral. Thesenetworks complemented eachother, positioning Singapore as thetransshipment point of the regionaland international trade. By the1830s, Singapore had overtakenBatavia (present-day Jakarta) as theMaritime Southeast Asian centre ofChinese junk trade, even as it veryquickly became the key centre ofEnglish country trade in SoutheastAsia. These developmentswere supported by the growthof Southeast Asian shipping inSingapore. Southeast Asian traderspreferred the free port of Singaporeto the cumbersome restrictions thatwere imposed by the authorities ofthe other major international portsof the region.Singapore also served as theregional economic gateway for theimmediate region. By the 1830s,Singapore supplanted TanjungPinang to become the exportgateway for the gambier andpepper industry of the Riau-LinggaArchipelago, and by the 1840s, ofSouth Johor as well. Singapore alsobecame the centre of the Teochewtrade in marine produce and rice.The range of products that weremade available for export waslimited but unique, mirroring thestate of affairs in the late 13 th toearly 17 th centuries.Prince of Pirates discusses, in detail,the gambier and pepper trade in theStraits Settlement.All Rights Reserved, Singapore UniversityPress, 1979.As the volume of Singapore’smaritime trade increased throughthe course of the 19 th century,Singapore also began to developadditional port functions. Singapore’sposition as an increasingly importanttrading port in Southeast Asia,coupled with its strategic location,enabled it to develop into a vitalnodal point in the network of Asianand international shipping. Sailingvessels, and in the mid-19 th century,steam vessels, used Singaporeas a key port-of-call in their passagealong the Asian sea routes. Thus,from the 1840s onwards, Singaporebecame an important coalingstation for the steam shippingnetworks that were beginningto develop.A History of Straits SettlementsForeign Trade 1870 – 1915 offersan insight into the growth of StraitsSettlements foreign trade during thatperiod, and discusses the changes inits regional distribution.All Rights Reserved, National Museum,Singapore and Dr Chiang Hai Ding, 1978.Towards the late 19 th century,Singapore as a port developedanother important economicfunction – that of a stapleport servicing a geographicalhinterland. Following the institutingof the British Forward Movementin the Malay Peninsula in late19 th century, Singapore becamethe administrative capital ofBritish Malaya. The MalayPeninsula began to be systematicallyexploited for its natural resources,and Singapore, because of its roleas a nodal point in the regional andinternational shipping networks,was developed to be the stapleport and international exportgateway of the Malayan hinterland.Transportation networks, bothroads and railways, were developedto transport primary products,such as tin, rubber and crude oil,from different parts of the MalayPeninsula to Singapore to beprocessed into staple products, andthen shipped to Britain and otherinternational markets. This role,which was never played by any ofthe previous ports of Singapore,quickly became the most importantone that came to characterisethe port of Singapore during thecolonial period.Back to Our Roots:Singapore as an IndigenousPort Once Again (1963 – )In 1963, Singapore merged withMalaysia, ending approximatelyone hundred and fifty years ofBritish colonial rule in Singapore.Although Singapore remained partof the Malay Peninsula, Singaporewas no longer its administrativeor economic capital. In addition,the processing of raw materialsextracted in the Malay Peninsula,which was a vital aspect ofSingapore’s colonial port function,was severely curtailed by theabsence of a common marketbetween Singapore and the MalayPeninsula states. Singapore onceagain became a port-city devoid ofa geographical hinterland.Today, Singapore continues tofunction as an important nodalpoint in the network of regional andinternational shipping. In an ageof shipping conglomerates withinternational networks, however,Singapore is no longer a crucialport-of-call. Neighbouring regionscould, and have established,comparable ports-of-call. Singaporetherefore has had to compete,as it did historically, against otherports in the region to attract tradeand shipping to call at its port. Thishas been done by making a rangeof products available for export toattract trade to the island. WhileSingapore does not possess anyindigenous natural resourcesor products that are demandedby the international markets,the global consumer economyand globalisation have enabledSingapore to develop an exportorientedeconomy that is based onvalue-added manufacturing.Devoid of a geographical hinterlandsince 1963, Singapore hassuccessfully co-opted the regionaland global markets as its virtualeconomic hinterland, successfullyobtaining the raw or partiallymanufactured products needed forits value-added processing activitiesfrom these economies, andexporting the value-added productsback into them through marketaccess agreements such as theWorld Trade Organization directivesand Free Trade Agreements. Thesemanufacturing activities are notsupported by domestic demand,but by external markets. The portacts as the gateway through whichgoods flow into the internationalmarkets. More recently, it hasprogressed to include activities suchas the provision of financial andlegal services as well as researchand development, facilitating thealready well-established port-relatedservices conducted in Singapore.The success of Singapore’seconomic activities has led it toexpand its economic space overtime. Presently, Singapore hasmanaged to build up an enlargedeconomic sphere along the lines ofthe Extended Metropolitan Region.In this structure, Singapore is thecentre of an integrated system ofeconomic activities. The centreserves as the gateway to theinternational economy, and wherethere is the highest concentrationof human and money capital. Theperipheral region, namely Johorand the Riau Archipelago, supportsSingapore by providing completedproducts that can be made availablefor export via the port of Singapore.This relationship mirrors that of thelate 13 th to early 17 th centuries whenSingapore was a classical Malacca14 15