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Tuesday, September 6, 2011, 6:37 PM
SINGAPORE HISTORY Late 13th century, a settlement known as Singapore was established on the north bank of the Singapore River around what was called the Old Harbor. It was the only port in the southern part of the Strait of Malacca and serviced ships and traders in the region, competing with other ports along the coast of the Malacca Strait. First made available products were included top-quality hornbill casqued, Lakawood (A product trade between South China and the Malay World from the Twelfth to Fifteenth Centuries AD) and cotton.  This is a hat made out of Lakawood. Singapore was unique in terms of their quality of products as they had products from all over South East Asia ports. Secondly, Singapore acted as a gateway into the regional and international economic system for its immediate region. South Johor and the Riau Archipelago supplied products to Singapore for export elsewhere, while Singapore was the main source of foreign products to the region. There was no significant settlement or port at Singapore until 1819 when Sir Stamford Raffles, excited by the deep and sheltered waters in Keppel Harbor, established for Britain a new settlement and international port on the island. After 1819 – 1963 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 South-east Asian traders throughout the year, set up their trading houses along the lower reaches of the river. 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:
After 1963: Singapore ceased to be part of the British Empire when it merged with Malaysia in 1963. Singapore lost its hinterland and was no longer the administrative or economic capital of the Malay Peninsula. The processing in Singapore of raw materials extracted in the Peninsula was drastically reduced due to the absence of a common market between Singapore and the peninsular states. Since Singapore's full independence in 1965, it has had to compete with other ports in the region to attract shipping and trade at its port. It has done so by developing an export-oriented economy based on value-added manufacturing. It obtains raw or partially-manufactured products from regional and global markets and exports value-added products back to these markets through market access agreements such as World Trade Organization directives and free trade agreements. By the 1980s, maritime trading activity had ceased in the vicinity of the Singapore River except in the form of passenger transport, as other terminals and harbors took over this role. Keppel Harbour is now home to three container terminals. Other terminals were built in Jurong and Pasir Panjang as well as in Sembawang in the north. Today, the port operations in Singapore are handled by two players: In the 1990s the Port became more well-known and overtook Yokohama, and eventually became the busiest port in terms of shipping tonnage. Operations The port is the world's busiest port in terms of shipping tonnage handled, with 1.15 billion gross tons (GT) handled in 2005. In terms of cargo tonnage, Singapore is behind Shanghai with 423 million freight tons handled. The port retains its position as the world's busiest hub for transshipment traffic in 2005, and is also the world's biggest bunkering hub, with 25 million tons sold in the same year. Singapore is ranked first globally in 2005 in terms of containerized traffic, with 23.2 million Twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) handled. High growth in containerized traffic has seen the port overtaking Hong Kong since the first quarter of 2005, and has led the race ever since, with an estimated 19,335 TEUs handled in the year up to October, compared to 18,640 TEUs handled in Hong Kong in the same period. A rise in regional traffic consolidating the port's position in Southeast Asia, and increases in transshipment traffic using the strategic East Asia-Europe route via Singapore helped the port to emerge tops at the end of the year, a title it had not held since overtaking Hong Kong once in 1998. Singapore port played vital role in emerging economy. What kind of research has been done before? Derek Heng Dr Derek Heng is an Assistant Professor in the Department of History at The Ohio State University. He was hosted as a VSS Fellow by the Department of History from June 11, 2009 to July 10, 2009. Dr Heng’s research interests include Southeast Asian society, economy and state-formation; China-Southeast Asia interactions; Chinese maritime history; the History of Singapore; Heritage preservation and the trade of antiquities in Southeast Asia and China. His research topic was on the formative processes of pre-modern societies in maritime Southeast Asia. During his stay, he conducted extensive research using trans-literated and Chinese language texts not available elsewhere. He also participated in the launch of the book “Singapore: A 700-Year History” which he co-authored with Prof Tan Tai Yong and Mr Kwa Chong Guan. In conjunction with the launch of the book, he also contributed an article which was published in the Straits Time on 30 June 2009. |
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