Abstract
Large-scale Chinese immigration into British Malaya1 (see also Appendix A. Map of British Malaya) in response to the development of rubber industry in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century created a plural society: the Europeans were the exporters of rubber, the Malays were the producers of smallholders’ rubber, and the Chinese were the middlemen who linked Malay producers with the Europeans in the export sector. While it is known that Malaya exhibits the classical features of a Furnivallian plural society, it is less well known that the Chinese community itself forms a plural society within the wider plural society. For example, the Teochews dominated the production and marketing of pepper and gambier in the mid-nineteenth century; the Hokkiens dominate the marketing of smallholders’ rubber (including the export of smallholders’ rubber) in the second half of the twentieth century, and the Hakkas dominate the pawnshops and Chinese medicinal shops.
This chapter is a slightly revised version of chapter two of my Ph.D. dissertation (Landa 1978) entitled The economics of the ethnically homogeneous Chinese middleman group: A property rights-public choice approach. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Alchian, Armen A. & Harold Demsetz. (1972). Production, information costs, and economic organization. American Economic Review, 62, 777–795.
Allen, G.C. &Audrey G. Donnithorne. (1957). Western enterprise in Indonesia and Malaya: A study in economic development. London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd.
Blythe, Wilfred. (1969). The impact of Chinese secret societies in Malaya. A historical study. London: Oxford University Press.
Cheah, Kam Ooi. (1965). The Hakka community in Singapore. Singapore: B.A. Thesis, Department of Social Studies, University of Singapore.
Cheng, Lean Kiow. (1967/68). A comparison between the modern and traditional management styles in Singapore. Singapore: B.A. thesis, Department of Economics, University of Singapore.
Chua, S.C. (1964). Report on the Census of Population 1957. Singapore: Lim Bian Han, Government Printer.
Crissman, Lawrence W. (1957). The segmentary structure of urban Overseas Chinese communities. Man, 57, 185–204.
Fell, H. (1960). 1957 Population Census of the Federation of Malaya. Report No. 14. Kuala Lumpur: Department of Statistics, Federation of Malaya.
Freedman, Maurice. (1966). Chinese lineage and society: Fukien and Kwangtung. (London School of Economics Monographs on Social Anthropology, No. 33). London: The Athlone Press.
Furnivall, John S. (1948). Netherlands India: A study of plural economy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Gamba, Charles. (1958). Poverty and some socio-economic aspects of hoarding, saving and borrowing in Malaya. The Malayan Economic Review, 3, 33–62.
Gamba, Charles. (1966). Chinese associations in Singapore. Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 39, 123–168.
Goh, Joon Hai. (1962). Some aspects of Chinese business world in Malaya. Ekonomi, 3, 84–95.
Goh, Peng Wee. (1960). A study of the kinship relations of some Teochew nuclear families in Singapore. Singapore: B.A. Thesis, Department of Social Studies, University of Singapore.
Hirschman, Charles. (1986). The making of race in Colonial Malaya: Political economy and racial ideology. Sociological Forum, 1(2), 330–361.
Hsu, Yun-Ts’iao. (1961). Malayan folklore. Singapore: The Youth Book Company. (許雲憔: 馬來亞叢談)
Jackson, James C. (1968). Planters and speculators: Chinese and European agricultural enterprise in Malaya, 1786–1921. Kuala Lumpur, Singapore: University of Malaya Press.
Jacques, E.W. (1931). Kuching, Sarawak. Man, pp. 225–226.
Landa, Janet T. (1978). The economics of the ethnically homogeneous Chinese middleman group: A property rights-public choice approach. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. [Unpublished].
Lee, S. Y. (1967). The growth of commercial banks in the States of Malaysia and Singapore. In John Purcal (Ed.) The Monetary System of Singapore and Malaysia: Implications of the Split Currency. Singapore: Dept. of Extra Mural Studies, University of Singapore.
Levy, Marion J., Jr. (1968). The family revolution in modern China. New York: Atheneum.
Mani, Lawrence G. (1964). 58-year story of the Chamber—A short historical review. In Fifty-eight years of enterprise. (pp. 67–138). Souvenir volume of the new building of the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce. Singapore: L. M. Creative Publicity Ltd.
McHale, T. R. (1960). An introduction to econocological theory. Malayan Economic Review, 5, 7–12.
Middlebrook, S. M. (1951) (completed by J. M. Gullick). Yap Ah Loy, 1837–1885. Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 24, 1–127.
Nanyang University Students. (1971). [南大同学] 新加坡華族行業史調查报告 [A Report on a Survey of Chinese Businesses in Singapore]. Singapore: Nanyang University.
Parsons, Talcott. (1958). Essays in sociological theory. Glencoe, Illinois: The Free Press.
Phua, Chye Long. (Ed.) (1950). The Teochews in Malaya. Singapore: Singapore: Cultural Printing Company. [潘醒農: 馬來亞潮橋通鑑. 新加坡: 文化印務司]
Rawski, Thomas G. (1970). Chinese dominance of treaty port commerce and its implications, 1860–1875. Explorations in Economic History, 7, 451–473.
Song, Ong Siang. (1967). One hundred years’ history of the Chinese in Singapore. Singapore: University Malaya Press.
Suyama, Taku. (1962). Pang societies and the economy of Chinese immigrants in Southeast Asia. In K. G. Tregonning (Ed.) Papers on Malayan History. (pp. 193–213). Singapore: Journal of Southeast Asian History.
Tan, Ee-Leong. (1953). The Chinese banks incorporated in Singapore and the Federation of Malaya. Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 26, 114–139. Reprinted in T. H. Silcock (Ed.) Readings in Malayan economics. (1961, pp. 454–479). Singapore: Eastern Universities Press.
Tan, Kim Swee. (1962). A study of Kongsi houses in Singapore housing immigrant men. Singapore: B.A. Thesis, Department of Social Studies, University of Singapore.
Tan, Tin Seng. (1966). Aspects of management and administrative practices in five small Chinese firms. Singapore: B.A. Thesis, Department of Economics, University of Singapore.
Wang, William S-Y. (1973). The Chinese language. Scientific American, 228, 51–60.
Willmott, William E. (1967). The Chinese in Cambodia. Vancouver, Canada: University of British Columbia.
Willmott, William E. (Ed.) (1972). Economic organization in Chinese society. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.
Yang, Lien-Sheng. (1957). The concept of “Pao” as a basis for social relations in China. In John K. Fairbank (Ed.) Chinese thought and institutions. (pp. 291–309). Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Yong, Chin Fatt. (1968). A preliminary study of Chinese leadership in Singapore, 1900–1941. Journal of Southeast Asian History, 9, 258–285.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Appendices
Appendix A. Map of British Malaya
Source: Charles Hirschman (1986). “The Making of Race in Colonial Malaya: Political Economy and Racial Ideology,” Sociological Forum, 1(2), p. 335.
Appendix B. Chinese Ethnic/Dialect Communities in Singapore & Malaya, 1947 and 1957
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Landa, J.T. (2016). Chinese Mutual Aid (PANG 帮) and Economic Organizations: General Background. In: Economic Success of Chinese Merchants in Southeast Asia. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-54019-6_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-54019-6_2
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-54018-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-54019-6
eBook Packages: Economics and FinanceEconomics and Finance (R0)