ssa2211 lecture 4 raffles

8/3/2019 SSA2211 Lecture 4 Raffles

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Was Raffles Responsible for the

Founding of Singapore?

Lecture 4Dr Donna Brunero

SSA2211 AY2011-12


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OUTLINE

1. Raffles: social memory

2. Rise of the British East India Company: setting Raffles intocontext

3. Raffles as the father of Singapore

4. Critics? What alternative views are there to Raffles as thefounder?

Farquhar, tensions from within EIC Reflections on the Malay World, the importance of Tengku

Husain

A world that trade created?

A construct of more recent times? (Rajaratnam)


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Raffles and Social

Memory Why is Raffles such an iconic figure in Singapores

social memory?

Is this merely the history of Great Men beingperpetuated?


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RAFFLES

Annual dinner/ball

Statues

Papers, letters

Highwood

Raffles mistress?

Why has Raffles remained so-strong in social memory?


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2. British East India

Company Britains largestsinglecommercial

enterprise. Not only theCompanybenefited fromthe Asia tradeas Commandersmade personalfortunes.

East India Company Crest (used until 1709).


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British EIC

1600Charter of Elizabeth Igrants The Governor andCompany of Merchants ofLondon trading to the East Indiesa monopoly of the Asia and

Pacific trade 1601 First voyage of the East

India Company (EIC) Voyages initially early capitalist

venture conducting each voyageas a separate business venture

with its own subscribers or stock-holders.

The Dutch VOC created in 1602.Direct rivalry?

1618-1629 War between EIC andVOC. Dutch control Batavia.


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The East India Company is, or rather was, an anomalywithout a parallel in the history of the world. It originatedfrom sub-scriptions, trifling in amount, of a few privateindividuals. It gradually became a commercial body withgigantic resources, and by the force of unforeseen

circumstances assumed the form of a sovereign power,while those by whom its affairs were directed continued,in their individual capacities, to be without power orpolitical influence. Bentley's Miscellany 43 (1858)

http://www.victorianweb.org/history/empire/india/eic.html


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The honourable company?? From a loose association ofElizabethian tradesmen

to the grandest society of merchants in the universe

Without the EIC there would have been no BritishIndia or British Empire


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The East Offering its Riches to Britannia, c.1777

(commissioned by the East India Company).


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Cycles of trade and

globalisation? 17th and 18th century- rise of British global power. Anglo-French rivalries intensified British interests in

Asian waters. East India company and emerging British Empire as

evidence of this? Growing Western dominance in the Asia trade as part

of a force that created the modern globalized world Singapores creation by Raffles as part of this?


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Raffles as an EIC man

Born 1781

1795: Clerk in EIC

Ventures to Southeast Asia (first appointed as assistant inPenang 1805)

1810 Appointed Agent to Malay States

1818 Bencoolen, Lieut-Governor

1819 Lands on Singapore and signs Treaty with TengkuHusain.

1822 Visits Singapore. Replans the town

1824 Returns to England, censured by EIC board

1826 Dies at home, Highwood. (45 years of age)

A Risky career? Over halfEIC employees posted toAsia died in Service.


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3. Raffles as the father ofSingapore

Depicts Singapore as the child of Raffles

Raffles as:

a visionary

a scholar

a maverick

Destined to challenge EIC policy?


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Actual Events

Prompted by concerns over Dutch influence, Raffles looks forstrategic location to give greater control over the southern end ofthe Melaka Straits.

Singapore identified as a potential post. Treaty with Temenggongand then a treaty with Tengku Husain (6 Feb 1819).

Secures Singapore as an outpost for the EIC

In exchange, recognises Tengku Husain as Lord of the Straits,and promises a share in the wealth the EIC post would generate.

Upsets both the Dutch AND the British EIC who had an uneasyrelationship in the region.


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Rewards?

Raffles censured for his actions.

Three visits to Singapore, each contentious.

His career ends in tatters.

Returns to England 1824.


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From Asiapac comics, Stamford Raffles: Founder of Modern Singapore


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Lady Sophia Raffles

Determined to seeRaffles career

remembered.

Writes to vindicate herhusbands career in

the EIC.

Singapore?


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4. Critics--How to assess Raffles?

A product of his times? As an employee of the EIC?

A scholar?

A visionary?

A misunderstood hero?

A protaganist in Anglo-Dutch rivalries?


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Alternative views

1. Raffles as BUT one figure responsible forSingapores growth and success.

2. The view from the Malay world. Raffles leveragingon local politics.

A schemer? see S.H. Alatas,Thomas Stamford Raffles 1781-1826: Schemer or Reformer(Sydney: Angus and Robertson, 1971).

3.An advocate for a dawning era of globalised trade?


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a) Raffles Alone?

A Founding myth? A tale of a hero?

Raffles as an absent father.

What of Farquhar and Crawfurd?

Can we separate the EIC politics from the narrative?


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Farquhar & CrawfurdTwo unsung heroes?

Colonel William Farquhar

Dr John Crawfurd


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b. Malay world

Malay-Bugis Rivalry

Tungku Husain wresting some control/status through

his agreement with the British (EIC)

Vision for a new Malay trading emporium.


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c. The world that trade

created? Raffles merely responding to the growing demands ofcountry traders as opposed to the EIC? A pioneer offree trade?

EIC becomes more administrative than abusiness/company.

EIC eventually bankrupted.

Country traders benefitted greatly from the EIC post inSingapore


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A free port

In response to Dutch restrictions (Batavia)

Designed to attract traders, both from regional and the

East-West trade routes.

Early trading communities included the StraitsChinese, Arabs and country traders.


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d. Raffles as a Hero in modernSingapore?

After attaining Independence in 1965 there was a

debate as to who should be declared the foundingfathers of Singapore. The debate was brought to an

abrupt end when the government fixed responsibilityfor this on Sir Stamford Raffles and officially declaredhim the founder of Singapore.

S.Rajaratnam, 1984.


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A political decision?

A decision to keep CONTINUITY between colonial

and post colonial eras? A reflection on understanding of Singapores history at

the time (1960s-1980s)?

Consider: parallels with the heroic rise of Lee KwanYew as founding figure of newly independentSingapore???


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Concluding thoughts

Social memory is important in shaping the way we viewhistory and the founding figure of modern Singapore.

Life and career of Sir Stamford Raffles reveals much of the

EIC and British ambitions for the Asia trade.

The establishment of an EIC post on Singapore reflectedRaffles ability to leverage on regional politics andopportunism as well as foresight.

The eventual success of this EIC post was not the work ofone man but the collected efforts of early Residents to turnan unwanted post into a trading emporium.


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Further Reading:

ssa2211 lecture 4 raffles

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