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The main factor which sped up the growth of Singapore
was trade. She became a busy place for trade a few years
after she was founded. Almost all the trading activities
took place at the mouth of Singapore River. Both wealth
and prosperity were brought to Singapore by trade.
Entrepot Trade
Singapore had very few goods to sell to the other
countries. So Singapore became engaged in entrepot trade.
The type of trading activity where people import goods
from other countries and export the goods again to other
places is call entrepot trade.
Factors That
Affected The Trade In Singapore
Internal Factors:
| Geographical
Position: Traders found Singapore a
convenient place to trade. Therefore, they called
at the port more often. |
|
Free Trade: All
the traders from the world were allowed call at
the port, as the government did not impose any
rules on them. This made the trading activities
easier to be carried out. |
| Free Port:
The policy of free port made Singapore an
attractive place to trade because traders who
came to Singapore to trade did not need to pay
any taxes or custom duties. |
|
Good
Services: Large trading companies
provided services, which facilitated trading
activities such as insurance shipping and
banking. |
| Security:
British Government took action against the
pirates. Traders found Singapore a safe place to
trade as law and order was maintained. |
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Pirates
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External Factors:
| Opening Of
Suez Canal: Suez Canal was opened in
1869 to give an alternative route to the ships
which were travelling from Europe to Asia. It
was Ferdinand Le Lesseps, a French engineer, was
the person who thought of the idea. After the
opening of Suez Canal, Singapore’s merchants
would be able to get their goods from Europe
cheaper and faster.
Due to the Industrial Revolution, Steamships
would also need to call at the port to refuel and
buy food.
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Ferdinand Le Lesseps, a
French engineer
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| Industrial
Revolution: In the 18th century, the
Industrial Revolution took place. New machines
were invented. New sources of energy were also
founded to drive these machines. Lots of goods
were manufactured and the Europeans had to come
to Asia to sell their goods. Due to
Singapore’s geographical position, it was a
suitable place to sell their goods. |
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Demand For
Raw Materials: Raw materials such as
rubber and tin were greatly demanded in America,
Britain and other parts of Europe. As Malaya had
a lot of tin and rubber, Singapore bought them
and then exported them to the European countries.
Besides all these, she also bought oil from
Russia and America and re-exported the oil to
other countries. |
Great Depression: This Great
depression happened in America in the early 1930s. It was
a time where many companies closed down. Many people thus
became jobless. Slowly, it started to affect other
countries like Singapore. The businesses in Singapore
were bad, so many of the companies had to close down.
Those who were jobless had no choice but to return to
their homeland. The Great Depression ended in 1934 and
Singapore’s trade started to rise again.
Port Facilities
| Too many ships
called at the Old Harbour at the mouth of
Singapore River. There were too many lighters on
the water which helped to carry the goods and the
river was overcrowded. There were not enough
warehouses and dry docks. The port facilities
were also outdated. |
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Old
Harbour
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New Habour
| New Habour was built
in 1852. It was deeper and had new facilities to
cope with the increasing number of ships. New
Harbour was renamed Keppel Habour in 1900. |
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Location of New Harbour
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More
Improvements
Tanjong Pagar Dock Company was in charge of the
harbour at first. But later, Singapore Habour Board took
over. The building of new wharves, large docks and
storehouses, railway system between Malaya and Singapore
and the use of machinery were some of the improvement
made.
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