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3 The nineteenth century European term —‘Indian’ or ‘Malayan’ Archipelago— is, 1 imagine, unsatisfactory to my Indonesian colleagues, and for the same sort of reason, ‘Indonesian’ Archipelago might be objected to in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. The difficulty arises from the fact that a commercially homogeneous area is now divided by the accidents of colonial and post-colonial political history into Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. The Chinese had a more ancient and commercially more meaningful term for the entire area — Nanyang. As Wang Gunguru points out, the area of the Nanyang is no t conterminous with Southeast Asia but is rather to be identified as those areas reached by the Chinese (and one might add, Indians) by sea and not by land: i.e., the maritime belt of the Malay peninsula, the Irrawaddy, Menam and Mekong valleys and the islands stretching outwards from the Straits of Malacca. Gunguru, Wang, A Short History of the Nanyang Chinese (Singapore 1959) 1ffGoogle Scholar.

4 Towkay is a Hokkien expression meaning ‘the head of a business’, but is used by other Nanyang Chinese groups as well to denote the financial and commercial magnates within the community. Nagarathar, literally ‘bourgeois’ or ‘townsman’, is a.term applied to members of the Nattukottai Chettiar community of Tamil Nadu, a banking caste divided into several nagarams or ‘towns’ (exogamous clans) with a temple at the head of each.

5 Earl, G. F., The Eastern Seas or Voyages and Adventures in the Indian Archipelago in 1832-33-comprising a Tour of the Island ofJava — Visits to Borneo, the Malay Peninsula, Siam, & c; Account of the Present State of Singapore, with Observations on the Commercial Resources Archipelago (London 1837) 23–24 and passimGoogle Scholar.

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9 In a consular report on the trade of the Archipelago, the distinction was clearly drawn by the American trade consul, who commented: ‘It is this trade in Dutch East Indian products, carried on by the Chinese, that has built up Singapore into one of the greatest primary markets of the world.’ Elrige, Frank R., Trading with Asia (New York 1921) 197 (Far Eastern Division of the U.S. Bureau of Foreign Domestic Commerce)Google Scholar.

10 ‘The Bugguese prows from Celebes and other parts of the Eastern Islands, will resort to the settlement of Singapore with their goods, and barter them for manufactures, in preference t o going to Malacca or Batavia, and it will soon become a depot for the Eastern traders.’ J. Horsburgh in a letter to Raffles, quoted in Raffles, Sophia, Memoir of the Life and Public Services ofSir Stamford Raffles […] and Selections from his Correspondence (London 1830) 401Google Scholar

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13 The NHM operated only in the trade between Java and Holland and the Dutch ships seldom penetrated beyond Java. Ibidem, 24-25, 32-33.

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19 Nattukottai Chettiars had the following expectation of comparative rates of return on capital: Madras, 8-9%; Ceylon, 10-12%; Burma, 12-15%; the Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States, 15-18%. Madras Provincial Banking Enquiry Committee 1929-30 IV (Madras 1930) 339Google Scholar.

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24 Even in the heyday of Malacca in the sixteenth century, the native trade.of the Archipelago, though certainly not confined to hawkers and pedlars, was not supported by an indigenous money market. There were merchants well provided with capital and dealers in luxury articles and handlers of bulk cargoes. But there was no advanced form of accountancy and no banking and credit system that would have made an international traffic in money possible. Meilink-Roelofsz, M.A.P., Asian Trade and European Influence in the Indonesian Archi pelago between 1500 and about 1630 (The Hague 1962) 7–8Google Scholar.

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36 Quoted in Hao, Yen-Ping, The Comprador in Nineteenth Century China. Bridge between East West (Harvard 1970) 117.CrossRefGoogle Scholar The trade between the South China coast and Nanyang had for centuries been carried in Chinese junks. Even when European steamships intruded on this run, the junks persisted for some time. Finally the Chinese themselves began to employ steamships. Song, Singapore Chinese, passim.

37 Arnold Wrights directory of Chinese and Chetti firms in Penang, Singapore, Batavia, Sema-rang and Surabaya is the basis of the above conclusion. Wright, British Malaya, passim; idem, Netherlands India, passim.

38 The above details are taken from A. Savarinatha Pillai, ‘Monograph on Nattukottai Chettis' banking business’, Madras Banking'Report III, 1170ff; Burma Banking Report 1, 343 and passim; Mackenzie, Compton, Realms of Silver. One Hundred Years of Banking in the East (London 1954) 106–113;Google ScholarThurston, Edgar, Castes and Tribes of Southern India V (Madras 1909) 250Google Scholar.

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48 Ibidem, 482.

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70 Cameron, , Our Tropical Possessions, 139.Google Scholar There were enough rich men within the community to generate this kind of credit. Tan Kim Seng, who died the same year, was ‘worth close upon two million of dollars’. Ibidem.

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77 Ibidem.

78 Ibidem, 140.

79 Ibidem, 141.

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