Chinese traders and the entrepot at Labuan in the nineteenth century

Abstract

In 1846 the British Government acquired the island of Labuan from the sultanate of Brunei, and shortly after it became a Crown Colony. But it did not prosper, and within a decade officials at the Colonial Office were talking of its abandonment. Above all, they were disappointed at the failure to open up its coal resources. 'If the coal could have been properly worked and conveniently shipped". Frederick Elliott, the assistant under-secretary, wrote in 1858, 'this island would have a valuable station. As it has been demon- strated that nother one nor the other can be accomplished, it is a failure....:1 Elliott and others tended to forget that the colony had been intended as a commercial entrepot and not merely as a source of coal. The 1830s and 1840s were a period of commercial difficulty. Influenced by the penetration of steamers into East Asian waters and the need for coal, but also affected by the restrictions the Dutch imposed on British trade in Java and Sumatra, the British Government resorted to a limited intervention on the north-west coast of Borneo. This was designed, in particular through the suppression of piracy, to create conditions under which commerce might expand.