FINANCE—TRADE—INDUSTRIES
A general review of the financial, commercial, and industrial progress
of Sarawak will probably convey to our readers a better conception than
the foregoing history may have enabled them to form of the uniform
advance of Sarawak along the path of civilisation: for no better
evidence of the prosperity of a country can be advanced than the growth
of its trade and industries, dependent as this is upon security to life
and property and liberal laws.
Of the revenue before the Chinese rebellion there are no records, as all
the archives were then destroyed. Three years later, in 1860, the
revenue was so insignificant as to be quite inadequate to meet the needs
of the country, which then for the first time became involved in debt; a
debt which was unavoidably increased in subsequent years, until it had
reached a somewhat high figure for such a young and striving State, but
from which, however, it has now been freed by the exercise of prudent
economy, and by improvement in its finances.[353]
In 1870 the revenue amounted to And the expenditure to
$122,842 $126,161
1880 229,718 203,583
1890 413,113 362,779
1900 915,966 901,172
1907 1,441,195 1,359,274
On January 1st, 1908, the Government balances amounted to a little over
$800,000, and the only liability was for notes in circulation, amounting
to $190,796.
In 1875, fifty-six years after its foundation, the revenue of Singapore
was but $967,235, and that of Penang, then established for eighty-nine
years, $453,029.[354] In 1900, the Raj of Sarawak had been in existence
for fifty-eight years. Since 1875, the effect of the development of the
rich tin deposits of the Malayan States of the Peninsula has been to so
enormously enhance the commercial prosperity of the Straits Settlements
that the present revenues of the "sister colonies" have quite surpassed
anything that Sarawak may perhaps hope to acquire in a corresponding
number of years.
The trade is mainly in the hands of the Chinese merchants, mostly
country born, who are successfully carrying on thriving businesses of
which the foundations were laid by their fathers in the early days of
the raj. These merchants are of a highly respectable class, and they
take the interest of intelligent men in the welfare of the country,
which they have come to regard as their own. They rarely visit China—
some not at all. They are consulted by the Government in all matters in
which their interests are concerned.
The only European Firm is the Borneo Company Limited, and the career of
this Company has for over fifty years been so closely linked with that
of the State, and so much to the advantage of the latter, that it fully
merits more than a passing notice in these pages, without which this
history would not be complete.
For a considerable period Mr. J. C. Templer, the late Rajah's old
friend, laboured very hard to meet the ignorant and cruel criticism
which had been cast on the Rajah's great work, and, in order that the
development of Sarawak might have financial support, he interested
friends in the city in the matter, chiefly Mr. Robert Henderson of
Messrs. R. and J. Henderson.
After considerable negotiation, the Borneo Company Limited was
registered in May, 1856. The attention of the Company was turned
primarily to supporting the Rajah, and to developing the resources of
the country. The first Directors were Messrs. Robert Henderson
(Chairman), J. C. Templer, J. D. Nicol, John Smith, Francis Richardson
and John Harvey (Managing Director).
Most unfortunately, immediately after the formation of the Company
troubles arose which nearly overwhelmed the State. The Chinese
insurrection the next year, and the later political intrigues obscured
for a time the prosperity of Sarawak, and left the prospects of the
Company very black indeed, but it struggled on bravely; and it cannot be
doubted that its formation before the insurrection was a matter of great
value in the history of the country.
The Company, as soon as they received news of the insurrection,
instructed their Manager in Singapore to supply the Rajah with all the
arms, ammunition, and stores he might require, and it was their steamer,
named after himself, that arrived at such an opportune moment, and
enabled him to drive the rebels out of Kuching, and to cut short their
work of ruin far sooner than he could otherwise have done; and it was
the Company which not only subsequently advanced the Rajah the means he
so sorely needed to carry on the government, but headed a subscription
list started in England to relieve the Government of pressing wants,
with a donation of £1000. Long before this the Rajah's private fortune
had been exhausted.
Some appear to have formed the opinion that the Company were
subsequently inconsiderate in pressing for payment of the loan, but more
consideration should have been given to the position of the Directors as
being a fiduciary one to the shareholders, who had invested their money
in a commercial enterprise, and at that time by no means a prosperous
one.
Since the Company was formed over £200,000 has been paid to the
Government for mining royalties, and during the same period £2,000,000
has been paid out in wages, which has tended to the prosperity and
advantage of the country.
Until 1898, no balance of profit had been made by the Company from
Sarawak; indeed, there was a very considerable deficit, which had been
met from the profits of their other operations.[355] This persistence in
the original policy of the founders of the Company for forty years
without return has, however, been rewarded by considerable success in
the last decade. The enterprise that brought this success, the
extraction of gold from poor grade ores by the cyanide process, is
noticed further on, and we will conclude this notice of the Company by a
quotation from a speech by the Rajah given thirty years after the
foundation of the raj.
The Company has held fast and stuck to its work through the perils
and dangers and the adversity which Sarawak has experienced and
encountered. It has shown a solid and stolid example to other
merchants, and has formed a basis for mercantile operations; and the
importance of the presence in a new State of such a large and
influential body as the Borneo Company cannot be overrated.
Owing to the absolute lack of security to life and property, both within
and without, before the accession of Sir James Brooke to the raj,
Sarawak had no trade. After 1842 a small trade began to spring up, but
the Lanun and Balenini pirates and the Sea-Dayaks rendered the pursuit
of trade very difficult and dangerous. The lessons administered to the
latter by the Rajah and Sir Henry Keppel caused these to confine
themselves for some time to their homes, and the Foreign exports rose to
$60,000 in 1847. Then the coast again became insecure, and it was not
until after the battle of Beting Maru, in 1849, that trade made any
considerable advance, and it continued to increase until the Chinese
insurrection brought the country to the verge of ruin. A brief respite
followed, and then came the internal political troubles, and renewed
activity on the part of the Lanun and Balenini pirates. But in 1862, the
authority of the Rajah was paramount from Cape Datu to Kedurong Point,
and the defeat of the pirates off Bintulu in the middle of this year
freed the Sarawak coast for ever from these pests. So in 1862 the
increase in the value of the trade was over fifty per cent. In 1860, the
Foreign imports and exports amounted to $574,097; in 1880 to $2,284,495;
in 1900 to $9,065,715; and in 1905 to $13,422,267. Since 1905, in common
with all countries, the State has been suffering from commercial
depression, and in 1907 the decrease in the imports was $709,162, and in
the exports $823,682, compared with 1905, though only $2276 and $166,285
as compared with 1906. But though the exports have fallen off in value,
there has been an increase in the quantities of the products exported.
As prices fluctuate, the industrial progress of a country is, therefore,
better gauged by the quantity rather than by the value of its products,
and in 1907, 7000 tons more sago flour, 800 tons more pepper, 7000 oz.
more gold, and 150 tons more gutta and india-rubber were exported than
in 1905.
Practically Singapore has the benefit of the whole of the Sarawak trade,
which is borne in two steamers of 900 tons each under the Sarawak flag,
owned by the Sarawak and Singapore S.S. Company, and these maintain a
weekly communication between Kuching and Singapore. The coasting trade
is carried in three smaller steamers owned by the same Company. There is
a small trade in timber with Hong Kong; and a few junks come yearly from
Siam and Cochin China.
Agriculture is the foremost industry, and as it is a permanent one, only
requiring wise and liberal measures to foster and encourage it, Sarawak
is in this respect fortunate, for the natural products of a country,
such as minerals and jungle produce, must in time be worked out; and the
future of a country is therefore more dependent upon its industries than
on its natural products.
In 1907, the value of the cultivated products exported was $3,133,565.
Of these sago may be said to be the staple product, and the markets of
the world are mainly supplied by Sarawak with this commodity. From it
Borneo derives its Eastern name, Pulo-Ka-lamanta-an (the island of raw
sago).[356] The palm, the pith of which is the raw or crude sago, is
indigenous, and there are many varieties growing wild all over the
island that yield excellent sago. On the low, marshy banks of the
rivers, lying between Kalaka and Kedurong Point, are miles upon miles of
what might be termed jungles of the cultivated palm, where fifty years
ago there were but patchy plantations. The raw sago as extracted by the
Melanaus is purchased by the Chinese and shipped to the sago factories
in Kuching, where it is converted into sago flour, in which form it is
exported to Singapore. How the cultivation of the sago palm is
increasing, the following figures will show:—
1870 exported [357]tons, value $128,025
1887 exported 8,734 tons, value 314,536
1897 exported 14,330 tons, value 689,702
1907 exported 20,388 tons, value 964,266
In 1847-48, only 2,000 tons were imported into Singapore, practically
all from Borneo.
In times immemorial pepper was very extensively cultivated in Borneo. In
the middle ages this cultivation attracted particular attention to the
island; and to obtain a control over the pepper trade by depriving the
Turks of their control over the trade in spices was one of the main
incentives to the discovery of a route to the East by the Cape. By many
the introduction of pepper into Borneo is attributed to the Chinese, and
from them the natives are supposed to have learnt its cultivation, but
this is doubtful, as pepper is not a product of China, and was probably
introduced by the Hindus; but that the Chinese, finding the industry a
profitable one, improved and extended the cultivation of pepper, there
can be no doubt. What the export of pepper was in the days when the
Malayan Sultanates were at their prime it is impossible to determine,
but that it must have been very considerable is indicated by the fact
that as late as 1809 Hunt estimated the export from Bruni at 3500 tons,
and at that time the country had been brought to the verge of ruin by
misrule and oppression, which led to the gradual extinction of the
Chinese colony, and to the deprival of all incentive to the Muruts and
Bisayas to carry on an industry for which they had once been famous—
indeed, Hunt notices that he saw _numbers of abandoned gardens_, and his
observations were restricted to a very limited area. In spite of the
harmful restrictions of the Dutch, in the south at Banjermasin, two
hundred years ago, the export was still from 2000 to 3000 tons.[358] Had
different conditions prevailed, had native industry been encouraged
instead of having been suppressed, then truly might Borneo have become
the "Insula Bonæ Fortunæ" of Ptolemy.
But Sarawak is placing Borneo once more to the fore amongst the pepper
producing countries of the far East, and in 1907 exported 5177 tons, as
against 400 tons in 1886. After many previous failures the foundations
of this large industry, which is entirely in the hands of the Chinese,
were laid in 1876 by the Rajah in conjunction with certain local Chinese
merchants.
As with sago and pepper, Borneo is essentially a rubber producing
country, and it is to be hoped when the time arrives, and as yet it
appears to be far from being in view, that the natural product is worked
out, it will be more than replaced by cultivated rubber. The Borneo
Company have laid out extensive plantations, that give promise of a
paying and lasting industry.
With the exception of the cultivation of sago, agriculture in Sarawak
is, and will remain dependent upon imported labour. It is not in the
nature of the Malay, whose wants are so few and simple that they are
procured by a minimum of exertion, to undertake any work requiring
persistent and diligent labour; and no more is it in the nature of the
Sea-Dayak, though he is not afraid of hard work. Having finished his
farming and gathered his harvest the latter prefers an occupation that,
whilst bringing in a fair profit, will gratify his proneness for
roaming. The native methods of rice growing are crude and wasteful, and
attempts to improve these have failed, as have all attempts to introduce
Chinese for the purpose of cultivating rice, with the idea of
establishing an agricultural industry for which there is so much room
and need in Sarawak. The Malays and Dayaks, like the Kayans and
Melanaus, produce barely enough rice for their own consumption, and rice
figures as the biggest item in the imports of a country which is capable
of producing a considerable quantity more than it needs.
Sugar cane grows well, but enterprise in its production has probably
been damped by the failure, through mismanagement, of an English
Company, which, in 1864, started a large plantation on about the very
worst soil that could have been selected. Tobacco planting proved to be
a failure, and a costly experiment to the Government. Coffee and tea
grow well on high ground, but the country has little elevated plateau
land suitable for its cultivation. Gambir is a paying product, but the
cultivation of pepper has proved more attractive to the Chinese, though
the production of gambir has been fairly well maintained at over 1000
tons yearly. Tapioca, cotton (which in former days was largely exported
from Bruni), the cocoa-nut, the areca or pinang, and the oil or soap
palms all grow well. Ramie is being cultivated by an English Company in
the Lawas, and experiments have shown that this plant will grow well.
The sisal aloe grows freely, and on poor soil. Pine-apples are largely
cultivated for canning. The fruits and vegetables common to all
countries in the Malayan Archipelago abound in Sarawak.
The land regulations are liberal and fair. _Bona fide_ planters receive
every encouragement, though none is held out to speculators in land. The
indiscriminate alienation of large tracts of land for unlimited periods
and for indefinite purposes is an unsound policy, which does not find
favour in Sarawak. It leads to land being locked up, sometimes for a
long period, and to placing ultimately in the hands of a foreign
speculator profits which the State should reap, and to the natives it
causes many hardships. In 1890, such a concession was granted to a
company by the Dutch Government in the province of Sambas, quite
independently of any consideration for existing and long-established
rights of the natives, the real owners of the soil. This act drove many
families over the borders into Sarawak, when rudely awakened to the fact
that except by the permission of the employees of a company, only to be
obtained by payment, they could not farm, neither could they fish or
hunt, nor could they obtain the many necessities of life with which the
jungle supplies them.
In his report upon Borneo for 1899, Mr. Consul Keyser writes:—
I should here like to dispel, once and for all, the idea so often
heard suggested that the Ruler of Sarawak is averse to progress and
the introduction of European capital. That the Rajah is anxious to
discourage that undesirable class of adventurer, who descends upon
undeveloped countries to fill his own purse regardless of the
result, it is true. The fate of the adjacent country of Bruni, whose
ruin and decay are not entirely disconnected with the unfulfilled
promises and specious tales of selfish speculators, is in itself
ample justification, if one were needed, for this attitude.
At the same time, no _bona fide_ investor need fear to visit Sarawak
if he is prepared to deal fairly with the natives and conform to the
usages of the country. Such a man would be sure of welcome, and he
himself equally certain of success.
Land is usually granted at a small rental in large or small areas, in
accordance with the capital and the objects of the grantee. The
proportion of the land which is to be brought under cultivation in
successive years is agreed upon. Any portion of the land that the
grantee may have failed to bring under cultivation within the stipulated
time, or, having cultivated, has abandoned it, reverts to the State;
though in the former case circumstances occasionally arise which justify
some latitude to the planter. But all land brought under cultivation
becomes the absolute property of a planter or his assigns, and remains
so, _as long as it is maintained under cultivation_. Abandonment of a
plantation is abandonment of the land, and it then reverts to the State;
and the State thus remains the real owner of the land, though not of the
plantation on it. This system is obviously of advantage to the planter.
He obtains his land, which he may select where he chooses, for next to
nothing, and he runs no risk of losing capital sunk in the purchase of
what might prove to be an unprofitable property, and therefore one that
is unsaleable. And it secures to the State a sufficient guarantee that
the land will be cultivated and kept under proper cultivation.
Practically the whole of the Chinese pepper and gambir planters hold
their land under these terms, and they are as secure in the possession
of their gardens, and the right to alienate them, as if they had bought
the land. Land is sold only for special purposes, such as for buildings
and gardens in a town or its suburbs.
[Illustration:
A PEPPER GARDEN.]
Jungle produce, in spite of seemingly natural predictions that it must
soon be worked out, which have been yearly repeated for many years past,
figures yet as a very important item in the export trade, and its
collection not only remains a considerable industry, but is apparently
still a growing one. The exports have risen in value from $267,480 in
1877 to $1,626,427 in 1907, which is just double that of ten years
previously. The products are, in the order of their value, gutta,
india-rubber, cutch, rattans, timber and barks, edible birds'-nests,
camphor, and beeswax.
The supposed mineral wealth of Sarawak first brought it into notice. It
was known to produce gold and diamonds, though so did other Bornean
States, but in addition antimony ore was brought to the Singapore market
in native prahus from Sarawak, and that was not a production of any
other part of Borneo. It excited the interest of Europeans as well as
the cupidity of the Bruni Rajahs, but to the former, Sarawak was not a
safe place with which to trade, and the latter soon drove its people
into rebellion by forced labour at the antimony mines, and the supply
then ceased. After the accession of the late Rajah this natural product
was nationalised and became the main source of revenue, but
subsequently, with all other minerals, excepting gold, it was leased to
the Borneo Company. Since the days of large production in Sarawak,
antimony has been worked in many other countries, and this has sent the
value down, so that it is only very occasionally that the price of
antimony in consuming markets will admit of any export of the metal. The
large deposits that previously existed have apparently been exhausted,
but fresh rich deposits may still be found, though, as with cinnabar,
which was once largely worked by the Company at one place, the discovery
of these isolated pockets is greatly a matter of chance. Antimony has
been found in many other parts of the State, though not yet in paying
quantities, and cinnabar has been found here and there on the gravel
shallows of rivers, an indication of the existence, though not a
sufficient one to point to the position of other lodes.
It was entirely owing to the first Rajah that the Chinese had been able
to settle on the gold-fields in Upper Sarawak and to establish a large
and profitable mining industry; and it was entirely owing to their own
supreme folly and ingratitude that that industry was destroyed. It was
revived again after a time, but never to the extent of what it had been.
As the visible outcrops of gold gave out, the Chinese turned their
attention to the more profitable occupation of pepper-planting, and, ten
years ago, the mining district of Upper Sarawak had been changed into an
agricultural one—gold-mining had almost ceased, the cinnabar mines at
Tegora had long been worked out, and but little antimony was mined,
whilst pepper gardens had sprung up everywhere.
[Illustration:
CHINESE SLUICING FOR GOLD.]
The Borneo Company had from time to time spent considerable sums on
experimental work on the gold deposits, but, owing to the character of
the ore, no method of working was found practicable on a mercantile
scale until the discovery of the cyanide process. But even treatment by
cyanide in any way then used was not found successful with Sarawak ore,
and the method ultimately adopted was formulated by the Company's
engineers themselves. The result has been considerable success, and it
is gratifying that after so many years of steady work through many
difficulties and disappointments, the Company have been able to place on
a prosperous footing an industry which has brought them good fortune,
and which is proving to be of so great advantage to the country.
[Illustration:
BROOKETON COAL MINES.]
Sarawak possesses extensive coal-fields, and anthracite and steam and
cannel-coal have been found throughout the country; but so far coal has
been mined only at Semunjan in the Sadong river.[359] This colliery has
been worked for many years by the Government. The coal is of good
steaming quality, leaving little ash, and there is plenty of it. Like
the Brooketon Mine, this mine would pay if a market could be found for
the coal. The average yearly output is now about 20,000 tons, a little
more than sufficient to supply local steamers. At Selantik, up the
Lingga river, very extensive coal seams have been proved; but to work
these a large outlay would have to be incurred in the construction of a
long railway over the swampy land lying between the Selantik hill and
the nearest place in the river where steamers could load.
Diamonds are found in the upper reaches of the Sarawak river, and these
are brilliant and of good water; the largest known to have been found is
seventy-two carats, and was named "The Star of Sarawak." Diamonds have
never been sought for in a systematic manner.
Iron ore abounds; and, as has already been noticed, it is smelted by the
Kayans and Kenyahs for the manufacture of weapons and tools.
Sarawak has no mechanical industries of importance or capable of much
development. Many Melanaus are able carpenters, boatbuilders, and
blacksmiths. Amongst Malays are to be found some good shipbuilders and
coppersmiths, and a few fairly skilful as silver and goldsmiths, but
almost all the skilled labour is in the hands of the Chinese. In such
domestic arts as weaving cotton and silk cloths, and plaiting mats,
baskets, and hats, the native women are expert, and produce very
excellent work.
[Illustration:
THE BORNEO COMPANY'S CYANIDE WORKS AT BAU.]
-----
Footnote 353:
From 1876 the finances of the State were in the able hands of Mr.
Charles S. Pearse (who joined in 1875), until 1898, when he retired.
This most important post has since been well filled by the present
Treasurer, Mr. F. H. Dallas.
Footnote 354:
These figures are taken, being the only ones at hand.
Footnote 355:
The Borneo Company have branches at Batavia, Singapore, and in Siam;
formerly also in China and India. The head office is in London.
Footnote 356:
Chap. 1. page 1.
Footnote 357:
Quantity not given in published trade returns.
Footnote 358:
Captain Beeckman, _op. cit._
Footnote 359:
The Brooketon Colliery leased to the Sarawak Government is in Bruni
territory. In Chap. XV. will be found a full account of this mine.
[Illustration:
ST. JOSEPH'S CHURCH (R.C.) ST. THOMAS' DIOCESAN CHURCH (S.P.G.)]