This article is a revised version of a paper presented at the Colloquium on Malaysian Social and Economic History held at the Australian National University, June 8–10, 1985. The research was funded in part by a grant from the Social Science Research Council, New York and by assistance from the Department of Far Eastern History, the Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University. I am grateful for their support. I also wish to thank Craig Reynolds, Hong Lysa, Tony Kevin, Howard Dick, Ben Batson, Sharon Carstens and John Butcher for reading and commenting on earlier drafts of this paper. The following abbreviations are used in the footnotes: PG (Pinang Gazette and Straits Chronicle), F.O. (Foreign Office), C.P. (Confidential Print), N.A., R. 5 (Bangkok: National Archives, Reign 5), B. (Misc Documents in the National Archives), T. (Ministry of Foreign Affairs), K. Kh. (Office of the Financial Adviser), M. (Ministry of the interior).

¹ Quoted in PG, 22 April 1913.

² For a history of the family, see Rajanabhab, Prince Damrong, “Tamnan mu'ang Ranong” [History of Ranong] in Prachum phongsawadan, pt. 50 and Xu shi xongpu [A genealogy of the Hsu (Khaw) clan] (Singapore, 1963); pp. B161–B165Google Scholar. For a biography of Khaw Sim Bee, see Senanuwongphakdi, , Prawat lae ngan khong phraya Ratsadanupradit (Kho Simbi na Ranong) [The life and work of phraya Ratsadanupradit] (Bangkok, 1970)Google Scholar; Kaewmauang, Darunee, “Phraya Ratsadanupraditmahitsornphakdi (Kho Simbi na Ranong): Phunamkanpokkhrong huamu'ang Thai fang tawantok pho so 2444–2456” [Phraya Ratsadanupraditmahitsornphakdi (Kho Simbi na Ranong): leading governor general of the west coast provinces of Thailand, 1901–1913] (M.E. diss. Srinakharinwirot University, 1983)Google Scholar.

³ PG, 11 April 1913; 14 April 1913; 22 April 1913; 17 May 1913. Bangkok Times, 18 April 1913; 22 April 1913; 30 April 1913; 23 May 1913.

⁴ F.O. 422/68/21, Beckett to Grey, 30 April 1913 (C. P. 10656). Great Britain, Foreign Office, Confidential Prints. Confidential Prints are bound individually by print number and have also been collected together under the heading: Correspondence Respecting the Affairs of Siam and the Malay Peninsula, i.e., F.0.422. The citations below are to this file but the C.P. number will be included in parentheses.

⁵ See, for example, Hewison, Kevin, “The Financial Bourgeoise in Thailand”, Journal of Contemporary Asia 11.4 (1981): 395–412CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Mei ling, Sieh Lee, Ownership and Control of Malaysian Manufacturing Corporations (Kuala Lumpur, 1982)Google Scholar; Wai, Tan Tat, Income Distribution and Determination in West Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur, 1982)Google Scholar; Hui, Lim Mah, Ownership and Control of the One Hundred Largest Corporations in Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur, 1981)Google Scholar; Phipatseritham, Krirkkiat and Yoshihara, Kunio, Business Groups in Thailand (Singapore, 1983)Google Scholar; Silin, Robert H., Leadership and Values: The Organization of Large-scale Taiwanese Enterprise (Cambridge, Mass., 1976)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁶ Panglaykim, J. and Palmer, I., Entrepreneurship and Commercial Risks: The Case of a Schumpeterian Business in Indonesia (Singapore, 1970)Google Scholar; Panglaykim, J. and Palmer, I., “Study of Entrepreneurialship [sic.] in Developing Countries: The Development of One Chinese Concern in Indonesia”, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 1.1 (03, 1970): 85–95CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁷ Research for a new history of Yap Ah Loy's economic and political position in Selangor is being carried out by Sharon Carstens, Department of Anthropology, Beloit College, Beloit, Wisconsin.

⁸ Godley, Michael, The Mandarin-capitalists from Nanyang: Overseas Chinese Enterprise in the Modernization of China, 1893–1911 (Cambridge, Mass., 1981)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Siang, Song Ong, One Hundred Years' History of the Chinese in Singapore (Singapore, reprint: 1967)Google Scholar.

⁹ Leff, Nathaniel H., “Industrial Organization and Entrepreneurship in the Developing Countries: The Economic Groups”, Economic Development and Cultural Change 26.4 (1978): 663–64CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

¹⁰ Strachan, Harry W., “The Role of the Business Groups in Economic Development: The Case of Nicaragua” (DBA diss., Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., 1973), p. 113Google Scholar.

¹¹ Strachan, pp. 4, 29.

¹² Strachan, pp. 53–60, 89, 101.

¹³ Strachan, p. 52.

¹⁴ N.A., R. 5, B. 1. 1/6: Quoted from The Straits Independent, 14 May 1890.

¹⁵ F.O. 422/36/340, C.O. to F.O., 29 August 1893 (C.P. 6479). These views were expressed as early as the 1780s. See the “Extract from Captain Kyd's Memoir on Pinang”, 1 09 1787, in Anderson, John, Political and Commercial Considerations relative to the Malayan Peninsula, and the British Settlements in the Straits of Malacca (Singapore, 1965), appendix, p. lxviGoogle Scholar. For a more recent analysis of the British position, see Cowan, C.D., Nineteenth-Century Malaya: The Origins of British Political Control (London, 1961)Google Scholar; Chandran, Jeshurun, “The British Foreign Office and the Siamese Malay States, 1890–97”, Modern Asian Studies 5.2 (1971): 143–59Google Scholar; Chandran, , The Contest for Siam 1889–1902: A Study in Diplomatic Rivalry (Kuala Lumpur, 1977)Google Scholar; Kiernan, V.G., “Britain, Siam and Malaya: 1875–1885”, The Journal of Modern History 28.1 (1956): 1–20CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Klein, Ira, “British Expansion in Malaya, 1897–1902”, Journal of Southeast Asian History 9.1 (1968): 53–68CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Thio, Eunice, “Britain's Search for Security in North Malaya, 1886–97”, Journal of Southeast Asian History 10.2 (1969): 279–303CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Thio, , British Policy in the Malay Peninsula, vol. I (Singapore, 1969)Google Scholar.

¹⁶ Dhiravegin, Likhit, Siam and Colonialism [1855–1909]: An Analysis of Diplomatic Relations (Bangkok, 1975), pp. 102–103Google Scholar; F.O. 422/47, passim (C.P. 6950).

¹⁷ See, for example, the discussion in F.0.422/53/18, 20, 21, 24 (C.P. 7525); F.O. 422/54/4, 14 (C.P. 7800).

¹⁸ F.O. 422/54/27, 26 March 1901.

¹⁹ Quoted in F.O. 422/54/27.

²⁰ Ibid.

²¹ On the Thai government's centralisation reforms, see Bunnag, Tej, The Provincial Administration of Siam, 1892–1915 (Kuala Lumpur, 1977)Google Scholar, chapter 3.

²² Translation from Damrong, Prince, “An Explanation of the Province of Takua-pa”, in Nartsupha, Chatthip, Prasartset, Suthy and Chenvidyakarn, Montri, eds., The Political Economy of Siam, 1910–1932 (Bangkok, 1978), p. 105Google Scholar.

²³ Tej Bunnag has argued (pp. 138–39) that the Thai government could not push centralisation in the southern provinces too forcefully for fear of alienating both the British, who were “‘to protect [Siam] against France’” and the “provincial nobility” who might “‘run to the foreigners’”. This is plausible to the extent that the interests of the provincial nobility and state did not coincide. The members of the Khaw family appointed to positions on the west coast recognised, however, that their own interests could be promoted more advantageously under a Thai administration than under the British.

²⁴ Britain's and Siam's conflicting political and economic claims to the Thai peninsula and the role of the Khaw family in strengthening Thai control in the region are dealt with more fully in chapters 3–4 of my forthcoming book, Family and State: A Sino-Thai Tin Mining Dynasty, 1810–1932.

²⁵ Damrong, , Tamnan mu'ang Ranong, p. 16Google Scholar.

²⁶ Ibid.

²⁷ Smyth, H. Warington, Five Years in Siam, 2 vols. (New York, 1898), vol. 2, p. 62Google Scholar.

²⁸ Damrong, , Tamnan, p. 21Google Scholar.

²⁹ F.O. 422/61/6, incl. 2, Anderson to Beckett, 13 September 1906 (C.P. 9308).

³⁰ F.O. 422/47/1, de Bunsen to Salisbury, 30 November 1896 (C.P. 6950).

³¹ Ken, Wong Lin, The Malayan Tin Industry to 1914 (Tucson, 1965), pp. 163–64Google Scholar.

³² Tregonning, K.G., “Straits Tin: A Brief Account of the First Seventy-five Years of the Straits Trading Company, Limited”, Journal ofthe Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 36.1 (1963): 100Google Scholar.

³³ N.A., R. 5, T. 2.12/23: McArthur to Damrong, 23 January 1902.

³⁴ Tregonning, K.G., Home Port Singapore: A History of the Straits Steamship Company Limited, 1890—1965 (Singapore, 1967), pp. 17, 19Google Scholar.

³⁵ N.A., R. 5, T. 2.12/23: McArthur to Damrong, 23 January 1902.

³⁶ N.A., R.5, T. 2.12/23: Sri Sahadheb to Straits Trading Company, 6 June 1902.

³⁷ Blain, William, Home is the Sailor: The Sea Life of William Brown Master Mariner and Penang Pilot (New York, 1940), p. 95Google Scholar.

³⁸ N.A., R. 5, K.Kh. 0301.1.23/6: McArthur to Williamson, 17 August 1906.

³⁹ Ibid.

⁴⁰ Great Britain, Foreign Office, Diplomatic and Consular Reports, Annual Series, Siam: Report for the Year 1907 on the Trade and Commerce of the Monthons of Saiburi and Phuket (London, 1908), p. 7Google Scholar.

⁴¹ See, for example, PG, 29 October 1900; 1 November 1900; 19 February 1901; 13 January 1904.

⁴² See, for instance, the remarks in F.O. 422/56/40, incl. 5: Memorandum by Sir F. Swettenham, 1 February 1902 (C.P. 7968); F.O. 422/59/3, incl. 1: Anderson to Lyttelton, 6 December 1904 (C.P. 8714).

⁴³ Kynnersley, C.W.S., “Notes on a Tour through the Siamese States on the West Coast of the Malay Peninsula, 1900”, Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 36 (1901): 53Google Scholar.

⁴⁴ F.O. 422/61/6, incl. 3: McArthur to Anderson, 12 September 1906.

⁴⁵ The Singapore and Straits Directory for 1904 (Singapore, 1904), p. 24Google Scholar.

⁴⁶ Laxon, W.A. and Tyers, R.K., The Straits Steamship Fleet, 1890–1975 (Singapore, 1976), pp. 42–43Google Scholar lists the early vessels in the Khaw fleet. I am grateful to Howard Dick for bringing this material to my attention.

⁴⁷ Blain, p. 81.

⁴⁸ PG, 12 June 1902.

⁴⁹ Quoted in Song, pp. 349–50.

⁵⁰ Biographical Information on Captain Miles can be found in Miles, Thomas A., The Life Story of Captain Edward Thomas Miles, Master-Mariner. Typescript, Australian National Library (Canberra, 1969)Google Scholar. The letters of Captain E.T. Miles and his sons, especially those of T. A. Miles, are held privately by E.T. Miles' grandson, Richard Miles, in Sydney. I am most grateful to Richard and his wife, Sue, for kindly allowing me complete access to these files. Captain Miles' role in the formation of Tongkah Harbour is also treated in Birch, Francis David, “Tropical Milestones: Australian Gold and Tin Mining Investment in Malaya and Thailand 1880–1930” (M.A. diss., University of Melbourne, 1976)Google Scholar, a seminal work on Australian investment in Southeast Asia.

⁵¹ PG, 28 January 1908, quoting the Sydney Bulletin.

⁵² See the PG, 10 January 1903 for further particulars about the date and sale of these vessels. Cf. Miles, , Life Story, p. 148Google Scholar.

⁵³ Wright, Arnold (ed.), Twentieth Century Impressions of British Malaya (London, 1908), p. 177Google Scholar.

⁵⁴ Singapore and Straits Directory (1904), pp. 25, 208. The nine vessels were the Pin Seng, Jin Ho, Thye Seng, Tung Seng, Say Seng, Lum Seng, Pak Seng, Jit Seng and the Guat Seng.

⁵⁵ PG, 7 May 1907, quoting the Straits Free Press.

⁵⁶ Ibid. See also the notice in the PG, 1 August 1903, about competition between the Khaws and the British India Steam Navigation Company.

⁵⁷ Godley, pp. 11–12.

⁵⁸ PG, 17 March 1908; Tregonning, , Home Port, p. 56Google Scholar. The company's fleet grew rapidly through the further purchase and construction of vessels after 1908. Based on the shipping arrivals and departures listed in the Pinang Gazette, the company appears to have acquired almost forty vessels by 1912. See also Reid, Anthony, The Conquest for North Sumatra: Acheh, the Netherlands and Britain, 1858–1898 (Kuala Lumpur, 1969), pp. 259–70Google Scholar.

⁵⁹ For a short biography of Quah Beng Kee, see Wright, p. 755; Feldwick, W. (ed.), Present Day Impressions of the Far East and Progressive Chinese at Home and Abroad (London, 1917), pp. 858–61Google Scholar.

⁶⁰ PG, 7 September 1907.

⁶¹ Wong, p. 243.

⁶² Bunnag, pp. 96–97; Thailand, Ministry of Commerce and Communications, Siam: Nature and Industry (Bangkok, 1930), p. 108Google Scholar.

⁶³ PG, 27 January 1903.

⁶⁴ PG, 22 April 1913; Kynnersley, pp. 52–53.

⁶⁵ N.A., R.5, M. 2.14/50: Report on a Journey through the Malay Peninsula, 24 December 1906, p. 16.

⁶⁶ Wong, pp. 247–49.

⁶⁷ N.A., R.5, M. 2.14/50: Report on a Journey, p. 18.

⁶⁸ Miles, , Life Story, p. 148Google Scholar.

⁶⁹ Ibid., p. 151; Miles, E.T., “Notes on Tongkah Tin Dredging, A Challenge”, The Industrial Australian and Mining Standard, 2 07 1909Google Scholar.

⁷⁰ The impact of the bucket dredge on the Thai tin industry is explored in greater depth in chapter 5 of my forthcoming book, Family and State. Briefly, however, the bucket dredge enabled a larger volume of tin to be recovered from both prime and marginal sites. By boosting production, the state's revenues from the tin royalty grew in the post-1906 period. These were reinvested to improve the peninsula's infrastructure and silence the complaints from British businessmen.

⁷¹ For the original concession agreement, see N.A., R. 5, K.Kh. 0301.1.11/2: Memorandum of Agreement between Captain Edward T. Miles and the Government of Siam, 11 September 1906; Kanchanawanich, Radian, “Some Notes on the Dredging History by Tongkah Harbour Tin Dredging Berhad”, The Milestone, Commemoration of the First Tin Dredge in Thailand (n. p., 1969), pp. 52–55Google Scholar.

⁷² Graham, W.A., Siam, 2 vols. (London, 1924), vol. 2, p. 75Google Scholar; Ingram, James C., Economic Change in Thailand, 1850–1970 (Stanford, 1971), p. 99 and note 9Google Scholar. The royalty was put on a sliding scale in the twentieth century and was reduced when tin prices declined below the level where the mine owners could make a profit: Bangkok, N.A., R.6, K.Kh. 0301.1.11/3: Scale of Royalty on tin from 1904, 20 February 1915.

⁷³ Pratten, Herbert, Through Orient to Occident (Sydney, 1908), p. 14Google Scholar.

⁷⁴ Khaw Joo Tok's obituary can be found in the Straits Echo and Times of Malaya. 26 July 1951. Details of shareholdings can be found in the Miles Papers: Letter to Khaw Joo Tok, 2 January 1907, Share Distribution Certificate, May 1907; Tongkah Harbour Tin Dredging Co., N.L., Prospectus, 23 November 1906; The IXL Dredging Company Ltd., Prospectus n.d. (c. Sept. 1906).

⁷⁵ Birch, p. 120.

⁷⁶ The Industrial Australian and Mining Standard, 3 August 1911, 14 December 1911.

⁷⁷ Birch, pp. 169–70; Royal Department of Mines, Notes on Mining in Siam with Statistics to March 31, 1921 (Bangkok, 1922?), p. 3Google Scholar.

⁷⁸ Wong, pp. 157–58.

⁷⁹ Wright, Arnold and Reid, Thomas, eds., The Malay Peninsula: A Record of British Progress in the Middle East (London, 1912), p. 276Google Scholar.

⁸⁰ Lock, C.G.W., Mining in Malaya for Gold and Tin (London, 1907), pp. 161–62Google Scholar.

⁸¹ On Lee Chin Ho, see “Pinang Gazette” Centenary Number (1933); Feldwick, pp. 856–57.

⁸² Wright, p. 817.

⁸³ PG, 18 January 1908.

⁸⁴ PG, 17 March 1908.

⁸⁵ PG, 17 July 1901.

⁸⁶ Eastern Smelting Company, Ltd., Prospectus, July 1911 (Lim Keong Lay Collection, Rare Book Room, Penang Public Library).

⁸⁷ PG, 31 August 1911.

⁸⁸ PG Centenary Number on Lee Chin Ho.

⁸⁹ Wong, p. 243; Birch, pp. 156–57.

⁹⁰ Meudell, George, The Pleasant Career of a Spendthrift (London, 1933), p. 136Google Scholar.

⁹¹ Prospectus, 1911.

⁹² PG Centenary Number on Lee Chin Ho.

⁹³ PG, 8 April 1907, 27 April 1907.

⁹⁴ PG, 3 January 1900.

⁹⁵ Letter from Howard Dick, 3 July 1985. The revenue farmers could lose money as well: see, for example, Butcher, John G., “The Demise of the Revenue Farm System in the Federated Malay States”, Modern Asian Studies 17.3 (1983): 398–400CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁹⁶ Wright, p. 152.

⁹⁷ PG, 30 June 1903. In the report of the suit brought by Khaw Soo Cheang's granddaughter to inherit part of the estate, the shares were said to be worth $20,000 each.

⁹⁸ This was suggested in an interview with one of the Koe Guan trustees, Mr Khaw Cheng Joey, Penang, March 1984.

⁹⁹ 27 April 1907.

¹⁰⁰ Ibid.

¹⁰¹ PG, 14 November 1907.

¹⁰² Panglaykim, and Palmer, , Entrepreneurship, p. 16Google Scholar.

¹⁰³ Tregonning, , Home Port, pp. 65–66Google Scholar.

¹⁰⁴ Eastern Smelting Company, Ltd., Prospectus, July 1911. As part of the sale agreement, the old company was allowed to nominate two Directors in the new company. Lee Chin Ho appears to have been the only former Chinese Director to sit on the restructured Board (Wong, p. 267).

¹⁰⁵ The retiring directors may well have insisted that the connection between the shipping firm and the smelting company be maintained in order to ensure the continued viability of Eastern Shipping.

¹⁰⁶ Interview with Khaw Cheng Joey, Penang, March 1984.

¹⁰⁷ Report of the Trial in the Supreme Court of the Straits Settlements of the Action Brought by the Eastern Shipping Co., Ltd., of Penang against His Majesty's Attorney General for the Straits Settlements concerning the Requisition of Ships (Penang, 1921).

¹⁰⁸ I am grateful to Howard Dick for providing this information.

¹⁰⁹ In 1914, for instance, of Perak's revenue of $19,338,374, over one-fifth, or $4,181,077, came from the collection of the tin duty: Wong, pp. 251, 261.

¹¹⁰ Miles Papers, E.T. Miles, Memoirs.

¹¹¹ F.O. 422/68/21, Beckett to Grey, 30 April 1913.

¹¹² Pratt, A., Magical Malaya (Melbourne, 1913), p. 34Google Scholar.

¹¹³ Interview with Dato Khaw Bian Cheng and Khaw Cheng Joey, Penang, March 1984: Khaw Joo Tok came to rely increasingly on his associate, Tan Swee Tin, in the management of Koe Guan's affairs. By all accounts, Joo Tok was not as forceful a figure as Khaw Sim Bee.

¹¹⁴ Strachan, p. 29.