Suchergebnisse

This book provides an overview of the economic development of Singapore, throughout the 20th century easily Southeast Asia's leading commercial and financial centre. From the late 19th century Singapore's development was based on a strategic location at the crossroads of Asia, a free trade economy and a dynamic entrepreneurial tradition. The author places the transformation of Singapore's economy in the context of development theory. (DÜI-Alb)

This article examines the relationship between currency boards and the development of local Chinese deposit banking in Malaya and the Philippines before World War II. While in both countries Chinese banks filled an important gap in financial intermediation, the currency board system – an especially strict version of the classical gold standard – virtually ensured that these institutions remained small. Moreover, in the slump of the 1930s the currency board system's preclusion of a central bank and requirement to pay depositors in 100% metropolitan currency, together with the volatility of highly staple‐dependent export economies, pushed Chinese banks to the verge of bankruptcy or beyond. Examination of the 1930s crisis in South‐East Asia and the role of banks in it reveals more differences from than parallels with the 1990s experience.

SummaryUsing new statistics, this article analyses financial development in Southeast Asia over the seven decades 1870–1939. The region experienced substantial, and in some instances rapid, vent‐for‐surplus economic growth based on a narrow range of primary commodities. But in 1939 all Southeast Asian countries still had relatively undeveloped financial infrastructures dominated by metropolitan interests, considerably reliant on informal finance, and geared towards primary commodity exports. The article suggests that a lack of opportunities and a variety of country‐specific considerations were more important explanations than weak financial development for an absence of greater industrialization and agricultural modernization in Southeast Asia.

This article links the terms of trade, money supply, labor market, and money and credit markets to explore a puzzle in Malayan economic history: why, despite rapid growth and high per capita income, did pre–World War II Malaya industrialize so little? A range of data is drawn together to show how for Malayan manufacturers economic boom was accompanied by precipitate deterioration in the real exchange rate, while in a slump credit contracted sharply and with it the size of the Malayan market for manufactures. Analysis of Malayan experience may be relevant for understanding slight industrialization elsewhere in Southeast Asia.