Chinese labour in the Malayan tin mining industry: an historical perspective, c.1800-1948

Abstract

The primary objective of this study is to provide an historical overview of Chinese labour in the Malayan tin mining industry over a period of approximately one hundred and fifty years, c.1800 to 1948. In so doing it is intended that this study will contribute both to an understanding of Malayan economic history and contemporary Malaysian society. In these respects the significance of an historical study of Chinese tin mining labour is twofold. Firstly, it is well established that the modern economic development of Malaya was closely related to the development of the tin mining industry. From a comparatively insignificant industry barely producing 500 tons in 1800, tin production increased rapidly; by 1900 Malaya had become the world's largest tin producer with an annual output close to 50,000 tons. As a factor of production the nature and type of labour employed in the mining process was an important element in the transformation of the industry.