ABSTRACT
The global recession of the 1930s had serious impacts on the economy and trade of the Straits region. As the preceding chapter has emphasised, the emergence of Singapore as both the dominant settlement in the region and as a major global port had been built on the export of key commodities such as tin and rubber, and the import of industrial products into the Malay Peninsula. The trade in both was to suffer as a consequence of recession in Europe and the United States. Indeed, it was not until the late 1930s that the trading volumes through Singapore approached the level of the late 1920s and the decline in the economic opportunities in rubber in particular impacted on all aspects of the region’s development.
