ABSTRACT
This chapter considers some of the features of the alien plantation system of agriculture which was introduced into the region by Europeans for their own commercial gain. The plantation system had been found to answer the needs of foreign producers, and had been applied successively to different crops and in numerous tropical and sub-tropical environments. A number of crops were tried with varying degrees of success on plantations in Malaysia in the nineteenth century. The volume of shipping between Singapore and Ceylon and the consuming countries in Europe and North America, together with comparatively good internal communications, enabled the plantation product from this region to compete easily with the output from South America. With the rapid decline in colonial administration and corresponding freedom of choice—subject to economic pressures—of the indigenous population, the plantation system had to necessarily face major adjustments.
