ABSTRACT
Several years ago Wong Lin Ken noted that, as yet, no general economic history of Malaysia had been written. Taking the Malay Peninsula as a whole, the extension of political control throughout the Straits Settlements, Federated and Unfederated Malay States, was a prolonged process lasting from 1786 to 1914. By about 1900 the machinery of government in the Federated Malay States, with executive powers concentrated in British hands, had established a relatively firm basis for revenue collection, public works, police, legislation, and other governmental activities. The fact that Malaya was under British administration undoubtedly helped to attract British investment to the country but, as already noted, capital did not flow in as a direct result of political hegemony in the Malay States.
