ABSTRACT
In the second half of the nineteenth century and the early twentieth century there was an enormous expansion of the trade between Asia and the West, thanks to the reduction in transport costs on the sea routes between Europe and the East, caused by the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 and by major technological advances in shipbuilding.1 Communications, improved greatly by the laying of the submarine telegraph cables, also contributed immensely to commercial expansion. In Southeast Asia, with the development of the colonial economies, large quantities of tin, rubber, coffee, sugar and other primary commodities could now be shipped to the West at a low cost in a shorter period than ever before, while large quantities of Western industrial goods found their way into the Southeast Asian markets.
