ABSTRACT
By the end of the period, industry was limited to sectors that processed agricultural produce or minerals or used them as raw materials and provided goods/ services for plantations/mines and their workforces. In Malaya, the lack of industry was largely due to the high level of cheap, quality European and Japanese imports with which indigenous rms could not compete; from the early 1900s, the rise of the rubber industry, which during upturns attracted entrepreneurial talent and resources and in busts reduced the demand for manufactures; and government apathy. British o cials were generally unwilling to take any action that damaged the import of UK goods or threatened indigenous institutions and strongly believed that economic priority should be accorded to primary production, which directly bene tted British industry, and, during the inter-war period, was an important source of foreign exchange. Unfavourable local environments also played a part. Relatively low populations and incomes caused home markets to be small, high Singapore wages and electricity charges increased costs, the labour force was largely uneducated, there was little technical and management knowledge, the nancial system was relatively undeveloped, and the Currency Board system magni ed downturns by withdrawing cash from the economy and, during upturns, ooded the market with money, in ating production costs. Similar factors hobbled industrial development in Burma, which was additionally damaged by imports of manufactured goods from India, a culture that discouraged the accumulation of wealth and the absence of legally valid wills and the resultant division of property on death.1
