This book provides a comprehensive overview of the economic development of Singapore, easily the leading commercial and financial centre in Southeast Asia throughout the twentieth century. This development has been based on a strategic location at the crossroads of Asia, a free trade economy, and a dynamic entrepreneurial tradition. Initial twentieth-century economic success was linked to a group of legendary Chinese entrepreneurs, but by mid-century independent Singapore looked to multinational enterprise to deliver economic growth. Nonetheless exports of manufactures accounted for only part of Singaporean expansion, and by the 1980s Singapore was a major international financial centre and leading world exporter of commercial services. Throughout this study Dr Huff assesses the interaction of government policy and market forces, and places the transformation of the Singaporean economy in the context of both development theory and experience elsewhere in East Asia.

Published in 1997, this volume is a collection of seminal articles on a theme of central importance in the study of transport history, selected from the leading journal in the field. containing articles selected by a distinguished scholar, as well as an authoritative new introduction by the volume editor. The book will form an essential foundation to the study of the history of shipping.