Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

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.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Introduction
• Part I Themes and Beginnings
• 1 Patterns in the economic development of Singapore, 1870-1990
• 2 Singapore in the late-nineteenth century
• Part II Development as a Staple Port, 1900-1939
• 3 Trade, finance and development
• 4 Ocean-going shipping, the port and regional transport
• 5 Immigration, population and employment
• 6 Rubber: the twentieth-century innovation
• 7 Rubber, industrialisation and the development of Chinese banking
• 8 Petroleum and tin: the twentieth century boom commodity and a staple in decline
• 9 The trade in imported manufactures
• Part III Staple Port and Rapid Growth, 1947-1990
• 10 The staple port resurgent: development to 1959
• 11 Markets, government and growth, 1960-1990
• 12 Conclusion

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Huff writes from the premise that economic history can provide the empirical analysis to study the process of economic development. The author contends that, prior to 1900, Singapore developed as an entrept by capitalizing on its comparative advantages in the natural resource endowments of neighboring countries and favorable geographical position in heavily traveled sea lanes. During the second phase, 1900-39, the country expanded staple trade from tin and tropical produce to more sophisticated commodities such as rubber and petroleum. These products required processing, financing, and marketing expertise, which Singapore began to acquire during the period. In addition, massive immigration helped to sharpen the patterns of development. Post-WW II economic growth of Singapore is covered in the last part; following Singapore's independence, the state played a crucial role in orchestrating an extraordinary economic expansion through planning. Huff argues that in sharp contrast to other Third World nations, Singapore stands out as a country where a judicious application of planning has been successful. This book is full of trade statistics and immigration data useful to other researchers interested in Singapore. It is one of the most complete economic histories of Singapore written in recent years, especially with respect to the role of trade in development. Upper-division undergraduate through faculty. K. B. Lee; Skidmore College