Written by Sultan Nazrin Shah - the author of the highly acclaimed works Charting the Economy and Striving for Inclusive Development - this book is a pioneering study of the many economic and social changes in the natural resource-rich Malaysian state of Perak over the last two centuries. When globalization first took hold and international trade networks broadened and deepened in the first half of the 19th century, and a new capitalist world order emerged in the second, Perak was a key player. Its tin was in high demand in Western industrializing countries and foreign capital, labour, and technology propelled it forward. By 1900, Perak accounted for almost half of Malaya's tin output and a staggering quarter of world output, with its prosperity making it the Malay peninsula's commercial hub. Likewise, during the global rubber boom that began in the early 20th century as cars were mass produced for the first time, Perak was the largest rubber-producing state in the peninsula. This book brings together a range of key sub-themes - economic geography, the institutional legacy of colonialism, increasing federal government centralization, forces of economic agglomeration, and human migration - which drove Perak's fortunes in sometimes dramatic economic cycles and ultimately led to the collapse of its tin and rubber industries and the migration of many of its young and skilled. The book concludes by looking forward, analysing Perak's characteristics, and extrapolating lessons from formerly wealthy industrial centres originally blessed with natural resources but subsequently left behind by new waves of globalization, such as Cornwall and Sheffield in the United Kingdom, and Pittsburgh and Scranton in the United States. With a new vision Perak can regenerate itself and once again emerge triumphant against a tough global background-Covid-19, war, and deglobalization.
By:
Sultan Nazrin Shah (Ruler of Perak and the Deputy King of Malaysia)
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 253mm,
Width: 185mm,
Spine: 31mm
Weight: 1.316kg
ISBN: 9780198897774
ISBN 10: 0198897774
Pages: 592
Publication Date: 02 May 2024
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Further / Higher Education
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Introduction Part 1. People, Protection, and a Base for Prosperity A Globalizing World Perak's Lifeblood: Its Rivers, Settlements, and People Invading Traders and Powerful Neighbours Traditional Governance Destabilized From the Curse of Conflict to Colonialism, 1860-1874 Pangkor: Resistance, Retaliation, and Reflection, 1874-1877 After Pangkor: Claiming Strategic Territory British Governance and Federalism Fortified, 1870s-1920s Part 2. Perak's Prosperity: Propelled by Natural Resources Globalization of Perak's Tin and Rubber Industries Tin's Shift from Larut to Kinta, 1850-1900 From Chinese to British Tin-Mining Dominance, 1900-1940 The Natural Rubber Boom, 1900-1940 Rising Living Standards, 1900-1940 Japanese Occupation, Insurgency, and Decolonization, 1941-1957 Looking Back- and Forward Part 3A. The Decline of Tin and Rubber: Continued British Economic Dominance Globalization and Perak's Changing Fortunes Tin: Slump, Recovery, and Ultimate Collapse, 1957-1990 Rubber and the Transition to Palm Oil, 1957-1991 Independence but Continued British Economic Dominance, 1957-1970 Part 3B. Policy Changes amid Absolute Advance but Relative Decline Globalization's Impact, 1970-2020: From Basic Commodities to Manufactures and More The New Economic Policy and its Impact on Perak during its Early Relative Decline, 1970-1990 Strategic Responses amid New Challenges, 1990-2020 Part 3C. Economic, Income, and Demographic Changes with Relative Decline Economic Change, 1990-2020 Income Change, 1990-2020 Demographic Change, 1957-2020 Reflections on Six Decades of Progress Part 4. Towards a New Vision for Perak Globalization: Looking Back, and Forward, in a Post-Covid-19 World Cities and Towns Blighted by Globalization Regenerating Perak Towards a New Vision for Perak References
Sultan Nazrin Shah is the Ruler of Perak and the Deputy King of Malaysia. He is Chancellor of the University of Malaya, and an Honorary Fellow of Worcester College, Oxford, Magdalene College, Cambridge, and St Edmund's College, Cambridge. He holds a BA (Hons) degree in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics from the University of Oxford; A Master in Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University; and a PhD in Political Economy and Government, also from Harvard University. Sultan Nazrin oversees and provides direction for the Economic History of Malaya project (www.ehm.my) and is the author of Charting the Economy: Early 20th Century Malaya and Contemporary Malaysian Contrasts (2017) and Striving for Inclusive Development: From Pangkor to a Modern Malaysian State (2019), both published by OUP Malaysia.
