Tin, a non-renewable natural resource, was the initial driver that propelled early economic development on the Malay Peninsula. It accounted for a significant proportion of export earnings for much of the 20th century.
The discovery of large tin deposits in the Peninsula’s west coast states of Perak and Selangor in the first half of the 19th century led to significant investments of capital by wealthy Chinese merchants living in the Straits Settlements and the influx of migrant workers from mainland China to develop the industry. By 1904 Malaya was producing 50,000 tons of tin annually, more than half of world output, to meet the growing demand from Europe.
While initially Malaya’s tin mining industry was essentially in Chinese ownership, this situation changed markedly when, with the support of the British colonial administration and in a context of rising wage rates of miners, Europeans injected large amounts of capital, managerial expertise, and technology into the industry, including hydraulic sluicing and other scientific methods in dealing with the alluvial tin deposits.
