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About

ABOUT THE ECONOMIC HISTORY OF MALAYSIA PROJECT

The late 19th century and 20th century were amazingly eventful and transformative periods for the Malayan/Malaysian economy and its institutions. Defined by the signing of the Pangkor Treaty in 1874, waves of globalization, the boom and bust of tin and rubber, two divisive World Wars, the devastation of the Great Depression, the collapse of imperialism, decolonisation, insurgency and the birth of nationalism, leading to the independence of the Federation of Malaya in 1957, followed by the formation of Malaysia in 1963.

Understanding Malaysia’s economic and social history provides the foundations for transforming the country into a more cohesive, resilient, and prosperous nation. A successful society with a collective national identity requires a critical mass of informed and engaged citizens, who understand the country’s present day economic and social achievements and challenges, and are open to discourse that will pave the way forward.

Sultan Nazrin Shah is passionately committed to achieving and sharing a deeper understanding of Malaysia’s long-run economic and social changes. His interest in national economic and social development was propelled through his PhD dissertation at Harvard University, where he made some pioneering provisional estimates of Malaya’s GDP for the early decades of the 20th century, and attempted to explain the economic changes that had occurred during this volatile period through the use of econometric techniques.

Historical Roots

On his return from Harvard in 2001, and with the support and encouragement of the late economic historian Shaharil Talib, Sultan Nazrin Shah established and led a small research team at the Asia-Europe Institute of the University of Malaya. The team, managed by Dato’ Gnasegarah Kandaiya, comprised Harbans Singh and up to 15 research assistants. Sultan Nazrin led and was actively involved in the painstaking research work. During the early years of the project, despite his very demanding schedule and his many public engagements, he made it a point to meet the team regularly to discuss progress, help resolve issues, and to provide encouragement.

A major preoccupation of the research was the preparation of a robust and comprehensive set of historical GDP accounts for Malaya. Data from colonial historical statistical records obtained from the National Archives of Malaysia, and the National Archives of the United Kingdom, were carefully pieced together using an innovative methodology to construct a comprehensive time series of Malaya’s GDP and its components from 1900 to 1939.

Project Reorientation

In January 2016, the Economic History of Malaysia Project entered a new phase of research, publication and outreach, and the EHM website was established to house and disseminate the outcomes of this research. Besides an extensive historical economic and population data base, and a detailed technical description of the methodology behind the historical GDP accounts, the EHM website also includes articles written by eminent national and international scholars on the economic and social history of Malaya/Malaysia.

Sultan Nazrin Shah launched his first flagship publication Charting the Economy: Early 20th Century Malaya and Contemporary Malaysian Contrasts in January 2017. The publication broke new ground on Malaya’s GDP and its components, and in understanding the dynamics of Malaya’s economic performance during the first four decades of the 20th century whilst under colonial rule, and how it compared with post-independence Malaysia. A second volume of Charting the Economy, detailing the methodology used to construct the historical national accounts in the first volume, has also been prepared but is not yet published.

Sultan Nazrin Shah and the former team at the Asia-Europe Institute

Broader Focus on Malaysia

During 2017 to 2019, Sultan Nazrin Shah built on his earlier research and attempted to trace the evolution of Malaysia’s economy and institutions over the past 150 years, and to set out elements of his vision for the country. In July 2019, he published his second book, Striving for Inclusive Development: From Pangkor State to a Modern Malaysian State. The book analyses the country’s successful economic and social transformations, articulates the challenges still remaining, and emphasises the benefits of continuing to strive for an inclusive Malaysia.

Perak in a Globalized World

In 2020, led by Sultan Nazrin Shah, the EHM project began a comprehensive study of the economic and social history of the natural resource-rich Malaysian state of Perak, and how it has been affected by the waves of globalization since the late 19th century up to the end of the first quarter of the 21st century.

The research covered how British colonialism took over from Perak’s traditional system of governance, and how it exploited the state’s natural resources, especially tin and rubber. The study focused on various interconnected sub-themes including the institutional legacy of colonialism, the increasing centralization of federalism, economic agglomeration, and migration. It documents how Perak's rise and subsequent struggles resonate with localities in other parts of the world that have been left behind by globalization.

The outcome of this research is contained in Sultan Nazrin Shah’s third bookGlobalization: Perak's Rise, Relative Decline, and Regeneration, published in June 2024 both in hardcopy and online https://academic.oup.com/book/57608 by Oxford University Press, United Kingdom.

Current Project Orientation

With more than 50 scholarly articles published on the EHM’s website, covering compelling strands of Malaysia’s economic and social history, Sultan Nazrin Shah decided that they merited a broader readership in hard copy publication. A selection of 35 articles was organized around three main interconnected themes: economic development of Malaya/Malaysia, social development, and the development of the country’s states and cities. They will be published in 2025 in a book provisionally entitled: Chronicling Strands of Malaysia’s Economic History, edited and with a contextualized introduction by Sultan Nazrin Shah. Beyond a publication, there are also plans to encourage discourse on the book’s themes through a national seminar.

A second major project focus is on undertaking the research for publishing a revised edition of Striving for Inclusive Development: From Pangkor State to a Modern Malaysian State. Since its first publication there have been unforeseen and unprecedented geopolitical and national changes. Among recent events that have affected Malaysia, as well as many other countries, are the global Covid-19 pandemic of 2020, the wars in Ukraine and the Middle east, and tensions amidst trade wars between the superpowers. These events have brought into sharp focus the unreliability of long supply chains, as well the impact of price inflation, especially of food, on the poor.

The second edition of Striving will also look at some big challenges that the country faces, including: (i) the global economic system is fragmenting into blocs, forcing countries such as Malaysia that are highly dependent on international trade to choose sides, and probably lose markets; (ii) after a rapid and successful structural transformation, the nature of poverty has changed—it is more urban and perhaps more demographically diverse—economic growth, by itself, will not be sufficient to address it; (iii) the World Bank has classified Malaysia as being in a middle-income trap and unable to advance into the high-income group without radical transformation of its economy. Does this categorisation hold and, if so, what economic and social policies are needed to transition to high income, including how to convert technology infusion into innovation, institute fairness in employment, retain educated youth and attract the return of talented workers from Malaysia diaspora; and (iv) the global climate is warming faster than most analysts thought likely just a decade ago, with immediate repercussions for the sustainability of Malaysia’s economy.

Economic History of Malaysia Project Team

Since 2016, the Economic History of Malaysia Project has been managed by Richard Leete, formerly the United Nations Resident Coordinator for Malaysia and UNDP Resident Representative for Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei. Senior research assistance is provided by Cheng Fan Soon and Vincent Lim Choon Seng, and Linda Tham serves as the EHM Project Coordinator. Ad hoc support is provided by international and national consultants on a needs basis.

About the Logo

The Economic History of Malaysia project continues with the same logo as the former Economic History of Malaya. The project logo alludes to the natural resources and technological advancement made through tin mining and rubber cultivation that drove Malaya’s substantial economic growth and social development for much of the 20th century—natural resources also propelled the development of Sabah and Sarawak. The crescent contains flowers of rice and is taken from the coat of arms of the State of Perak.

The colours used—white, black, and yellow—are the traditional colours of Perak, which was historically at the forefront of the country's progress.