A European role in intra-Asian commercial development: The Maclaine Watson network and the Java sugar trade c.1840–1942

Abstract

This article concerns the Batavia (Jakarta)-based mercantile firm of Maclaine Watson (1827–1964) and its close commercial associates in the Netherlands Indies (modern-day Indonesia) and nearby Singapore. From its inception, the firm initially operated in the context of bilateral trade with Europe, in conjunction with its burgeoning role in the Netherlands Indies’ sugar export trade. By the century’s end, however, shifts in the direction of that trade meant that its prime commercial ventures were directed towards markets elsewhere in Asia. The significance of the firm’s involvement within intra-Asian trade and the region’s economic development forms the core of the article’s argument.