Trade In Southeast Asia Research Articles

Contesting moralities: the politics of wildlife trade in Laos

This article examines the intricacy within stylized debates that surround conservation and the regulation of wildlife trade in Southeast Asia. Illegal and unregulated trade in wildlife has been characterized by conservation groups as a great risk for wildlife worldwide and the prime threat for remaining wildlife populations in Laos. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) is the centrepoint of the global discourse on wildlife trade. Popular representations of wildlife trade promoted by conservation organizations construct an image of regulation through CITES as a global necessity. The assumed morality of such interventions can provoke counter accusations about the immorality of impositions by Western conservationists. Yet both of these competing representations of wildlife trade regulation encourage externally-focused moralized debates that obscure the internal dynamics within global conservation, national policy formation and local practice. Recognition of the simplifications that characterize these three domains cautions against any idealized contrast between global hegemony and local resistance in critical studies of conservation. Instead, the focus becomes the contestation that is often hidden within such dichotomies. Keywords: Conservation, wildlife, Lao PDR, CITES

A Collaborative Epidemiological Investigation into the Criminal Fake Artesunate Trade in South East Asia

BackgroundSince 1998 the serious public health problem in South East Asia of counterfeit artesunate, containing no or subtherapeutic amounts of the active antimalarial ingredient, has led to deaths from untreated malaria, reduced confidence in this vital drug, large economic losses for the legitimate manufacturers, and concerns that artemisinin resistance might be engendered.Methods and FindingsWith evidence of a deteriorating situation, a group of police, criminal analysts, chemists, palynologists, and health workers collaborated to determine the source of these counterfeits under the auspices of the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) and the Western Pacific World Health Organization Regional Office. A total of 391 samples of genuine and counterfeit artesunate collected in Vietnam (75), Cambodia (48), Lao PDR (115), Myanmar (Burma) (137) and the Thai/Myanmar border (16), were available for analysis. Sixteen different fake hologram types were identified. High-performance liquid chromatography and/or mass spectrometry confirmed that all specimens thought to be counterfeit (195/391, 49.9%) on the basis of packaging contained no or small quantities of artesunate (up to 12 mg per tablet as opposed to ∼ 50 mg per genuine tablet). Chemical analysis demonstrated a wide diversity of wrong active ingredients, including banned pharmaceuticals, such as metamizole, and safrole, a carcinogen, and raw material for manufacture of methylenedioxymethamphetamine (‘ecstasy'). Evidence from chemical, mineralogical, biological, and packaging analysis suggested that at least some of the counterfeits were manufactured in southeast People's Republic of China. This evidence prompted the Chinese Government to act quickly against the criminal traders with arrests and seizures.ConclusionsAn international multi-disciplinary group obtained evidence that some of the counterfeit artesunate was manufactured in China, and this prompted a criminal investigation. International cross-disciplinary collaborations may be appropriate in the investigation of other serious counterfeit medicine public health problems elsewhere, but strengthening of international collaborations and forensic and drug regulatory authority capacity will be required.

Regional bias and intra-regional trade in southeast Asia

Southeast Asia exhibits a bias towards intra-regional trade but not one that is out of line with the size, growth rates and geographical proximity of these countries; there is more trade bias than exhibited by the EU but less than that of NAFTA and, unlike in the EU and NAFTA, southeast Asian trade bias has not increased in recent years. Tests using a gravity model of trade confirm the importance of economic size, geographic distance and common language in intra-region bilateral trade and also show that re-exports and membership of ASEAN have been important factors promoting intra-regional trade.

Integration or Self‐Sufficiency? Peninsular Malaysia and the Rice Trade in Southeast Asia

The issue of food self‐sufficiency has recently come under scrutiny as global trade liberalisation has been in conflict with national development strategies founded on protection and encouragement of staple food production. This paper examines the case of rice in Peninsular Malaysia from an historical perspective. It traces the evolution of self‐sufficiency strategies from colonial times tothe present and notes how and why such policies have been questioned both in the past and in recent years. It then suggests that a more integrated Southeast Asian regional rice economy may evolve as support for national self‐sufficiency wanes and, in this, there may be much to learn from the colonial era when such a regional rice trade thrived.

Shipping and Trade in Java, c. 1775: A Quantitative Analysis

Since the 1930s shipping and trade in Southeast Asia during the early modern period have attracted much attention from historians. The pioneer in this field was the Dutch scholar, J. C. van Leur, whose original work was translated into English during the 1950s (Van Leur 1955). Van Leur's interest was heavily weighted toward what he labelled ‘old Asian trade,’ and as such he was one of the first who called for an Asia-centric perspective. He drew attention to the fact that the maritime sector of Southeast Asia had its own dynamics. In the 1960s, M. A. P. Meilink-Roelofsz carried on the work of analyzing the indigenous maritime sector as well as the effects of the Portuguese and Dutch onslaughts on it up to the 1630s (Meilink-Roelofsz 1962). Limiting our perspective to the Malayo-Indonesian Archipelago, in the last decade several regional case studies have further enhanced our knowledge of the subject, such as those on Sulu (Warren 1981), Batavia (Blussé 1986), Amboina (Knaap 1987), Central and East Java (Nagtegaal 1988), and the Straits of Malacca (Vos 1993). Furthermore, Anthony Reid has recently tried to create a synthesis for the entire region of Southeast Asia up to 1680 (Reid 1993).

The Early English Textile Trade in South-East Asia: The East India Company Factory and the Textile Trade in Jambi, Sumatra, 1615–1682

(1997). The Early English Textile Trade in South-East Asia: The East India Company Factory and the Textile Trade in Jambi, Sumatra, 1615–1682. Textile History: Vol. 28, No. 2, pp. 149-160.

Archaeology and Early Chinese Glass Trade in Southeast Asia

When trade between China and Southeast Asia blossomed between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries, Chinese traders began to form overseas Chinese communities. Their presence had significant effects on the region, including the formation of new urban settlements and the introduction of new lifestyles in which imported items played an important part, not only among the elite, but among many hinterland groups who probably never saw a Chinese trader but rapidly integrated Chinese products into their displays of status.

Port Polities and Hinterlands in North Sumatra

North Sumatra, a production base for precious forest and mineral products, played a significant role in international maritime trade from early centuries. Contacts with the outside world through trade helped to develop coastal entrepots exporting products from the interior. The linkage between the coastal port and the hinterland has been one of the central issues for scholars working on Sumatran maritime trade history and its political culture. The coastal port needed the hinterland for its products, and the hinterland needed the coastal port in order to barter products for necessities of salt and cotton cloths. Royal chronicles of Sumatran port polities often connect their raison detre with the support of hinterland peoples.The 15-17th century activation of maritime trade in Southeast Asia reconfirmes the symbiosis between the two entities. During this period there appeared the prosperous coastal principalities of Aceh, Pasai, Aru and Barus in north Sumatra. In order to respond to increased demands by visiting merchants for forest and mineral products and also pepper, the coastal rulers needed to mobilize their hinterland peoples more effectively. The military superiority of the coastal principalities may have given them greater influence over their hinterlands. Nevertheless, for these principalities it was difficult to handle affairs in the interior consistently, and particularly to guarantee that the agricultural system would allow the people to collect and cultivate their products.In this context the hinterland authority, which the interior people believed was associated with the fertility of their agricultural production, was regarded as a highly important figure to the coastal rulers. The Batak case of the rise of the divine king, Si Singa Mangaraja, in the Toba lakeside region of Bakkara from about the 16th century shows us one example of one hinterland counterpart to the prosperous coastal principalities of Barus and Aceh.According to the royal chronicle of Barus Hilir (Downstream Barus), the Si Singa Mangaraja I was a son of Sultan Ibrahim, the first legendary king of Barus Hilir. Barus had been well-known as a forest products export harbour since at least the 9th century. Sixteenth century Barus became fairly prosperous as many Muslim merchants began to visit the west coast of Sumatra after the Portuguese capture of Malacca. Descriptions by Tome Pires, who visited Barus in the 1510s, and by the Dutch East India Company, which established a factory there in 1668, show that a large quantity of the forest products of camphor and benzoin were brought to the port by the Batak interior people. In order to mobilize the interior people to bring forest products, Barus needed to establish its legitimacy among them by associating itself with the hinterland authority, which was believed to insure their agricultural production. The place where the Si Singa Mangara ja resided was one of the most productive hinterland sawah (wet rice cultivation) areas. Batak legends generally regarded the Si Singa Mangaraja as a reincarnation of Batara Guru and as having supernatural power to control the growth of rice and ubi, and the supply of the water which was essential to cultivation. There were successive Si Singa Mangaraja figures in Bakkara, constantly “reincarnated” until the last one (usually called Si Singa Mangaraja XII) was killed by the Dutch colonial army in 1907. Every Si Singa Mangaraja endeavoured to maintain stable trading relations between Barus and the hinterland. The power of these figures was also highly regarded by the people where Barus Hulu (another royal family of Upstream Barus) was influential.Aceh and other coastal principalities in Sumatra's east coast also appreciated the existence of this Batak divine king.From the period of Sultan Alau'd-Din Ri'ayat Syâh al-Kahar to that of Sultan Iskandar Muda, Aceh endeavoured to establish its hegemony over both t

Small-Town Markets and the Urban Economy in Kabupaten Minahasa

In recent years the informal sector of Third World economies has become a focus of research because of indications that it can provide a source of job opportunities. Particular attention has been paid to the field of small-scale trading in the rapidly expanding urban areas. Thus far, most studies of petty trade in Southeast Asia have been concerned with the cities, and little is known about present-day aspects of the phenomenon in small towns. 2 It is clear, however, that those urban social problems stemming from the large-scale inmigration to the cities are in part a result of the worsening living conditions in the rural areas, and it is widely accepted that providing employment for the rural poor will thus moderate the problems of the urban poor.

Slave Markets and Exchange in the Malay World: The Sulu Sultanate, 1770–1878

The impact of the West's commercial intrusion in China towards the end of the eighteenth century had significant bearing on the growth of the slave trade in Southeast Asia. It led to the crystallization of a permanent slave traffic around organized markets and depots in the Sulu Archipelago. Jolo Island, as the centre of a redistributive network encompassing the Sulu zone, became the most important slave centre by 1800. This had not always been the case. Most accounts of the Sulu Sultanate written before 1780 indicate that the internal demand for slaves at Jolo was on a much smaller scale than it was destined to become in the nineteenth century. These early writers reported that it was often more profitable for the Taosug, the dominant ethnic group in the Sulu Archipelago, to deliver slaves to the Magindanao and Bugis merchants of Cotabato (Mindanao) and Pasir (Borneo) for trans-shipment to Makassar and Batavia, than employ them in their own settlements.

Southeast Asia's Trade

Southeast Asia's Trade

A Summary of The Nanyang Chinese and the Manchurian Incident

After the successful unification o China under Chiang Kai-shek in 1927, the Kuomintang (KMT) attempted to extend its influence over Chinese communities in Southeast Asia Being revolutionary in nature, the KMT tried to place Chinese nationalist movements at home and abroad under party control. In the years between 1928, the year of the Tsinan Incident, and 1932, the second year of the Manchurian Incident, the KMT and its party-controlled government enacted a series of acts and regulations aiming at strengthening the party's hold over the Nanyang Chinese. As a result, the anyan Chinese anti-Japanese movement, which began in 1908 over the Tatsu-Maru Incident, was transformed from a boycott movement led by merchants to a national salvation movement directed by the party and the government, as well as by their overseas agents. At the same time, modern Chinese Nationalism, epitomized in Sun Yat-sen's “People's Three Principles”, had gained strength as China was being unified under a single government for the first time in nearly two decades. She was also being faced with external threat. This nationalism, kindled by propaganda and a desire for the emergence of a strong China, was prevalent among Nanyang Chinese, particularly among students and young intellectuals and leaders of business circles who had immigrated from China in the recent past, and who had received traditional Chinese education.It is in this context that the Nanyang Chinese started the national salvation movement when the Manchurian Incident broke out in Septemder 1931. Boycotts began in early October throughout Southeast Asia, attesting to the degree of KMT coordination in the movement. For a few months, the boycotts had a telling effect on Japanese trade in Southeast Asia but they petered out by February, 1932. Other methods used by the national salvation movement, such as monetary contributions and material donations, were also comparatively ineffective. The overall effect o the movement upon Japan's trade position vis-a-vis the Nanyang region was light compared with that of the 1928 national salvation movement, a consequence of the Tsinan Incident, whose boycott lasted much longer, and had a more severe economic effect on Japan.Reasons for the rather disappointing results of the 1931-32 movement are as follows:1. The economies of the Nanyang countries were suffering from the Great Depression. The Nanyang Chinese, particularly merchants who were principals in boycott, were simply in no position to conduct the boycott so soon after the Tsinan Incident boycott, from which Chinese communities suffered as much as they succeeded in hurting Japan's economic and trade position in Southeast Asia.2. By nature, the Nanyang Chinese economy had small capital accumulation and depended on handling Japanese consumer goods for livelihood. Chinese merchants could not continue the boycott for long without hurting themselves and undermining their business and economic position. In short, the longer they continued boycotting, the more they lost their economic position to Japanese who, with government subsidies, tried to establish their own retail network in order to be less dependent upon Chinese merchants for the distribution and sale of their merchandise.3. The national salvation movement, which had been evolving gradually into a political movement as the KMT's influence grew, became the object of suppression from colonial and native governments. Colonial governments were afraid of indigenous nationalist movements being contaminated of Chinese nationalism. On the other hand, the native governments of Siam and the Philippines were increasingly resentful of the predominant Chinese hold over their economies. Consequently, these governments, motivated by their own brands of nationalism-Thai-ification and Filipinization-tried to wrest economic control from the Chinese and restore it into their own hands. Because of these factors, Chinese had to be

The Role of Indian Textiles in Southeast Asian Trade in the Seventeenth Century

The role of Indian textiles in Southeast Asian trade in the seventeenth century was important in three ways. First, there was a great, almost unlimited, demand for these goods in all the Southeast Asian markets; second, they constituted the principal medium of exchange for the trade of Southeast Asia with the outside world; and third, they shaped the pattern of Inter-Asian trade of the European Companies, which laid the foundation of their wealth and commerce and later political power in the eighteenth century. The first two were important for Southeast Asian history only, but the last was of very great importance from the point of view of world history, not less important, in its far-reaching effects, than the voyages of discovery at the beginning of the modern period or the Industrial Revolution and the French Revolution in the eighteenth century. The poor Indian weavers shaped the course of world history by unconsciously laying the foundation of British and Dutch colonial empires.