PERJANJIAN PERAK-BELANDA PADA KURUN KE-18: ANALISIS TERHADAP KEDUDUKAN PERAK DALAM JARINGAN PERDAGANGAN GLOBAL (Special Issue)
The Perak-Dutch Treaty in the 18th Century: An Analysis of Perak's Position in the Global Trade Network
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.51200/manu.v36i2.6276Keywords:
Perak, Belanda, tin, trade, Malacca StraitsAbstract
Abstract This study discusses the role of Perak in the international trade network during the 18th century, at a time when the influence of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) was becoming increasingly dominant in the Southeast Asian region. As one of the key Malay states supplying tin, Perak was not only a focal point for foreign powers but also played a crucial role in sustaining regional maritime trade. However, previous discussions have largely focused on major entrepôt ports along the Straits of Melaka, rather than on the hinterland states that supplied the traded commodities. This study asserts that inland states such as Perak were primary contributors of export commodities that drove the development and economic growth of important port cities in Southeast Asia. The ability of these entrepôt ports to flourish depended heavily on the strength of their connections with the hinterlands, which were governed by local administrators. The two-way relationship between major ports and states like Perak not only ensured a continuous supply of commodities but also reinforced the economic position and power of these port cities in the region—whether under local rulers or European powers such as the VOC. This study employs a historical approach by analysing primary sources, namely the Misa Melayu manuscript and the Corpus Diplomaticum Neerlando-Indicum (CD), a compilation of political contracts and treaties concluded by the VOC in Asia, including formal authorisations granted to them by local rulers. This study argues that Perak played a significant role in the economy, particularly within the international trade network in the 18th century, due to its position as a major and vital supplier of tin in the Straits of Melaka. This prompted the VOC to enter into an agreement with Perak to monopolise the commodity. The relationship also provided the Dutch with an advantage in consolidating their dominance in the Straits of Melaka, compared to other Western powers that were still seeking opportunities to expand their influence in commercial activities across the region, which served as a key corridor connecting Eastern and Western trade.
References
[Surat Sultan Muda Perak kepada Francis Light berkaitan hubungan Perak dengan Pulau Pinang]: Light Letters (MS 40320/11, f.118). Transliteration provided by Centre for Policy Research and International Studies (CenPRIS), Universiti Sains Malaysia.”
[Surat Sultan Perak kepada Francis Light tentang Persahabatan Pulau Pinang dan Perak dan Permintaan Benih Sagu]: Light Letters (MS 40320/11, f.107). Transliteration provided by Centre for Policy Research and International Studies (CenPRIS), Universiti Sains Malaysia.”
Ahmad Fauzi Mohd. Basri. (1992). (peny.). Misa Melayu. Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka.
Andaya, B. W. (1979). Perak, The Abode of Grace: A study of an eighteenth-century Malay State. Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press.
Andaya, B. W. (1992). Political development between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. In Nicholas Tarling (Ed.), The Cambridge
History of Southeast Asia (pp. 402-459). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Andaya, L. Y. (1987). Kerajaan Johor 1641-1728, Pembangunan ekonomi dan politik. Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka.
Andaya, L. Y. (1992) Interactions with outside world and adaptation in Southeast Asian Society, 1500-1800. In Nicholas Tarling (Ed.), The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia (pp. 345-401). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Bassett, D. K. (1989). “British ‘Country’ Trade and local trade networks in the Thai and Malay States, c. 1680–1770.” Modern Asian Studies 23, no. 4: 625–43. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1017/S0026749X00010143.
Bassett, D. K., And D. K. Basset. (1964). British trade and policy in Indonesia 1760 - 1772. Bijdragen Tot de Taal-, Land- En Volkenkunde 120(2), 197–223. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/27860475.
Borschberg, P. (2024). Trade and Disruption in the Western Malay Archipelago in the 17th century. Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 97(2), 17-42.
Floor, W. (1987). The Iranian Navy in the Gulf during the eighteenth century. Iranian Studies 20(1), 31–53. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/4310562.
Hall, D. G. E. (1955). A History of South-East Asia. London: Macmillan & Co. Ltd.
Hall, K. R. (1985). Maritime Trade and State Development in Early Southeast Asia. University of Hawaii Press.
Heeres, J. E. (Ed.). (1931). Corpus diplomaticum Neerlando-Indicum: Verzameling van politieke contracten en verdere verdragen door de
Nederlanders in het Oosten gesloten, van privilegebrieven, aan hen verleend, enz. (Tweede deel: 1650–1675). Koninklijk Instituut voor
Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde. Retrieved from https://sejarah-nusantara.anri.go.id/corpusdiplomaticum/
Heeres, J. E., & Stapel, F. W. (Eds.). (1934). Corpus diplomaticum Neerlando-Indicum: Verzameling van politieke contracten en verdere verdragen door de Nederlanders in het Oosten gesloten, van privilegebrieven, aan hen verleend, enz. (Derde deel: 1676–1691).
Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde. Retrieved from https://sejarah-nusantara.anri.go.id/corpusdiplomaticum/
Kathirithamby-Wells, J. (1992). The Age of transition: The mid-eighteenth to the early nineteenth centuries. In Nicholas Tarling (Ed.), The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia (pp. 572-619). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Khoo, Chun Yok. (2023). The Collapse of the Riau Entrepôt in 1784 and the Rise of Singapore. Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 96(2), 29-48.
Khoo, Kay Kim. (1986). “The Perak Sultanate: Ancient and modern.” Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 59(1)(250), 1–26. Retrived from http://www.jstor.org/stable/41493032.
Kratz, E. U. (2012). Francis Light’s Place in the Trading System of Both Coasts of the Malay Peninsula. Asian Journal of Social Science, 40(1), 83–99. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/43498829
McRoberts, R. W. (1991). “A Study In Growth: An Economic History Of Melaka 1400-1510”. Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 64(2) (261)), 47–78. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/41493186.
Miller, W. G. (2010). "English country traders and their relations with Malay rulers in the late eighteenth century." Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 84(1), 23-45. Retrieved from https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/ras.2011.0004.
Nordin Hussin. (2007). Trade and Society in the Straits of Melaka: Dutch Melaka and English Penang. Singapore: NUS & Nias Press.
Reid, A. (1992). Economic and social change, c. 1500-1800. In Nicholas Tarling (Ed.), The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia (pp. 460-
. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Reid, A. (1993). Southeast Asia in the age of commerce 1450-1680. (Vol. 2). New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
Smith, F.A. (2023). James Carnegy and the ‘Country Trade’ in Penang, c.1802–1824. Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic
Society 96(1), 51-79.
Stapel, F. W. (1955). Verzameld en toegelicht (Zesde deel: 1753-1799). Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, Martinus Nijhoff. Retrieved from https://sejarah-nusantara.anri.go.id/corpusdiplomaticum/
Stapel, F. W. (Ed.). (1955). Corpus diplomaticum Neerlando-Indicum: Verzameling van politieke contracten en verdere verdragen door de Nederlanders in het Oosten gesloten, van privilegebrieven, aan hen verleend, enz. (Vijfde deel: 1726-1752). Koninklijk Instituut voor
Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, Martinus Nijhoff. Retrieved from https://sejarah-nusantara.anri.go.id/corpusdiplomaticum/
Wagner, M. (2022). The English Chartered Trading Companies, 1688-1763, guns, money and lawyers. New York: Routledge.
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
All right reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced without prior written permission of the copyright holder. The written permission of the copyright holder must be obtained before any parts of this publication is stored in a retrieval system of any nature.
Requests for permission to duplicate an article, review or part of this journal should be addressed to the Chief Editor, MANU, Centre for the Promotion of Knowledge and Language Learning, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Jalan UMS, 88400 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia.
Total Views: 55
| 
Total Downloads: 24
