FROM HORNBILLS TO OIL - PATTERNS OF INDIGENOUS AND EUROPEAN TRADE IN COLONIAL BORNEO

As European interests in South-east Asia developed from the nineteenth century, a range of colonial and quasi-colonial administrations were established. One of their prime objectives was the production of a ran ge of export commodities-timber, minerals, rubber, oil-which were in d emand on the world market. As the economies of the region were drawn i nto the world economy, the structure and geography of trading patterns was altered. The aim of this paper is to examine those changes throug h an evaluation and analysis of trading statistics for the states of n orth-west Borneo. The conclusion suggests that the articulation of ind igenous and foreign capital and production systems was much more compl ex than models of economic dualism and core-periphery linkages would s uggest. (C) 1997 Academic Press Limited.