Download or read book Chinese Business in the Making of a Malay State, 1882-1941 written by Wu Xiao An and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2003-12-08 with total page 307 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines how Chinese family and business networks, focused around activities such as revenue farming, including opium, the rice trade, and pawnbroking, and related legal and labour organization activities, were highly influential in the process of state formation in Malaya. It shows how Chinese family and business networks were flexible and dynamic, and were closely interlocked with economic and social structures, around which government, and states, developed. It considers the crucial role of wealth and power in the process of state formation, and challenges accepted views of Chinese ethnicity and migration.