Charting the Economy: Early 20th Century and Contemporary Malaysian Contrasts

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Sultan Nazrin Shah

It is often difficult to know exactly what was happening in economies before the middle of the 20th century because the methodology of calculating the gross domestic product (GDP) of a country was not established until the 1930s. More recently economists have attempted to create historic GDP information extrapolated from evidence from the relevant period. In this work the author uses this methodology to calculate Malaya's GDP in the first four decades of the 20th century and, from that information, determines its main effects, i.e. exported  profits and development mainly concentrated in the areas producing or supporting the source of wealth, rubber and tin. He then turns to the immediate post independence period to establish how a democratic government attempted to steer the country's economy towards a more even form of development. 234 pages with many maps, figures, tables, references and an index.