TAXATION POLICY AND LAND REFORMS IN COLONIAL MALAYA

During the 18th-19th centuries, British influence started to change the situation of the economy and the society of Malaya as a whole. Steps towards the further expansion of the tin mining industry was a turning point, which affected the whole society. The British Straits Settlements of Penang, Malacca, and Singapore were established between 1786 and 1825 and were governed by the East India Company. The tin trade was thrown open to private individuals. Further developments required more labor and funds involvement and as a result, the Chinese came to the central scene and started to invest hugely in Sungei Ujong and Negeri Sembilan’s tin mining industry. This article discusses the colonial time reforms regarding Malaya’s taxation and land matters. Using library-based research, this study investigated colonial taxation and land issues. Reforms, which occurred in the last two decades of the 19th century in land relations, helped to reshape existed in pre-colonial period subsistent agriculture to the more advanced and systematized export-based income generator to the British. In the last quarter of the 19th century, there was a huge increase in exportable crop production. The rubber depression, which occurred in the 1920s, gave chance for palm oil to become successful agricultural produce. Kennedy states that many of the plantation areas were large ones; by 1933, there were 32 estates with 64,000-planted acres, and this acreage had increased to 79,000 by 1941. Authorities, in order to encourage the production of palm oil and diversify the economy, granted lands on favorable terms. This research fnds that at the end of the colonial rule the British started to use the benefcial terms for the landowners to boost production.