A study in growth: an economic history of Melaka 1400–1510
Robert W. McRoberts (1991) examines the economic transformation of Melaka from a small fishing village in 1400 to a major entrepot port by 1510, arguing that the city’s growth was driven by a combination of long-term structural change in the Indian Ocean trade—particularly the shift from a China-dominated luxury trade to a Muslim-dominated bulk commodity trade—and the coherent political program of the Melakan administration, which used economic policy as an instrument of regional hegemony.
Summary
McRoberts structures his analysis in two parts: a microeconomic examination of occupations, specialisation, and the internal structure of Melakan society, and a macroeconomic assessment of efficiency, growth, and cyclical fluctuation. In the first part, he demonstrates that Melaka was fundamentally an urban, tertiary economy with no significant agricultural base, its population composed of administrators, merchants, warriors, religious functionaries, and service workers. A central argument is that the society exhibited a low degree of formal specialisation for most of the period—no guilds, no fixed wage rates, and considerable occupational mobility—before gradually developing more defined professional roles (nakhoda, kadli, Sri Rama, Laksamana) as population pressure and trade volume demanded it. He further identifies a critical dichotomy in Melakan trade: an entrepot trade in luxury and bulk commodities (spices, cloth, porcelain) dominated by foreigners, and a local distributive trade in basic necessities (food, pottery, timber) dominated by Javanese and Thai merchants. This dual structure, he contends, was obscured by European commentators who fixated on the spice trade.
In the macroeconomic section, McRoberts assesses the efficiency of the Melakan economy through indirect indicators: the standardisation of excise duties, the adequacy of government revenue, the stability of the tin-based currency, and the traders’ demonstrated preference for Melaka as a trading destination. He then traces the long-term growth trajectory against the backdrop of external economic conditions, identifying a minor recession in the 1430s–1450s caused by the withdrawal of Chinese treasure fleets and a dramatic demographic decline in southern China, followed by a realignment after 1450 as the Muslim bulk trade in spices and cloth expanded. He draws on Ashtor’s spice price data for the western terminus of the trade to demonstrate that while volumes increased enormously, unit prices fell sharply in the latter half of the century, creating a period of recession around 1480–1490 before recovery under Tun Mutahir.
The article draws heavily on the Sejarah Melayu, Pires’ Suma Oriental, d’Albuquerque’s Commentarios, Ma Huan’s Ying-yai sheng-lan, Fei Xin’s Xing-qa sheng-lan, and the Undang-undang Melaka and Undang-undang Laut, supplemented by Ashtor’s quantitative work on Near Eastern spice prices and van der Sprengel’s population statistics for Ming China.
Key Findings
- Melaka’s urban population grew from an estimated 60 persons (three to eight families) in 1400 to between 40,000 and 100,000 by 1511, with Meilink-Roelofsz’s estimate of 50,000 representing a growth rate of less than 1% per annum over the final thirty years, though McRoberts argues a rate of 2–3% per annum is more plausible given economic expansion (pp. 63–64).
- Excise duties were standardised at 6% on merchandise from the west (Pegu, Siam, Tenasserim, Kedah, Pedir, Pasai) and 3% for settled Malays plus 3% royal duty; goods from the east initially paid no dues (only “presents”), but under Tun Mutahir were assessed at 5% (15 cruzados per 300 cruzados) (pp. 57–58).
- The population of southern China (provinces south of the Yangzi) declined by 33% between 1393 and 1511, with Guangdong down 40%, Fujian 46%, and Zhejiang 49%, directly depressing demand for nanyang products and contributing to a recession in Melakan trade after c. 1440 (pp. 65–66).
- Spice prices in the western markets followed distinct cycles: pepper was low until 1410, rose until 1450, then fell and remained low for the rest of the century; cloves experienced a complete price collapse from c. 1480 to c. 1500; by 1511, Banda produced 5,000–6,000 bahar of mace annually and the Moluccas 5,000–7,000 bahar of cloves, vastly exceeding Chinese demand of approximately 20 bahar per annum (pp. 67–69).
- The tribute levied on Melakan dependencies in 1511 included Bernam at 10,000 calains of tin per annum, Bruas at 6,000 timas of tin, Manjong at 8,000 double calains of tin, and Pahang, Kampar, and Indragiri each at four catties of gold (p. 62).
- The bahara (standardised at 400 pounds or 182 kg of gold) served as the unit for measuring great wealth; Tun Mutahir was credited with six bahara and Shahbandar Raja Medaliar with five, representing the upper limit of individual accumulation in Melakan society (pp. 72–73).
Conclusion
McRoberts concludes that the Melakan economy did not experience continuous, unfettered growth but rather displayed short-term vicissitudes and long-term structural change within an overall trajectory of expansion. The economy was ultimately a means to a political end: the achievement of local independence and regional hegemony. The administration’s unitary, coherent, long-term political program provided the coherence, flexibility, and market freedom that allowed Melaka to absorb external shocks, realign its trade in response to shifting global demand, and sustain the expensive apparatus of empire.
Context
- The study draws on the standard primary source corpus for the Melakan Sultanate (Sejarah Melayu, Pires, d’Albuquerque, Ma Huan, Fei Xin, the Undang-undang) and supplements it with quantitative economic data from Ashtor’s work on Near Eastern spice prices and van der Sprengel’s Ming population statistics, representing an attempt to apply economic history methodology to a period and region where direct quantitative evidence is scarce.
- The article contributes to the historiography by challenging the assumption of smooth, uninterrupted growth in Melakan trade and by foregrounding the local distributive trade in basic commodities, which had been neglected in favour of the entrepot spice trade that attracted European attention.