Entitlements, Destitution, and Emigration in the 1930s Singapore Great Depression
Author(s)
Huff, W. G.
Abstract
Few economies can have undergone a macroeconomic shock more severe than that experienced in the 1930s depression by Malaya (consisting of the Malay Peninsula and Singapore, the dominant urban centre and main port). Entirely as the result of a collapse in the demand for tires from the US automotive industry, rubber, the chief staple exported from Malaya, fell further in value than any of the world’s primary commodities. Between 1929 and 1932 the value of Singapore’s rubber exports declined by 84 per cent, and that of tin, the other regional staple, by 68 per cent. The total value of Singapore’s merchandise exports fell by 59 per cent and imports declined by 58 per cent. Over the same period Malaya’s combined imports and exports decreased by 61 per cent and its terms of trade almost halved. Between mid-1929 and 1932 base money supply in Malaya contracted by over one-third. Real wages fell by nearly a half. Influenced by the idea of entitlements that determine the distribution of a fixed output, the effect of external shocks like that to Singapore of the great depression, which started in late 1929 and began to lift only during 1933, are sometimes analyzed in terms of winners and losers. Yet over the more than three years of the depression in Singapore few, if any, groups benefited absolutely-as Bauer observed of Malaya generally, ‘The economic crisis was all-pervasive. There was a ‘severe reduction in consumption, affecting all classes and race. Even so, some groups in Singapore did fare better than others.
