Until the early 1900s governments of Southeast Asia farmed out the right to run opium, gambling and other monopolies. Yet by about 1920 all of the major farms had been abolished and the collection of revenue brought under direct bureaucratic control. This book explains the rise and sudden fall of revenue farming, traces the changing fortunes of the Chinese businessmen who held the major farms, and uses the study of revenue farming to examine the emergence of the modern state in Southeast Asia.

List of Tables - List of Maps - List of Figures - Preface - Notes on Weights and Currencies - Notes on Abbreviations - Notes on the Contributors - PART 1: THEMES AND PERSPECTIVE - A Fresh Approach to Southeast Asian History; H.Dick - Revenue Farming and the Changing State in Southeast Asia; J.Butcher - Revenue Farming in Comparative Perspective: Reflections on Taxation, Social Structure and Development in the Early-Modern Period; I.Copland & M.R.Godley - The Origins of Revenue Farming: Southeast Asian or Exotic?; A.Reid - Imperialism, Trade and Investment in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries; I.Brown - Chinese Revenue Farm Networks: The Penang Connection; M.R.Godley - PART 2: COUNTRY STUDIES - Trade, Rajas and Bandars in South Bali; A.van der Kraan - Revenue Farming and State Centralisation in Nineteenth Century Kedah; K.K.Jin - Revenue Farming, Economic Development and Government Policy during the Early Bangkok Period, 1830-92; C.M.Wilson - The Collapse of Singapore's Great Syndicate; C.A.Trocki - The Origins of the Opium Trade and the Opium Regie in Colonial Indochina; H.Nankoe, J-C.Gerlus & M.J.Murray - Revenue Farming and Colonial Finances in the Netherlands East Indies, 1816-1925; F.W.Diehl - The End of the Opium Farm in Siam, 1905-7; I.Brown - PART 3: TAX FARMERS AND BUSINESS STRATEGY - Tan Seng Poh; C.A.Trocki - Loke Yew; J.Butcher - Thio Thiau Siat; M.R.Godley - The Khaw Concern; J.W.Cushman & M.R.Godley - Oei Tiong Ham; H.Dick - Glossary - Bibliography and References - Index