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The Chartering of the British North Borneo Company

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 January 2014

John S. Galbraith
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Extract

“Imperialism,” an eminent historian has written, “is no word for scholars.” But the study of European political expansion in Asia, the Pacific islands, and Africa in the last quarter of the nineteenth century certainly merits scholarly attention, and recently has been receiving it. Since 1960 an impressive array of books and articles has appeared which present new insights into aspects of the “scramble,” particularly the motives for British action. Most of these studies have been concerned with Africa, and a possible deficiency in the analysis of one of the most notable of them has been that in its preoccupation with Africa it has not taken sufficient account of relevant developments elsewhere.

During the second half of the nineteenth century, particularly after 1870, European influence advanced with a new aggressiveness into the under-powered areas of the world. In the halcyon days of the Pax Britannica, British governments had sought to avoid annexations as unproductive and expensive. This policy continued to be the creed in the 1870's, but some statesmen found it increasingly difficult to apply without serious risk to major British interests. These officials were motivated largely by fear of future challenges rather than of demonstrated peril. But there was a growing conviction, particularly evident in the permanent staff of the Foreign Office, that Europe had entered a new era of great-power rivalries in which Britain must either pursue a more active imperial policy or risk the loss of commerce, prestige, and world power. There was widespread apprehension that expansion into overseas areas by the militant and protectionist German Empire, Spain, and other European states might be ruinous to British trade and dangerous to Imperial security.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of British Studies , Volume 4 , Issue 2 , May 1965 , pp. 102 - 126
Copyright
Copyright © North American Conference of British Studies 1965

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References

1. Hancock, William Keith, Survey of British Commonwealth Affairs (London, 1940), II, Pt. 1, 1Google Scholar.

2. See, for example, Semmel, Bernard, Imperialism and Social Reform (London, 1960)Google Scholar; Thornton, A. P., The Imperial Idea and Us Enemies (London, 1959)Google Scholar; Blaug, Mark, “Economic Imperialism Revisited," Yale Review, L (1961), 335–49Google Scholar; Fieldhouse, D. K., “Imperialism: An Historiographical Revision,” Econ. Hist. Rev., second series, XIV (1961), 187–209Google Scholar; and Landes, David S., “Some Thoughts on the Nature of Economic Imperialism,” J.E.C., XXI (1961), 496–512Google Scholar.

3. Robinson, Ronald and Gallagher, John with Denny, Alice, Africa and the Victorians (London, 1961)Google Scholar.

4. For a further discussion of this subject, see Ward, John M., British Policy in the South Pacific, 1786-1893 (Sydney, 1948)Google Scholar, and Morrell, W. P., Britain in the Pacific Islands (Oxford, 1960)Google Scholar.

5. Economist, XXXIX (1881), 1428.Google Scholar

6. For the details of this venture see Rutter, Owen, British North Borneo (London, 1922), pp. 93–95Google Scholar.

7. A description of the American colony is contained in Tregonning, K. G., Under Chartered Company Rule (Singapore, 1958), pp. 4–12Google Scholar. See also his article, “American Activity in North Borneo, 1865-1881,” Pacific Hist. Rev., XXIII (1954), 357–72Google Scholar.

8. Articles of Agreement, July 11, 1874, in British North Borneo papers, microfilm in UCLA Library. These papers at the time of their filming were housed in the Colonial Office Library but have since been transferred to the PRO.

9. Low, Acting Consul General, to Derby, June 1, 1875, PRO, FO 12/41.

10. Low to Derby, July 6, 1875, ibid. Tregonning, Under Chartered Company Rule, p. 10.

11. Pope-Hennessy to Clarendon, April 21, 1870; Herbert to Under-Secretary, FO, Sep. 13, 1870, both in PRO, FO 12/36.

12. Confidential Print, FO, Sep. 1874, “Memorandum relative to the Proposals made by Rajah Brooke for the Annexation of Brunei to the British Dominions,” PRO, FO 12/40.

13. H. T. Ussher, governor of Labuan during the critical period of the negotiations. Ussher was in England on leave and William Hood Treacher was acting governor.

14. Runciman, Steven, The White Rajahs (Cambridge, 1960), p. 183Google Scholar.

15. Comments by Percy Anderson on Rajah Brooke's proposal of July 16, 1874; minutes, Oct. 1874, on “Establishment of British Protectorate,” both in PRO, FO 12/42. By the treaty of 1824 the Netherlands withdrew its abjections to the British occupation of Singapore in exchange for a British promise not to found settlements on “islands South of the Straits of Singapore.” British legal advisers in the 1870's, however, held that this prohibition did not apply to North Borneo. See Irwin, Graham, Nineteenth-Century Borneo (Gravenhage, 1955), pp. 62–67CrossRefGoogle Scholar and passim.

16. Articles of Agreement, March 27, 1877, British North Borneo Papers.

17. Montgelas, Mitford, and Overbeck mortgaged their shares to Alfred Dent, and by Sep. 1880 they had been eliminated from any share in the enterprise. Edward and John Dent assigned their shares to Alfred on Feb. 4, 1881. These agreements are in the British North Borneo Papers.

18. Copies of the concessions are enclosures in Treacher to Derby, Jan. 2, 1878, PRO, FO 12/53.

19. The concession, dated Jan. 22, 1878, is enclosed in Treacher to Derby, Jan. 22, 1878, ibid. See also, Tregonning, Under Chartered Company Rule, pp. 14-15.

20. Treacher to Derby, Jan. 2, 1878, PRO, FO 12/53.

21. Irwin, , Nineteenth-Century Borneo, p. 198Google Scholar.

22. Treacher to Derby, Jan. 22, 1878, PRO, FO 12/53.

23. A. Dent to E. Dent, Feb. 20, 1878, British North Borneo Papers.

24. Same to same, Feb. 27, 1878, ibid.

25. Treacher to Salisbury, Sep. 14, 1878, PRO, FO 12/53.

26. A. Dent to E. Dent, April 4, 1878, in British North Borneo Papers.

27. E. Dent to A. Dent, Feb. 13, 1878, ibid.

28. A. Dent to E. Dent, June 26, 1878; E. Dent to Read, Sep. 20, 1878, both ibid.

29. Keppel to Salisbury, Oct. 8, 1879, PRO, FO 12/54.

30. Memo by Salisbury, Oct. 11, 1879, ibid.

31. Memo by Salisbury, May 7, 1878, PRO, FO 12/53.

32. Confidential report by Fred Evans, Hydrographer, Oct. 20, 1879, PRO, FO 12/54.

33. Ussher to Under-Secretary, CO, March 15, 1878, PRO, FO 12/53.

34. Meade to Ussher, March 14, 1878, ibid.

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37. E. Dent to A. Dent, April 18, 1878, British North Borneo Papers.

38. For Pauncefote's views on China, see Pelcovits, Nathan, Old China Hands and the Foreign Office (New York, 1948)Google Scholar, passim. In the 1880's he was a strong advocate of Sir George Goldie and the Royal Niger Company.

39. Memo by Pauncefote, May 7, 1878, PRO, FO 12/53.

40. Memo by Salisbury, May 7, 1878, ibid.

41. Substance of a verbal comment from Mr. Currie to Sir J. Pauncefote, May 9, 1878, ibid.

42. Memo, “Dent-Overbeck Concession in Borneo,” by Pauncefote, Oct. 4, 1878, ibid.

43. Dent to Salisbury, Dec. 2, 1878, ibid.

44. Tregonning, , Under Chartered Company Rule, p. 18Google Scholar.

45. These negotiations are summarized in “Memorandum respecting Cessions to Messrs. Dent and Overbeck,” confidential print for use of cabinet, Oct. 6, 1879, PRO, FO 12/54.

46. FO Minutes on Dent to Salisbury, Feb. 28, 1879, ibid.

47. 3 Hansard, CCXLVI, 1911 (16 June, 1879)Google Scholar.

48. Alcock to Salisbury, March 31, 1879; Dent to Pauncefote, Oct. 8, 1879, both in PRO, FO 12/54.

49. Alcock to Salisbury, private and confidential, Oct. 20, 1879, ibid.

50. See Peloovits, Old China Hands.

51. Memo by Salisbury, Oct. 11, 1879, PRO, FO 12/54.

52. Note, FO, Oct. 20, 1879, unsigned but initialled by Salisbury under date Oct. 25, I879, ibid.

53. Minutes by Pauncefote, April 17, 1880, and by Salisbury, n.d., on Dent to Salisbury, April 12, 1880, PRO, FO 12/55.

54. Memo by Pauncefote, July “3, 1880, ibid.

55. Minute by Kimberley, July 13, 1880, ibid.

56. Granville to Morier, Jan. 7, 1882, PRO, FO 84/2275.

57. Telegram in code, A. Dent to R. B. Read, July 24, 1880, British North Borneo Papers.

58. FO to Law Officers, July 29, 1880, PRO, FO 12/55.

59. Ibid.

60. Law Officers to Granville, Sept. 17, 1880, ibid.

61. A. Dent to R. B. Read, Oct. 29, 1880, and Nov. 5, 1880, in British North Borneo Papers.

62. Gwynn, Stephen and Tuckwell, Gertrude, The Life of Sir Charles W. Dilke (London, 1917), I, 318Google Scholar; Tregonning, , Under Chartered Company Rule, pp. 27–28Google Scholar.

63. 3 Hansard, CCLXVII, 708–24 (13 Mar., 1882)Google Scholar.

64. Ibid., 1148-96.

65. Granville to Morier, Jan. 7, 1882, PRO, FO 84/2275.

66. George Goldie-Taubman [later Sir George Goldie] and William Mackinnon were both friends of Alcock. See Tregonning, , Under Chartered Company Rule, pp. 29–30Google Scholar.

67. Law Officers and Dr. Deane to Salisbury, Aug. 8, 1885, PRO, FO 84/2275. The Imperial British East Africa Company was in a somewhat different legal position. Its powers of government were conferred upon it by the Sultan of Zanzibar as well as by African chiefs on the mainland, and the Borneo precedent was therefore considered more appropriate by the legal advisers of the Government.