Annual report on Sarawak.

Date:
[1950]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report on Sarawak. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    50/230 (page 28)
    grading, bulking and re-export, although shipments of sago and rubber to other countries are now becoming more frequent. The importation of goods from the United Kingdom and other distant sources is almost entirely left to the few European firms, but generally speaking the whole trade of the country passes, at some stage or other, through the Chinese Merchants', who carry on what might be described as a “small shop” trade. In the larger towns and bazaars there are of course, some shops which engage solely in the sale of goods for cash (and some of these are Indian shops), but many are usually to be found that combine the purchase of rubber and other produce with the sale of sundry goods and Chinese groceries, if so ordinary a term can be given to the great variety of oriental foodstuffs they display; sharks’ fins, birdsnests, salted squids, blachan and dried fish vie with the weird and pungent fruits of the East, spices, and all kinds of vegetables, fresh, dried and preserved. The more important shops in the towns are usually linked with associate Chinese firms in Singapore, which keep them supplied with goods and receive their produce. Similarly the Chinese firms in Sarawak have their associates in up-river and coastal bazaars. These they supply with goods. In return they receive the rubber and jungle produce, which has been obtained by sale or barter. Such jungle produce consists chiefly of rattan cane, damar and various types of guttas, of which jelutong is employed in the manufacture of chewing gum, and such piquant items as dragons’ blood and ant-eater skins which are more interesting than important. Most of this jungle produce conies from remote districts where the needs of the natives, for which they cannot and do not provide themselves, are very few, but the up-river Chinese trader knows how to cater for the whims and fancies of the Dayaks, who may set their hearts on any object outside their natural partiality for gold and silver ornament. The other things they venerate vary with the local tribal custom, and amongst these sre a certain type of earthenware jar, large glazed and urnlike in appearance, and brass gongs. Shot¬ guns are universally esteemed for utility and prestige. Very little weaving is now done, so that imported cloth has become a virtual necessity. Apart from this, in some places, far from the towns, very little more than salt and oils for lighting and cooking are really needed by the natives except when the local padi harvest fails, or is short, but it is interesting to note how great is the variety of goods