A FRAMEWORK FOR THE HISTORY OF ECONOMIC-GROWTH IN SOUTHEAST-ASIA

Suggestions are made relating to writing Southeast Asian economic history, paying special attention to the natural environment and the periods emphasized. On the basis of European and Japanese experience, it is proposed that conventional 'obstacles to growth' were ambiguous or malleable. Political difficulties were greater: internally, curbing exploitation by governments and local dignitaries simultaneously; externally, producing competitive rather than conflicting interactions among states. In Southeast Asia population was less dense, core areas further apart, states more fragile and relations among them less fruitful. Promising indigenous commercial and urban activity began to fade before and largely independently of western colonialism.