Staple Trade, Real Wages, and Living Standards in Singapore, 1870–1939

ABSTRACT This paper examines the impact of Singapore’s rise as a staple port on the city’s real wages and living standards during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, when this British colony acted as the heartland to surrounding hinterlands. Based on an analysis of newly reconstructed nominal wage and price time series, it is shown that real wages in Singapore fluctuated substantially over this period, rising and falling with the port’s staple trade in tin and rubber. As the city transformed itself into a commercial and financial hub during the interwar period, however, Singapore’s real wages rose, though this was accompanied by a widening skill premium. Compared to its peers in Asia, the city appears to have enjoyed a relatively higher average living standard before 1900, and possibly by the late 1930s as well.