Topic summary
White Rajahs
Extracted from the Wikipedia article White Rajah.
Government
The White Rajahs were determined to prevent the indigenous peoples of Sarawak from being exploited by Western business interests. They allowed Borneo Company Limited (the Borneo Company) to assist in managing the economy. The core of the early Sarawak economy was antimony, later followed by gold, which was mined in Bau by a Chinese company which imported numerous workers from China and Singapore. After the local Chinese uprising in 1857, the mining operations were gradually taken over by the Borneo Company; it bought out the last Chinese company in 1884. The Borneo Company provided military support to the White Rajahs during crises such as the Chinese uprising. One of the company steamships, the Sir James Brooke, helped recapture Kuching.