Penang’s link with ocean made waves

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By DERRICK VINESH

Historians and researchers from across the globe recently converged on George Town to discuss the diverse links between Penang and the Indian Ocean.

PENANG has a spicy past, literally. The island’s first pepper plants were introduced in 1790 by a Chinese Kapitan, who brought in pepper vines from Acheh with funds from Captain Francis Light, the founder of the British settlement.

Christina Skott, a history lecturer at Cambridge University, said the British East India Company (EIC) wanted to start spice plantations then in the hope of breaking the Dutch monopoly on cloves and nutmeg.

“Penang was an important centre for botanical exchange and transfer as well as for agricultural experiments during the first decade of its opening in 1786. The first commercial crops were coconut and pepper,” said Skott, one of 25 international speakers at the recent three-day “Penang and the Indian Ocean (PIO) Conference 2011”.

Irving: Pointed out that one of the largest collections of Malay melodies published in the 19th century was sourced from Penang.

During the conference jointly organised by Think City, Penang Heritage Trust (PHT), Universiti Sains Malaysia’s Centre for Policy Research and International Studies (CenPRIS), and academics from University of Cambridge and London University, experts and researchers explored and discussed Penang’s history as a trading port in the Straits of Malacca.

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Posted by on October 2, 2011 under History.

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