Sugar-cane and Sugar in the Vietnam – Singapore Relationship: Regional Commercial Network and Royal Trade, 1820–1847

Abstract Existing literature on nineteenth-century trade from Vietnam focuses extensively on the trade of rice and opium, which formed the majority of commerce. This paper investigates another principal export, sugar, to examine how this commodity was produced and traded in Vietnam. It starts with a short description of the history of sugar cane cultivation and sugar manufacturing in Vietnam. An attempt will also be made to clearly demonstrate that Vietnam became a significant sugar supplier to the British Straits Settlements and other Southeast Asian markets via Singapore as a transit port. The development of Vietnam’s sugar trade was related to the increasingly active commercial activities of the Nguyễn Dynasty in the port of Singapore during the first half of the nineteenth century.