一、前言马来亚的锡矿业从十九世纪中叶至十九世纪末叶(具体地说,是从十九世纪四十年代末期至九十年代前半期)取得了划时代的发展,其主要基地是马来亚西海岸的锡产区,促使其发展的主角则是华人锡矿企业。因为在这个时期,一方面由马来人进行的传统的小规模采锡业已为华人企业所取代;另一方面,随着西海岸主要锡产区沦为英国的 I. Introduction The tin industry in Malaya made epoch-making development from the mid-nineteenth century to the end of the nineteenth century (specifically, from the late nineteenth of the eighteenth century to the first half of the ninetieth of the nineteenth century). Its major bases are The tin producing area on the western coast of Malaya is the Chinese tin mining enterprise that has led its development. This is because during this period, the traditional small-scale tin mining conducted by Malays on the one hand has been replaced by the Chinese ones. On the other hand, as the major tin producing areas on the West Coast have become British