Colonial Singapore witnessed the movement and settling of Chinese, Malay, Indian, Arab, European and other mercantile groups as a free port and emporium of the British Empire. This social landscape was defined by boundaries between the different ethnic communities, often drawn up by the British, in contrast to the cosmopolitan exchanges of the market. This article focuses on the Indian business communities which had played a significant role in maritime trade networks since pre-colonial times and continued to be a part of Singapore's developing society and economy in the British period. A minority in the colonial era port city and largely confined within intra-ethnic economic and social circuits, Indians participated in the complex colonial structure of trade and credit alongside British, European and Asian traders and merchant houses, as brokers, agents, and retailers. British hegemony over the Indian subcontinent was both an advantage and a disadvantage for these Indian trading communities. This article brings to light the history of Indian networks in the colonial transnational flows of capital and entrepreneurship, and their patterns of integration into and role in the development of Singapore, a role marginalised in the scholarship and the national narratives alike by a focus on the large-scale Indian labour migrations.

中文翻译：

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边缘故事：殖民地新加坡发展中的印度商界

殖民时期的新加坡见证了华人、马来人、印度人、阿拉伯人、欧洲人和其他商业集团作为大英帝国的自由港和商场的迁徙和定居。这种社会景观是由不同种族社区之间的界限定义的，通常由英国人制定，与市场的国际化交流形成鲜明对比。本文重点关注自前殖民时代以来在海上贸易网络中发挥重要作用并在英国时期继续成为新加坡发展中社会和经济的一部分的印度商界。作为殖民时代港口城市的少数群体，主要局限于种族内部的经济和社会回路，印度人与英国、欧洲和亚洲的商人和商人一起参与了复杂的贸易和信贷殖民结构，作为经纪人、代理商和零售商。英国对印度次大陆的霸权对这些印度贸易社区来说既是优势也是劣势。本文揭示了印度网络在资本和企业家的殖民跨国流动中的历史，以及它们融入新加坡发展的模式和在新加坡发展中的作用，通过关注大规模的印度劳动力迁移。