The Resident Judge of Port Phillip

Short History of… The East India Company. All this talk of Singapore and the East India Company drew me to this Short History episode from July 2025. When the upper class of Britain demanded the spices from East India, merchants were dependent on middlemen to procure them for them. On 31 December 1600 the East India Company received a royal charter which carried the authority of the English Crown without the Crown having to assume financial responsibility for its activities. Their charter enabled them to establish ‘factories’, comprising fortified warehouses, a residence and officer’s mess, in specific locations. In 1610 it adopted a Joint Stock structure which allowed a generalized investment, instead of funding an individual voyage. When the Dutch and English came into conflict in the East Indies, the East India Company looked to India instead as a new source of markets. They undertook a new approach with the Nawabs: at first they were defensively armed but eventually they had 250,000 Mughals under their banner. The Mughals thought that they had control over the East India Company instead of the other way around, but by the early 18th the Mughal empire was fracturing. In 1744 eighteen-year-old Robert Clive arrived in India, first as a clerk then as an army officer. He became involved in Nawab politics and battles, and in 1765 was given taxing power first in Bengal, and then later throughout the provinces as well. At its peak the East India Company controlled half of all global trade. It extended further between 1760 and 1830 and turned itself to the ‘civilizing mission’ of Anglicizing India. However, by 1772 it had to be bailed out of financial trouble and in 1773 was constrained by the Regulating Act which installed Warren Hastings as Governor General in Bengal (or was it just governor, Barry Jones?) In 1787 Hastings was impeached after a 7 year trial. In 1784 the India Act renewed the East India Company’s charter but increasingly stripped back its power. In 1824 the Company banned suttee, and in 1833 lost its tea monopoly. It lost further prestige with the Opium Wars and the 1857 Indian Mutiny when a patchwork of mutinies was repressed viciously. By now the East India Company was no longer trusted to rule and in 1859 it was overtaken by the Crown. In 1874 it was dissolved, but its intellectual framework remained.

Tocqueville Road Trip. Unfortunately only two episodes of this series seem to be available, but I’m enjoying it so far. It’s presented by The Economist, where the Economist’s US editor John Prideaux uses Alexis De Tocqueville’s book Democracy in America as a guidebook as he travels around Trump’s America. ADT (my initials for Alexis De Tocqueville) was in America for 9 months in 1831 where he visited 17 of the 24 states, filling 14 notebooks with his observations. At this time, America was the first modern society without an arisocracy, and ADT writes about the “idea” of America, where democracy was a social phenomenon rather than a political one, underpinned by the equality of conditions. In Episode 1 Game of Chance Prideaux follows De Tocqueville to New York where he, like ADT was hosted by New York’s elite. ADT met President Andrew Jackson – Trump’s favourite president (ADT was not impressed) but Prideaux had to settle for a function at the Lincoln Centre attended by New York arts luminaries. He speaks with two very wealth New Yorkers: Babara Tober, Philanthropist and former Editor of Brides magazine and John Catsimatidis, CEO of Red Apple Group. The latter in particular has become very Trumpist. Prideaux observes that most Americans say that they would rather live in the past, and a majority of people view their fellow citizens as morally bad. Objectively the United States is more equal than in ADT’s time so why have so many Americans lost faith in it?

How Did We Get Here? Israel and the Palestinians Episode 9: From the Second Intifada to Netanyahu’s Re-election. This episode features two journalists who have reported from Israel and the Occupied Territories: journalist and film-maker Jane Corbin, who has been reporting from the region for more than 30 years, and by the BBC’s International Editor Jeremy Bowen. The second Palestinian intifada, or uprising – bloodier than the first – began on the West Bank and in Gaza in 2000 and lasted till 2005. It resulted in the deaths of over 4000 Palestinians about 1500 Israelis (this 3:1 ratio is much lower than the death ratio that we’ve seen in Gaza recently). It was triggered by the visit of Likud’s Ariel Sharon to the Al Aqsa mosque, but was grounded in the failure of the Oslo Accords. At first the Palestinian protests were unarmed, but when met with a heavy Israeli response, the violence increased. By 2001 Sharon was Prime Minister, replaced Labor’s Ehud Barak. Suicide bombings in Israel led to a heavy response in the West Bank, and the erection of a wall, not on the Green Line but jutting into Palestinian land. Arafat found himself isolated in Ramullah before his death in 2004, leading to the rise of new groups. In 2005 Sharon ordered disengagement in Gaza- somewhat surprising given that he was from Likud, but he was aware of the demographic timebomb in Gaza and thought it best to withdraw. Hamas arose in 2004, at first providing social services, and in 2006 it won elections in Gaza. There was a brief civil war in 2007 between Hamas and Fatah. The US, Israel and the ‘Quartet’ (United States, European Union, Russia, and United Nations) all opposed Hamas. In 2009 Netanyahu became Prime Minister for the second time. He had always been opposed to a two-state solution, but he has waxed and waned in his approach and at first he saw Hamas as a counter to Fatah. He has always been confident of US support, to the extent of disregarding Barak Obama’s request not to address Congress.

War Games Grey Zone Episode 4 Cyber Power (Part I) Cyber Pearl Harbour. The National Cyber Security Centre has identified three types of cyber threats: 1. Theft of money or data 2. Attacks for strategic advantage e.g. the theft of a huge cache of US data on public servants, including fingerprints, by China; or the planting of spyware. 3. Cyber destruction to cause physical harm. So far this hasn’t happened, although there are signs of it with the Russian cyber attacks on Ukraine’s infrastructure. It’s unlikely that there will be a huge, one-off event like Cyber Pearl Harbour or Cyber 9/11: instead it’s more likely that there will be a drip, drip. They then go on to talk about the May 2017 WannaCry attack, blamed on North Korea, which seriously impacted the UK’s NHS because they were using old computers. They also speak with Marcus Hutchins, a young hacker employed by a computer company, who was able to reverse engineer WannaCry.

The Rest is History Episode 677 The Star-Spangled Banner Tom and Dominic are doing a series on National Anthems and they start off with that impossible-to-sing anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner. No wonder it’s impossible: it has 19 semi-tones. It was written in the 1812 war with Britain (a war largely forgotten except in Canada) and it was originally called The Defence of Fort McHenry. At the time the stars-and-stripes consisted of 15 stars and 15 stripes, and Fort McHenry had a huge 42×30 ft flag which was taken down at night and raised every morning in defiance of the British- so despite the impression given in the song, it wasn’t fluttering all night getting shot at. The tune was “The Anacreontic Song” which was used by 80 other songs with different words. The words to the anthem were written by Francis Scott Key. Even though it’s not explicitly there in the song as it is usually sung, Tom and Dom acknowledge that there are racist overtones in the lyrics with its mention of “the hireling and slave” in the third verse, especially as American slaves who escaped to the British military during the war, were offered freedom and the opportunity to join the Corps of Colonial Marines to fight against U.S. forces. Also Key was a slaveowner in his own right, and a statue of him was toppled in 2016. By the end of WWI there was still no U.S. anthem with ‘Hail Columbia’ and ‘American the Beautiful’ sung as patriotic songs. In 1931 the Star Spangled Banner became the national anthem but it has always been controversial.

Stuff Matters LEDs: How a little blue light changed the world Prompted by a cheap throw-away flashing wrist band at a sporting game, Ed Conway considers the millions and millions of LEDs in the world. Light Emitting Diodes had been invented earlier and promised a huge saving in energy costs, given that unlike incandescent lighting which emits only 5-10% of its energy as light (as distinct from heat) most of its energy is expressed as light. Red and green LEDs had been invented earlier, but the holy grail was a blue LED. After years and years of experimentation largely at his own expense and time, in 1979 inventor Shuji Nakamura finally successfully invented the blue light, which could provide the white light we know today. Fortunately he finally received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2014. But would it run into the Jevons Paradox i.e. the phenomenon that when technology becomes more efficient, do we actually use less of it, or simply find new ways to consume more? Will we just innovate our way into more consumption? Fortunately, it seems that the Jevons Paradox doesn’t apply here. In rich countries LED has cut electricity usage even though LED use has become even more pervasive, and in poor countries where electricity use has finally arrived, there has been less energy use that would have occurred with incandescent lighting. LED may have broken the Jevons Paradox, but it is unique in having such a strong effect.

How Did We Get Here? Israel and the Palestinians Episode 8: From the First Intifada to Camp David featuring presenter Jonny Dymond, the BBC’s International Editor Jeremy Bowen, and Mark Tessler, Professor of Political Science at the University of Michigan, USA. In 1982 Israel invaded Lebanon, and five years later we saw the First Intifada, a Palestinian uprising with kids throwing stones. Arafat, at that time in Algiers, was surprised by the uprising but things had changed with the significant immigration of Russian Jews to Israel. In 1990 Iraq invaded Kuwait in the First Gulf War, leading to United States involvement and evoking anti-US feeling. The Madrid Conference of 1991 saw George H. W. Bush trying to revive the Israel/Palestinian peace process, which was made easier by the Labor party’s return, which had a policy of supporting a two-state solution. There were two Oslo Accords signed- the first in 1993 and the second in 1995. However, there were protests against the Accords on both the Jewish and Palestinian sides and in 1995, the Israel Prime Minister Rabin was assassinated by a right-wing Israeli extremist. Likud came back into power, but was defeated in 1999 by Ehud Barak who worked with Bill Clinton for the Camp David Accords- the last roll of the dice. The talks collapsed and Likud won again.

The History Bureau Putin and the Apartment Bombs Episode 5: The Investigator “As Putin’s power grows, American journalist Scott Anderson returns to the story of the 1999 apartment bombings. Only one man will speak to him: Mikhail Trepashkin. Once KGB, then FSB, Trepashkin used to believe fiercely in the system he served. Now, drawn into the mystery surrounding the bombings, he follows the evidence into the shadows where police sketches don’t match suspects, allies end up dead and the cost of digging deeper into the FSB’s activities keeps rising. In this episode, Helena speaks to Scott about the investigator turned whistleblower who refused to give up.” After Trepashkin tried to alert Yeltsin, he was sacked from the KGB and so he used his skills as a lawyer to work on an independent enquiry set up by MPs and represented one of the victims. However, on the case reaching court he found that the files had been cleaned out. The committee dissolved when commissioners began being poisoned. It’s not good to be an opponent of Putin.

The History of Singapore Episode 3: The 99% When the British East India Company set up a trading point in Singapore in 1891, there were only about 1000 people on the island. After the signing there was an influx of Bugis from Indonesia, attracted to Singapore as a port city. Trade and piracy were two sides of the same coin: it would be ‘trade’ if conditions were good or ‘piracy’ if conditions were bad. Singapore soon became the Port Royal of the East Indies, as alcohol, drugs (especially opium) and coolie labour replacing piracy as a source of wealth. Coolie labour from China brought many dialect-speaking Chinese to Singapore, and by 1900 three-quarters of the Chinese population were dialect speakers. The Bugis were exploited and oppressed by the British, while Indian immigrants, mostly from South India, moved into the merchant and money changing professions where they largely allied themselves with the British- the 1%. The British were happy to be hands-off, and the Chinese secret societies moved into the vacuum, keeping control of their members and clashing with other secret societies. Singapore became a Crown Colony in 1867, with a governor, executive council and legislative council. In 1877 the British government imposed the Chinese Protectorate to control the Chinese community, and it suppressed most of the secret societies. Voluntary associations arose, often linked by family, occupational and professional networks. In 1889 the Chinese Advisory Board was appointed to report to the governor, and merchants with status and wealth competed for influence. In 1906 the Chinese Chamber of Commerce was formed, and it became a form of Chinese parliament. After WW2 politics continued to draw on this ‘association’ model.

The Rest is History Episode 649 The Fall of the Incas: The Last Emperor (Part 6) By now Manco had fled, Almagro was in the highlands of Cusco and Francisco Pizarro was still in Lima. Almagro left Cusco to meet with Pizarro and to set up his own coastal town. Almagro released Hernando Pizarro who had been taken hostage, and Hernando began gathering his forces for the Battle of Las Salinas, where Spaniard fought Spaniard. Almagro was defeated and executed, leaving Pizarro triumphant and now free to go after Manco. But it wasn’t the end of Almagro because his son vowed vengeance and went to kill Francisco Pizarro in Lima, leaving Gonzalo Pizarro to defend the family honour against the second generation Almagro. By now Charles V back in Spain was becoming uncomfortable with all the killing, and sent out de Castro to sort it out and take power in his own right if necessary. Almagro Jnr. was killed by Spanish forces, and his supporters slunk off to find refuge with Manco. But as might be expected, these Almagro supporters turned on Manco and killed him, and were in turn killed by Manco’s soldiers. Meanwhile Gonzalo Pizarro was executed by the King’s representatives. This left just Hernando Pizarro back in Spain, who was imprisoned for years and died of old age. Meanwhile, Phillip II in Spain offered Manco’s descendants a sort of autonomous Neo-Inca state, but that wasn’t going to last and finally in 1572 the last emperor Túpac Amaru was executed. Was it a genocide? Not completely unexpectedly, Dominic Sandbrook and Tom Holland say ‘no’ arguing that disease killed many people in a country that had already ravaged by the Civil War between competing Inca emperors. There was a collapse in the birthrate, and a cultural collapse in the face of colonialization.

The History Bureau Putin and the Apartment Bombs: 4 The Poisoning We then jump forward to 2002 and a press conference held by Russian oligarch and former Putin ally Boris Berezovsky. At this press conference Berezovsky asserted that the bombings were an inside job. Amongst the audience was Alexander Litvinenko, whose own investigation into the bombings set him on a perilous collision course with the Kremlin. A former FSB member, he was charged with surveilling Berezovsky but when ordered to kill him, he told both Berezovsky and Putin about the order to kill him, hoping that Putin would clean up the FSB but Putin did nothing. Litvinenko was now a marked man, and was imprisoned on various charges before escaping to England, where he published a book. In 2006 Litvinenko was poisoned, dying a very public death in an English hospital. Later Berezovsky was killed too, found dead with injuries consistent with hanging but no visible signs of struggle. The episode features Jeremy Vine and Gordon Corera, two journalists who followed the story from the UK – and Gordon Corera is now one of the presenters of ‘The Rest is Classified’.

The Wargame. Another podcast that warns of the dangers of Russia. Hack and Leak: The Grey Zone Episode 3 This episode looks at the grey zone weapon of hacking information – like private emails or documents – and then leaking it online to try to influence people or damage reputations. It is a tactic Russia’s military intelligence agency, the GRU, is accused of using to target the US presidential election in 2016 and the French election in 2017. Moscow has denied involvement. The episode interviews Chris Donnelly, the founder of the Institute for Statecraft, an organization established to investigate Russian hacks, which found itself under a hack attack. Both United Kingdom and Crimea have experienced the Grey Zone mixture of hacking, disinformation and hard military power. The episode raises questions about journalistic ethics when material is gained through hacking.

The History of Singapore. I was recently in Singapore and curious about the hiatus I noted between the end of WW2 and the ‘Asian Tiger’ era in the museum displays I saw. I found this podcast series presented by P.J. Thum a Singaporean historian, journalist, podcaster, activist and former swimmer who has fallen foul of the Singaporean government- so perhaps something to bear in mind. This podcast series was released in 2015, the 50-year anniversary of Singapore’s separation from Malaysia.

In Episode 1: Introduction and Origins he starts in 1946 with the partition of Malaysia in 1946, at a time of heightened anti-Communist feeling. Compared with the experience in India with partition, this was seen more as a union of Malaysian states, rather than a separation, with the union of 11 of the 12 Malaysian states into one central state under British rule. Under the legislation, all Malaysian-born people were counted as Malaysian, but the Malays were very uneasy that if multi-cultural Singapore was included, the Malays would be outnumbered. In Episode 2: Government of the People and by the People Thum asks where ideas of ‘democracy’ came from, arguing that they were much older than the 1965 Independence of Singapore. He traces it back to 1819 when Raffles, as representative of the East India Company, signed a treaty with the muslim rulers to make Singapore a trading post. (Actually it never occurred to me before that the East India Company would even be involved in Singapore. Wrong.) Raffles had a fairly radical vision, wanting to make Singapore an educational and cultural centre prized for intellectual achievement and moral probity. However Farquhar, the first Resident realized that the colony had to make money, and so the moral probity went out the window when he allowed prostitution and gambling to boost the colony’s income. He was happy to acquiesce in the traditional feudal model, rather than Raffles’ modernization. When Raffles returned, he formally banned slavery, although it was poorly enforced and largely replaced by debt bondage, and he introduced magistrates and trial by jury. Crawfurd was the 2nd Resident, and he got rid of trial by jury and took a laissez-faire approach. Between 1826 – 1867 Singapore was ruled by the East India Company from Calcutta, which governed as cheaply as possible while demanding reports and statistics. The quality of governors varied: when they were incompetent, the demands for self-determination increased amongst the merchants, but if the governor was good, the merchants were happy to go along with things. Legislation passed from Calcutta applied to the whole of their territories, e.g. a ban on a tax on pork, or the rumours that jails would be cleared in all EIC territories to house the Indian Mutineers. By 1867 Singapore wanted to be a Crown Colony. Its population was 65% Chinese, with Dutch East Indies, Bugis and Indian minorities as well as a small Arab, Armenian and Jewish population. As a Crown Colony, it was light touch government, with an emphasis on self-help and independent organizations.