Singapore was brought into existence to grasp the opportunities of trade, and its economic development has remained intimately bound up with trade expansion. For 1870 to 1939, Singapore's trade is shown in broad outline by figures 2.1 and 2.2 and appendix tables A.1 and A.2. Table 2.1 gives export growth rates derived from a constant pound sterling series and indicates annual average growth of 3·4% between 1870 and 1937. Over these seven decades, three growth phases can be identified. The first, lasting until 1900, was one of a high, sustained increase in exports. In a second phase between 1900 and 1909, both the value and volume of exports remained relatively stable. The final phase, dominated by rubber, stood apart from Singapore's earlier experience in the magnitude of increase in export value and the sharp short-term fluctuations. There were further large increases in export volume.

Data for 1870–1900 suggest apparently contradictory movements in the value and volume of exports from the late 1880s. Export growth, when expressed in constant pounds sterling, slowed considerably between 1889 and 1900 (table 2.1). However, this slowing in export growth reflected a 36% fall in the (silver-based) Straits dollar against the British pound sterling. Figures for the volume of exports give a better indication of Singapore's late nineteenth-century trade expansion. Volume growth concentrated in the decade beginning in 1886, when tin exports quadrupled from 8,100 tons to 32,900 tons and exports of tropical produce increased from 142,500 tons to 252,300 tons.