Export of iron from SE Asia

[Jim McDougall]

Hi Jens,
I think this is an outstanding question, and I cannot recall any references that would suggest export of such raw materials from these regions. As you have noted, the smelted ingots of metal from Sri Lanka and India are well known in history as sources to major sword blade centers. It seems even in ancient times the metal resources for sword blades came from these regions. I will have to search the reference, but I believe I once saw reference to 'Chinese' steel...but I would think that may refer to the Sri Lankan product which may have been transported via trade routes referred to generally as 'China'. In what is now Viet Nam, the region of Cochin was often referred to as 'Cochin China' in the 19th century, possibly earlier ( Dha guys help me out on this .

As Mark has said, it would seem that Indonesian and Malaysian regions would have relied on imports primarily for weapons production.However,the reference that Rick has posted on prehistoric iron production in Borneo might put some interesting perspective on this.

Again, I think this is a fascinating question and I hope we can get some more responses with more information.

Best regards,
Jim

[rahman]

I believe nickel-based iron was exported throughout Southeast Asia from the province of Luwu in Sulawesi. This iron was popular in Java and sumatera, as well as some parts of Malaya until the early 20th Century when European steel and scrap metal with high nickel content was used.

Pls do a search on the old forums. You'll probably find some good info there.

[empu kumis]

This could be interesting.

Bulbeck, D. and Caldwell, I. 2000. The land of iron: The historical archaeology of Luwu and the Cenrana Valley. Results of the Origin of Complex Society in South Sulawesi Project (OXIS). Hull: University of Hull Centre for South-East Asian Studies and Canberra: Australian National University School of Archaeology Anthropology.

[Jens Nordlunde]

Rahman, what you write seems to be export within the area, maybe they did not have so much iron.
I saw some where that they imported nickel from Solingen, and that this nickel should have given good results, as it was cleaner than what they could get from other places. Unfortunately I have forgotten where I saw it.

Empu kumis, have you read the book? It yes, can you tell us more about it?

Jens

[Mark]

I have found some hard information on this question in Bronson, "Patterns in the Early Southeast Asian Metals Trade," in Early Metallurgy, Trade and Urban Centres in Thailand and Southeast Asia, White Lotus, Bangkok, 1992.

Bronson has a lot to say on this subject, but to summarize, SEA generally was a very minor player in the iron business, or was virtually out of the game entirely. Island SEA was (and is) very poor in iron deposits, and never exploited in any significant way the deposits it had. Thus, all of its iron was imported from India and China (and maybe a little bit in certain periods from Thailand).

As far as continental SEA goes, Burma had the largest deposits and at times was a net exporter to nearby countries, as were Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. Burma's iron production, when it was active, was mostly supplying just its own needs. However, none of these countries never fully or consistently exploited their iron resources.

The reason that iron production was so limited in SEA was that China was a massive producer and exporter of inexpensive iron, and so there was no economic advantage to local production. Plus, China's spelting technology was more efficient and advanced than that of SEA. To the extent there was iron production in continental SEA is was essentially a very intermittant, small-scale afair for local consumption. With the establishment of European trade, Europe also became an important source for iron and steel.

Copper and tin were the big metal industries in SEA, and silver to a lesser extent.

[Mark]

I forgot -- Japan also was a significant exporter of iron to SEA.

[Andrew]

Originally Posted by Mark Bowditch

I forgot -- Japan also was a significant exporter of iron to SEA.

I'm suprised learn this, Mark. I assumed that, given the poor quality of Japanese iron "sand", and the laborious tecniques employed to make homogenous steel, that exporting iron wouldn't be a big industry. Did they export refined iron, or just ore?