Singapore: a 700-Year History: From Early Emporium to World City
Kwa Chong Guan, Derek Heng & Tan Tai Yong
Singapore: National Archives of Singapore, 2009
ISBN: 9789810830502

Ever wondered if Singapore was indeed a "sleepy fishing village" prior to Raffles' famous arrival in 1819? Did we really not have an economically-viable trading port during the pre-colonial times? How then is this possible conjecture of Singapore being a thriving emporium pre-1819 being juxtaposed and/or correlated to our present day context of being a global city?

These are the questions that the authors of Singapore: a 700-Year History - From Early Emporium to World City aim to address. With new archaeological evidence recovered since 1983 and more systematic search of the Dutch, Portuguese and to a lesser extent, the Spanish archives, a more long-sighted view of Singapore's past is made visible through the facts presented in the book. 700-Year History seeks to fill the gaps of much of Singapore's pre-1819 history with the indisputable evidence that Singapore actually enjoyed prosperity in an earlier cycle of globalised trade underpinned by the Yuan and Ming dynasties. Even  for the post-1819 period, the coherent and continuous narrative in the book offers new insights and interpretations.

The book is an attempt at providing a historical basis for thinking of Singapore's experiences, not just in the past, but also in the present and the future. 700 years of history, with each period providing its respective significance on the emergence of our World City, have finally been compiled into an enriching and informative readable joy.