Silk-weaving is an industry. The value of exports and imports in 1926 was respectively $12,518,719 and $5,682,902. Principal ex ports are rubber, copra, rice, fish and cattle ; chief imports are cotton goods, hardware, tobacco, kerosene oil, spirits, sugar and matches. The currency is of the Straits Settlements. The revenue in 1926 was $2,371,595 and the expenditure $1,927,134. The ex ternal debt amounts to $4,400,684.
By virtue of a mutual agreement made in 1902 Siam appointed a resident commissioner to Kelantan and consented, so long as the advice of that officer should be followed, to leave internal affairs to be conducted locally. Under this arrangement a council of state was appointed, departments of government were organized, penal, civil and revenue laws were passed and enforced, courts were established and a police force was raised. Though formerly of an evil reputation, the people are peaceful and law-abiding, and serious crime is rare. The state is divided into mukim or parishes, but the imam no longer exercise temporal authority There are schools at Kota Baharu and elsewhere in the interior.
Like Trengganu, Kelantan is said to have been subject to Palem bang (the great Buddhist kingdom Sri Vijaya) in the 13th and under the Javanese Majapahit in the 14th century. The rulers of old Malacca conquered it, carrying off princesses with non-Ma layan titles. It is found on Portuguese maps and on Dutch The sites of ancient towns and the remains of former gold diggings are visible here and there, but all knowledge of the men who made these marks has been lost. The present ruling family•dates from about 1790. Siam was frequently called upon to maintain internal peace and in 1892 a royal prince was sent to reside in Kelantan as commissioner. Complications brought about by the incapacity of the ruler led to the making of the agreement of 1902, to the fixing of a regular tribute in money to Siam, and ultimately to the lifting of the state from chaotic lawlessness into the path of re form. On July 15, 1909 the state came under British suzerainty and the commissioner of Siam was replaced by a British adviser. Trengganu.—This state on the east coast bounded north and north-east by the China sea, south by Pahang and west by Pahang and Kelantan, lies between parallels 4° 4' and 4° 46' N. and 102° 30' and 103° 26' E. The greatest length from north to south is 120 m., and the greatest breadth from east to west 5o m. It has a coast-line of 130 m. and an estimated area of about 6,000 sq.m. There are several islands off the coast, some of which are in habited. The surface is generally mountainous.
Principal rivers are the Besut, Stiu, Trengganu, Dungun and Kemaman, none of which is navigable for any distance. The climate is mild and fairly healthy. The population estimate (1932) 180,797, almost all Malays, are mostly clusters round the mouths and lower reaches of the rivers. The capital, which is situated at
the mouth of the Trengganu river, contains 13,953 people. Diffi culty of access by river and by land renders the interior almost un inhabitable. Communication is maintained by boat along the coast. There are no roads and no internal postal or telegraphic communications.
Most of the people are rice-planters, nearly io,000 are fisher men. The chief exports are rubber, tin, dried fish, copra, silk sarongs, haematite, wolfram, gambier and areca-nuts. Silk-weaving, carried on by the women, is a considerable industry. The silk is imported raw and is re-exported in the form of Malay clothing (sarongs) of patterns and quality which are widely celebrated.
The manufacture of native weapons and of brassware was at one time brisk but is declining. The trade of Trengganu is increasing.
Its total value in 1926 was $13,967,951. The more important im ports from Singapore are rice, cotton and silk fabrics, tobacco and cigarettes, sugar, tinned milk, petroleum and machinery.
The Buddhist monk, Chao Ju Kua, writing about A.D. 1225 says that like Kedah, Kelantan and Pahang, Trengganu was subject to the Sumatran Buddhist kingdom, Palembang, Javanese records of the 14th century A.D. mention it as conquered by Majapahit. In later centuries Malacca and Siam disputed its possession. An in scribed stone now in Raffles museum, Singapore, shows that Islam had penetrated the state early in the 14th century. The royal house is descended from the father of the non-royal Bendahara who became sultan of Johore of ter the murder of the last descend ant of the old Malacca royal family in 1699. In 1720 the Bugis sacked the capital. Until the acquisition of the state by Great Britain a triennial tribute of gold flowers was paid to Siam, and this with occasional letters of instructions and advice, constituted almost the only evidence of Siamese suzerainty. Of government there was practically none. The revenues were devoured by the rajas. There were no written laws, no courts and no police. Crime was rampant, the peasantry was mercilessly downtrodden, but the land was full of holy men and the cries of the miserable were drowned in the noise of ostentatious prayer. Trengganu presented in 1909 the type of untrammelled Malay rule which had dis appeared from every other state in the peninsula In that year, however, the first British agent arrived in the state, which was shortly afterwards visited by the governor of the Straits Settle ments, who discussed with the sultan the changed conditions con sequent upon the Anglo-Siamese treaty and laid the foundations of future reform. In 1919 the agent was replaced by an adviser whose advice must be followed in all questions other than those touching the Mohammedan religion.