Yap Ah Loy asked the Selangor Government to be his guarantor (1876)

Klang, 31 May 1876

In consequence of the failure of the firm of Messrs. Keng Yong Brothers of Singapore, I am quite unable to make arrangements for supplies of food and other necessaries for my miners in all about 10,000 men and I am sorry to inform you that unless I receive immediate assistance from the Salangore Government as represented by you, I shall be unable to carry on the work of mines.

I believe that Messrs. Guthrie & Co. would make shipments to me against my tin if they had some guarantee from the Government and I must therefore request you will as early as possible make an arrangement with that firm to allow me to have a credit of $10,000 on the following terms.

1. All supplies for my mines in Salangore to be obtained through Messrs. Guthrie & Co.: they charging 5% commission.
2. All tin from my mines to be to Messrs. Guthrie & Co. for sale, they charging me 3%.
3. 12% to be charged by Messrs. Guthrie & Co. on my debit balances.
4. The guarantee to stand for 12 months from the 1st of June 1876.

And in consideration of your granting to Messrs. Guthrie & Co. the said guarantee for $10,000 for 12 months, I hereby give to the Salangore Government an absolute lien on all my house property in Salangore on all my mines in Salangore and on the tin produce of the said mines to the extent of $10,000 on such amount as shall be owing to said firm of Messrs. Guthrie & Co. on the 31st of May 1877, or sooner in the event of the failure on my part of the conditions herein expressed.

I have the honor to be, Sir

Your most obedient servant

Yap Tet Loy

1. We assume that this letter (1957/0000129W) was signed by Yap Ah Loy himself. Note that the name was rendered as 葉德來 (Yap Tek Loy, Surname = 葉, Generation name = 德, Given name = 來). It is not known why Yap's name was crossed out in the letter.
   The company referenced by Yap was owned by Lee Keng Yong and Brothers. The Lee brothers are: Lee Keng Yam (b. 1842, d. 1888), Lee Keng Yong, Lee Keng Kiat (b. 1851, d. 1917), Lee Keng Liat, and Lee Sek Long. The father of the Lee brothers was Lee Quee Lim 李桂林 (b. 1824, d. 1890, of Malacca) and their grandfather was Lee Chan Bee 李讚美 (b. 1801, d. 1849), and their great grandfather was Lee Kan. The Lee family was rather prominent in Melaka, for instance, Lee Keng Kiat's son, Lee Chim Huk (b. 1889, d. 1958), was married to Tan Guat Poh (b. 1890, d. 1982, Tan Cheng Lock's sister). Another son of Lee Keng Kiat, Lee Chim Tuan (b. 1880, d. 1955) was a very successful entrepreneur in Singapore. One of his business was to supply labourers to Asiatic Petroleum Company (APC) in Pulau Bukom and Pulau Samboe. APC was later renamed Shell.
   
   
2. The amount can balloon to about $14,000 in 1879, and to about $28,000 in 1885 if it was not repaid. One way to settle the debt was by undertaking infrastructure and construction projects. On 18 February 1879 (1957/0000779W), Yap Ah Loy was given a contract to complete the last section (about 20% of the total length of the road) of the Damansara-Kuala Lumpur road (from Anak Ayer Batu, present-day University of Malaya area, to Market Street, via Brickfields). For this construction (\(4\frac{41}{8000}\) miles of road), he was paid $5,429.40. Assuming that Yap was compensated in a similar fashion for the earlier construction works, the amount paid by the Selangor Government to Yap was estimated to be about $25,000. We want to point out that Yap was paid $1,300 per mile although Clause 9 in his contract says $3,000 per mile.
   
   Damansara is a reference to Kuala Damansara, present-day Shah Alam uptown area (Section 23 and Section 24). Present day Damansara is technically Ulu Damansara.