The way the British wormed their way into Brunei is a story worth telling. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
This was the first stamp issue of Brunei. There were none issued before British protectorate status. It is still a well printed stamp showing a peaceful river scene. The British colonials using this stamp to communicate with home, were well served.
The stamp today is issue A1, a 1 cent stamp issued by the Sultanate of Brunei in 1926. This stamp, in various colors and denominations was issued for 30 years from 1907-1937. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $1.25 mint. The stamp to look out for in this long running set is the black and red $25 version. It is worth $1200 used. There exists mistakes with inverted watermarks that can be worth as much as 5 times this.
Brunei was an ancient empire that once controlled much of the island of Borneo and even the Philippines. The Philippines was lost to the Spanish who then came to conquer Brunei. The Spanish occupation was short lived as much of their force fell to malaria. This allowed the Sultan to return to power.
The British encroachment began when a British adventurer named Brooke was given the territory of Sarawak after assisting the Sultan in a rebellion. After that he was constantly pressuring Brunei to yield more land to his white rajah area. See also https://the-philatelist.com/2018/02/21/the-last-white-rajah-of-sarawak-much-to-the-annoyance-of-many/. The Sultan asked for help from Britain in containing the Brooke dynasty in Sarawak. Britain agreed to protectorate status in which it would maintain Brunei’s current borders from outsiders. A few years later, Sarawak took another chunk of land and Britain did nothing to help Brunei, as they did not consider Sarawak a foreign entity. Brunei today is a very small territory, a small fraction of it’s once great empire.
The time of this stamp was before the discovery of oil. The then Sultan, Muhammad Jamalul Alam Aquamadin was the last of the Sultans to lack a western education. He was a devout Muslim who built a Mosque and had Mohammaddan, (Islamic) law codified. Later in his reign a British resident was awarded executive powers that had previously been with the Sultan. The Sultan died of malaria at age 35.
Oil was discovered in 1929. This was after 2 British men smelled it and thought it was worth a survey and test wells. The oil has made Brunei quite rich and the current sultan is one of the richest people in the world. The descendants of the Brookes are not as wealthy and Sarawak was absorbed by Malaysia upon independence from Great Britain. British protectorate status ended in 1984 for Brunei although there is still much military cooperation.
Well my drink is empty and so I will open the discussion in the below comment section. One can see how the colonials in this type of place can be viewed as interlopers but it is hard to imagine such a place functioning in the modern world without the interference. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.