Is it a blessing for a country to be rich in resources... or is it a curse?

When John Crawfurd discovered antimony in the Singapore market, it kickstarted an antimony boom in Sarawak years before the arrival of James Brooke. This increase in trade forever changed the economic, political and social landscape of the Country.

"My experience here enables me to affirm, from the distracted state of the governmnet and the depression of the people, that trade, instead of being a blessing, is a curse ; and that the richer a country is, and the greater the demand by European vessels for any staple, commodity, the more wretched are the inhabitants, and the more rapacious the chiefs, who drive the people to unrequited labour, as long as there is any demand, to the neglect of their agricultural pursuits, on which they depend for food. The chief grows rich ; but the people are abjectly poor ; and the country is ruined, by the desertion or rebellion of its inhabitants."

James Brooke