Bengal with a local government, of which Raffles was, in 1818, the titular head.
As to Penang, it is interesting to remember that the founder, Francis Light, had recommended the occupation of that island (in 1786) on the ground that it would form a useful port of call for British vessels trading to China and the Further East, a forecast which has teen amply justified by events.
Raffles, however, was far from satisfied. He had been Secretary to the Government of Penang, Resident Councillor of Malacca, and he held the post of Lieutenant-Governor of Bencoolen; but he realized that from none of these places was it possible to exert an influence that could stay the progress of Dutch expansion, which threatened to monopolize the trade of the Archipelago. Raffles, better than any other, knew the value of the island trade; for, in addition to his other experiences, he had been Lieutenant-Governor of Java and its dependencies during the whole period (1811-1816) that those places had been under British rule. With his extraordinary prescience, he doubtless foresaw the immense development of which these countries were capable, and probably he alone was fully alive to the feet that the door of commerce was rapidly closing, and would soon be shut in the face of the British trader. Neither Bencoolen, nor Penang, nor Malacca possessed the possibilities of successful competition. They were inconveniently situated, and they were not capable of either drawing the trade of the surrounding islands and continents, or of affording accommodation to the shipping, which alone could carry the trade when fairly developed. The position of Singapore, at the very gate of the Further East, in the narrow waters which divide the Straits of Malacca from the China Sea, fulfilled all the conditions. Raffles visited the place, realized its manifold advantages, immediate and prospective, and at once took steps to arrange with the Malay owners for its acquisition. The Dutch had already marked Singapore for their own; but, while they were thinking, Raffles
