Perak Coast

The Perak coast lies on the Strait of Malacca, where the Perak River reaches the sea from the tin-bearing country inland. Tin made the river mouth an object of competition among merchants and rulers. In the seventeenth century the Dutch East India Company sought a monopoly over Perak's output; a later agreement permitted a Dutch trading post near Tanjung Putus at the river's mouth. Access to the river linked the coast to the mines upstream.