Historedia
Episode 1 of 2

Negotiation with the Sultan

When
1786
Where
Kedah Sultanate
Part of
Acquisition of Penang by the British East India Company

Light negotiated the transfer of Penang Island from the Sultan of Kedah in exchange for military aid and an annual payment.

Sultan Abdullah Mukarram Shah agreed to hand over Penang to the British in return for military assistance. The lease was set at 6,000 Spanish dollars per annum. Light conducted these negotiations without the prior consent of his superiors in India.

Sources

  1. Penang Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-18
  2. Francis Light Wikipedia, revision of 2026-08-05
  3. Kedah Sultanate Wikipedia

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.