In 1786 the British East India Company occupied Penang, and in 1819 they founded Singapore. Soon the British displaced the Dutch and Portuguese as the main Western economic and political influence in Siam. The British objected to the Siamese economic system, in which trading monopolies were held by royal princes and businesses were subject to arbitrary taxation. In 1821, the East India Company's Lord Hastings, then Governor-General of India, sent company agent John Crawfurd on a mission to negotiate a new trade agreement with Siam — the first sign of an issue which was to dominate 19th century Siamese politics.