The story of Penang would be incomplete without the Big Five Hokkien families – the Khoo, the Cheah, the Yeoh, the Lim, and the Tan. It was the Big Five who played a preponderant role not only in transforming Penang into a regional entrepot and a business and financial base, but also in reconfiguring maritime trading patterns and the business orientation of the region in the nineteenth century. Departing from the colonial vantage point, this book examines a web of transnational, hybrid and fluid networks of the Big Five comprising of family relationship, sworn brotherhood, political alliance and business partnerships, which linked Penang and its surrounding states together to form one economically unified geographical region, having inextricable links to China and India.