Orchad Road is the commercial main street of the city. Modern Singapore is truly a Western creation. During centuries, the island was populated by fishermen and pirates. In 1819, sir Stamford Raffles (1781-1826), a person in charge of the Brittanic Company of the Eastern Indies persuaded the sovereign of the Malayan State of Johore to concede to Great Britain the use of the island and of his port to make a trading post of it. It became then a significant center of export of wood and rubber and its population increased considerably with the arrival in mass of Chinese merchants and workmen.