Other European powers, particularly the UK, recognized the potential value of malaya, which produced gold, pepper, and also the tin that the british need to make tea tins for their chinese tea exports. Malayan sultans welcomed British interest, hoping to stave off Siamese expansion down the peninsula. In 1824, the Anglo-Dutch Treaty gave the British East India Company exclusive economic control over Malaya; the british crown took direct control in 1857 after the Indian Uprising