Most people today probably don’t realise that many colonial creations were not run by European governments, but rather by commercial companies which were set up exclusively to exploit the natural resources of the overseas territories which they claimed (and often with government backing).
Many of the companies even ran their own postal services and issued their own postage stamps. In most cases the inscriptions on the stamps don’t reveal the fact that they were indeed issued by a company. Notable exceptions are the issues of the Mozambique Company and the Nyassa Company.
The British North Borneo Company was established in 1881 with the purpose of exploiting the riches (at first mainly timber) of this large territory on the island of Borneo. Today it is the state of Sabah, part of Malaysia.
Stamps were introduced in 1883 and they were first inscribed ‘NORTH BORNEO’ which was amended to ‘BRITISH NORTH BORNEO’ in 1886. The next change came in 1894 when the territory’s stamps were inscribed ‘STATE OF NORTH BORNEO’. In 1888 North Borneo was made a British protectorate but it was still run by
