From jacket flap:
In a sequel to his earlier work, Early Indonesian Commerce, Professor Wolters discusses the continuity of Malay history. Using two different types of source material, he investigates what happened to the maritime Malays in the second half of the 14th century, when the great Sumatran Malay empire of Srivijaya is supposed to have collapsed, and the rise of the empire of Malacca on the Malay Peninsula was about to begin.
Professor Wolters notes that the Chinese sources, studied within their own context, indicate that restoration of the Sino-Malay tributary relationship (after a lapse of two centuries) was paving the way for the revival of Srivijaya. The Malay source material, comprising the early chapters of the Malay Annals, gives a view of early Malay history that validates the transmission of sovereignty from the ancient kingdom of Srivijaya to Malacca.
About the Srivijaya empire (from Wikipedia):
Srivijaya was a dominant thalassocratic Malay city-state based on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia, which influenced much of Southeast Asia. Srivijaya was an important centre for the expansion of Buddhism from the 8th to the 12th century. Srivijaya was the first unified kingdom to dominate much of Malay archipelago. In Sanskrit, śrī means “fortunate”, “prosperous”, or “happy” and vijaya means “victorious” or “excellence”.
The earliest reference to it dates from the 7th century. A Tang Chinese monk, Yijing, wrote that he visited Srivijaya in 671 for six months. The earliest known inscription in which the name Srivijaya appears also dates from the 7th century in the Kedukan Bukit inscription found near Palembang, Sumatra, dated 16 June 682. Between the late 7th and early 11th century, Srivijaya rose to become a hegemon in Southeast Asia. It was involved in close interactions, often rivalries, with the neighbouring Java, Kambuja and Champa. Srivijaya’s main foreign interest was nurturing lucrative trade agreements with China which lasted from the Tang to the Song dynasty. Srivijaya had religious, cultural and trade links with the Buddhist Pala of Bengal, as well as with the Islamic Caliphate in the Middle East.