The Canton trade:life and enterprise on the China coast, 1700-1845

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其他題名:Life and enterprise on the China coast, 1700-1845

作者:Paul A. Van Dyke

出版年:2005

出版社:Hong Kong University Press

出版地:Hong Kong

格式:PDF,JPG

頁數:338

ISBN:9789622097490; 9789622098282

EISBN:9789888052844 EPUB

分類:歷史  英文書  

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This study utilizes a wide range of new source materials to reconstruct the day-to-day operations of the port of Canton during the eighteenth and first half of the nineteenth centuries. Using a bottom-up approach, it provides a fresh look at the successes and failures of the trade by focusing on the practices and procedures rather than on the official policies and protocols. The narrative, however, reads like a story as the author unravels the daily lives of all the players from sampan operators, pilots, compradors and linguists, to country traders, supercargoes, Hong merchants and customs officials. New areas to studies of this kind are covered as well, such as Armenians, junk traders and rice traders, all of whom played intricate roles in moving the commerce forward. The Canton Trade shows that contrary to popular belief, the trade was stable, predictable and secure, with many incentives built into the policies to encourage it to grow. The huge expansion of trade was, in fact, one of the factors that contributed to its collapse as the increase in revenues blinded government officials to the long-term deterioration of the lower administrative echelons. In the end, the system was toppled, but that happened mainly because it had already defeated itself. General readers and academicians interested in world and Asian history, trading companies, country trade, Hong merchants, and articles of trade will find much new and relevant information here.

Paul A. Van Dyke is professor of history at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou. He has spent many years researching various aspects of life, trade, and societies in the Pearl River Delta and Maritime Asia.

  • List of Tables
  • List of Abbreviations
  • Map of the Pearl River Delta
  • Preface
  • Acknowledgements
  • INTRODUCTION China Opens Its Doors to the World
  • CHAPTER ONE Forging the Canton System
  • CHAPTER TWO Canton Customs Procedures
  • CHAPTER THREE Piloting the Pearl River
  • CHAPTER FOUR Compradors and The Provisions Trade
  • CHAPTER FIVE Linguists
  • CHAPTER SIX Administrative Initiatives and Shortcomings
  • CHAPTER SEVEN Flag Boats, Silver, Contraband and Rice
  • CHAPTER EIGHT Macao Trade, Junk Trade, Capital Market and Commission Merchants
  • CHAPTER NINE The Canton Trade in Retrospect
  • CONCLUSION The Root of the Problem
  • Notes
  • Bibliography
  • Index