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Genre/Form: | Electronic books History |
---|---|
Additional Physical Format: | Print version: |
Material Type: | Document, Internet resource |
Document Type: | Internet Resource, Computer File |
All Authors / Contributors: |
Susan E Schopp; Paul Arthur Van Dyke |
ISBN: | 9789888455171 9888455176 |
OCLC Number: | 1122904481 |
Description: | 1 online resource (1 PDF (xxi, 183 pages)) : illustrations |
Contents: | Preface / Paul A. Van Dyke -- Introduction / Paul A. Van Dyke and John E. Wills Jr. -- British private traders between India and China / Jessica Hanser -- Ambiguous faces of the Canton trade : Moors, Greeks, Armenians, Parsees, Jews, and Southeast Asians / Paul A. Van Dyke -- French private trade at Canton, 1698-1833 / Susan E. Schopp -- Trading with traders : the wonders of Cantonese shopkeepers / Maria Kar-wing Mok -- The private eye in Old Canton : questions and agendas for discussion / John E. Wills Jr. -- Nathan Dunn (1782-1844) as anti-opium China trader and Sino-Western cultural intermediary / Jonathan Goldstein -- The life and loves of Michael Grubb : A Swedish trader in eighteenth-century Canton and Macao / Lisa Hellman -- 'Money, credit, and strong friends' : Warren Delano II and the importance of social networking in the Old China trade / Thomas H. Cox -- Conclusion / Paul A. Van Dyke. |
Responsibility: | edited by Paul A. Van Dyke and Susan E. Schopp. |
Abstract:
It is not often recognized that China was one of the few places in the early modern world where all merchants had equal access to the market. This study shows that private traders, regardless of the volume of their trade, were granted the same privileges in Canton as the large East India companies. All of these companies relied, to some extent, on private capital to finance their operations. Without the investments from individuals, the trade with China would have been greatly hindered. Competitors, large and small, traded alongside each other while enemies traded alongside enemies. Buddhists, Muslims, Catholics, Protestants, Parsees, Armenians, Hindus, and others lived and worked within the small area in the western suburbs of Canton designated for foreigners. Cantonese shopkeepers were not allowed to discriminate against any foreign traders. In fact, the shopkeepers were generally working in a competitive environment, providing customer-oriented service that generated goodwill, friendship, and trust. These contributed to the growth of the trade as a whole. While many private traders were involved in smuggling opium, others, such as Nathan Dunn, were much opposed to it. The case studies in this volume demonstrate that fortunes could be made in China by trading in legitimate items just as successfully as in illegitimate ones, which tellingly suggests that the rapid spread of opium smuggling in China could be a result of inadequate, rather than excessive, regulation by the Qing government.
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Related Subjects:(9)
- China -- Foreign economic relations.
- China -- Commerce -- History -- 19th century.
- China -- Commerce -- History -- 18th century.
- Guangzhou (China) -- Commerce -- History -- 19th century.
- Guangzhou (China) -- Commerce -- History -- 18th century.
- Commerce.
- International economic relations.
- China.
- China -- Guangzhou.