Trade and Empire in Early Nineteenth-Century Southeast Asia

Gillian MacLaine and His Business Network
Erscheinungsjahr 2015
ISBN: 978-1-78327-069-9
Verlag: Boydell & Brewer

Buch, Englisch, Band 11, 208 Seiten, Print PDF, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 472 g

Reihe: Worlds of the East India Company

Discusses the complexities of a trading network in this period, outling commodity chains, links between colonies and colonial centres, and tensions between local polities and competing empires.

This book explores European mercantile activity in Southeast Asia at a time when trade in this part of the world was being transformed and extended much more widely. Based on extensive original research including in newly discovered archives, the book reveals, through the study of one particular merchant and his extensive network, how trade in the region worked. It outlines the activities of Gillian Maclaine, a young Scottish "adventurer" (his word) who came to the region in about 1816 and established an enduring business in Batavia (present day Jakarta), trading in cotton goods and coffee, and later in opium. It examines the multi-faceted nature of such a trading network, including the wide scope of commodity chains, the associated link between colony and colonial metropole, and the many tensions between colonial powers, in this case the Dutch and the British, and with local polities. The book demonstratesthat Southeast Asian maritime trade was every bit as important to European worldwide commercial networks as the trade with India and China, which have been much more extensively studied, and it contributes to current scholarly debates about western imperialism, colonialism and the nature of empire.

G. Roger Knight is an Associate Professor in the School of History and Politics in the University of Adelaide. He has published three previous books and numerous journal articles on the economic and social history of Southeast Asia.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Knight, G Roger

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Europäische Geschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Kolonialgeschichte, Geschichte des Imperialismus
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Asiatische Geschichte
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Wirtschaftswissenschaften Wirtschaftsgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Wirtschaftsgeschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

INTRODUCTION: A SCOTS ÉMIGRÉ, IMPERIAL SYSTEMS AND GLOBAL COMMODITIES
MACLAINE'S 'APPRENTICESHIP': THE CITY OF LONDON AND THE COTTON TRADE WITH ASIA, 1816-1820
A 'SCOTCH ADVENTURER': BATAVIA, COFFEE AND COLONIAL WARS, 1820-1827
THE PIVOTAL YEARS: 'MACLAINE WATSON', TREACHEROUS CHAINS, SICKNESS AND DEBT, 1827-1832
THE NETWORK TAKES SHAPE: CONNECTIONS, BUSINESS AND ASSOCIATES, 1832-1840
CONCLUSION: MACLAINE'S LEGACY, COMMODITIES AND TRADE ON A COLONIAL 'PERIPHERY', 1840-1964
Bibliography

Über Autor(innen)

G. Roger Knight is an Associate Professor in the School of History and Politics in the University of Adelaide. He has published three previous books and numerous journal articles on the economic and social history of Southeast Asia.