Narratives of Free Trade: The Commercial Cultures of Early US-China Relations

by Kendall Johnson (Editor)

Overview

This collection of essays discusses the first commercial encounters between a China on the verge of social transformation and a fledgling United States struggling to assert itself globally as a distinct nation after the Revolutionary War with Great Britain. In early accounts of these encounters, commercial activity enabled cross-cultural curiosity, communication and even mutual respect. But it also involved confrontation as ambitious American traders pursued lucrative opportunities, often embracing British-style imperialism in the name of “free trade.” The book begins in the 1780s with the arrival in Canton of the very first American ship The Empress of China and moves through the nineteenth century, with Caleb Cushing negotiating the Treaty of Wangxia in Macao after the First Opium War and, at the century’s close, Secretary of State John Hay forging the Open Door Policy (1899). Considering Sino-American relations in their broader context, the nine essays are attuned to the activities of competing European traders, especially the British, in Canton, Macao, and the Pearl River Delta.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789888083534
Publisher:	Hong Kong University Press
Publication date:	01/11/2012
Series:	Global Connections Series
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Kendall Johnson is director of the American Studies Programme and associate professor at The University of Hong Kong.

Editorial Reviews

This is an important and necessary book emphasizing the early period of Sino-American interaction. Johnson and his authors reinterpret historical events through the lenses of narrative and literature, showing how the stories people tell about one another


“Narratives of Free Trade makes richly imaginative use of documents and images from early US-China relations. There are ledgers and logbooks from maritime trade that pilot our thinking about Company ships, trading factories and diplomacy at the port of Ca

From the Publisher

By mobilizing new and old forms of analysis... and by putting scholars of the United States and China into conversation, the book opens up new vistas for exploration and expands a field that we can expect will continue to grow for some years to come.

H-Diplo - Dael Norwood

This is an important and necessary book emphasizing the early period of Sino-American interaction. Johnson and his authors reinterpret historical events through the lenses of narrative and literature, showing how the stories people tell about one another become the first drafts of history. This book will change historians' understanding of Chinese- American relations.

James Fichter