This book explores imperial power and the transnational encounters of shipowners and merchants in the South China Sea from 1840 to 1930. With British Hong Kong and French Indochina on its northern and western shores, the ‘Asian Mediterranean’ was for almost a century a crucible of power and an axis of economic struggle for coastal shipping companies from various nations. Merchant steamers shipped cargoes and passengers between ports of the region. Hong Kong, the global port city, and the colonial ports of Saigon and Haiphong developed into major hubs for the flow of goods and people, while Guangzhouwan survived as an almost forgotten outpost of Indochina. While previous research in this field has largely remained within the confines of colonial history, this book uses the examples of French and German companies operating in the South China Sea to demonstrate the extent to which transnational actors and business networks interacted with imperial power and the process of globalisation.
Author(s): Bert Becker
Series: Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2021
Language: English
Pages: 499
City: Cham
Acknowledgements
Contents
Abbreviations
List of Illustrations
1 Introduction
References
2 The South China Sea in History
The Age of Commerce (1450–1680)
The Chinese Century (1740–1840)
The Early Imperialist Age (1839–61)
Anglo-French Imperialism and German Commerce (1839–60)
The Prussian Expedition to East Asia (1860/61)
References
3 Hong Kong
The German Business Community
Tramp Shipping Markets in East Asia
The M. Jebsen Shipping Company
Asian Crews and European Shipmasters
The French Business Community
Auguste Raphael Marty (1841–1914)
The Decline of the French Flag
References
4 Saigon
Cochinchina (1840–1870)
French Naval Expansion in Southern Vietnam
Traders in Saigon
Prussian Reports on Cochinchina
German Merchants in Local Politics
The Franco-German War of 1870–1871
Saigon in the War
War Aims and Peace Terms
Empress Eugenie and the Cochinchina Offer
The Debate on Cochinchina
The Navies in East Asia
High Politics and German Merchants (1875–1920s)
The Frankfurt Treaty and Its Repercussions
German Consuls in Saigon
Increasing Tensions (1875–1914)
The First World War and Its Aftermath
The Rice Industry of Cochinchina
Speidel & Company in Saigon
The Dutch Consulate
References
5 Haiphong
Tonkin and the South China Sea (1600s–1885)
The Red River Delta
The Tonkin Crisis of 1873
The Tonkin Campaign 1882/83
French Embargoes on Shipments
Establishing French Rule Over Tonkin
“Le Grand Port du Tonkin”
The Unimposing Settlement
The Port as Problem
French Colonial Port City
Chinese Merchants in Haiphong
Speidel and Company in Haiphong
Marty et d’Abbadie
The Subsidised River Shipping Service of Tonkin
Paddle Steamers
Explorations
Experiences
Railways as Competitors
Édouard Jules d’Abbadie (1853–1904)
The Tonkin Shipping Company
French Coastal Steamers in the South China Sea
Asian and European Crews
Shipping Boycotts in the South China Sea
The Boycott of 1895 and Sino-French Diplomacy
Marty and the “Chinese League of Tonkin Merchants”
The Haiphong Shipping Boycotts of 1907 and 1909–1910
Steamships and Illicit Trades
References
6 Guangzhouwan
French Politics in the South China Sea (1898–1904)
France’s Sphere of Influence in Southern China
Military Seizure and Chinese Resistance
The Distant Outpost
Naval Politics and the Defence of Indochina
Shipping and Politics
Maritime Links
The Guangzhouwan Postal Steamer Service
Guangzhouwan in German Government Records (1898–1914)
The Almost Forgotten French Territory
References
7 Conclusion
Index
