China Firm - American Elites and the Making of British Colonial Society

Thomas M. Larkin examines the Hong Kong-based Augustine Heard & Company, the most prominent American trading firm in treaty-port China, to explore the ways American elites at once made and were made by British colonial society.

List of contents

Acknowledgments
Note on Translation and Currencies
List of Abbreviations
Glossary of People
Glossary of Terms
Introduction: An American Firm, a British Colony, and a Global Microhistory
1. A Very Profitable Crisis: Canton’s American Merchants on the Eve of the First Opium War
2. A House Is Not a Home: The American Merchant House in Hong Kong
3. Lives Lived in Public: American Encounters with British Colonial Society
4. Missed Opportunities: Balancing Metropolitan Politics and Private Interests in China
5. Friends Near and Far: Creating and Maintaining Global Networks Through Hong Kong
6. Wealth or Expertise: The Social and Professional Paths of Returned American Merchants
Conclusion: Lives of Consequence
Notes
Bibliography
Index

About the author

Thomas M. Larkin is assistant professor of the history of the United States of America and the world at the University of Prince Edward Island.

Summary

Thomas M. Larkin examines the Hong Kong–based Augustine Heard & Company, the most prominent American trading firm in treaty-port China, to explore the ways American elites at once made and were made by British colonial society.

Product details

• Authors: Thomas Larkin
• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 09.02.2024
• EAN: 9780231210669
• ISBN: 978-0-231-21066-9
• No. of pages: 336
• Series: A Nancy Bernkopf Tucker and Warren I. Cohen Book on American–East Asian Relations
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > General, dictionaries; Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous; USA, China, Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900, British Empire, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Colonialism & Post-Colonialism, HISTORY / Asia / China, c 1800 to c 1900, 19th century, c 1800 to c 1899, United States of America, USA, Asian History, National liberation & independence, post-colonialism, Decolonisation and postcolonial studies, history; business & economics