The Survival of Empire: Portuguese Trade and Society in China and the South China Sea 1630-1754

by G. B. Souza

Overview

In this original study of the Portuguese Empire in the East, the Estado da India, George Souza looks in detail at the activities of Macao. His aim is to enquire into the nature of Portuguese society in China and the South China Sea and explain why the political and economic activities of the Portuguese crown did not inhibit the growth of local entrepreneurial trade. He also examines the nature of Portuguese maritime trade in Asia and analyses the focal role of Macao as an adjunct to the Canton market. The operations of Portuguese private merchants, the so-called 'country traders', are described and tellingly assessed in the wider context of the economic development of China and Southeast Asia in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521531351
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	07/08/2004
Series:	Portuguese Trade and Society in China and the South China Se
Edition description:	Revised ed.
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	5.94(w) x 9.06(h) x 0.75(d)

Table of Contents

List of figures, maps and tables; Glossary; Notes on spelling and currency, weights and measures; Preface; 1. Maritime trade in Asia; 2. Imperial foundations: the Estado da India and Macao; 3. Population, personalities, and communal power; 4. Country traders and Crown monopoly; 5. Merchants and markets; 6. Country traders and the search for markets; 7. Imperial relations: Macao and the Estado de India: 8. Imperial survival: Sino-Portuguese relations from Ming to Ch'ing; 9. Macao, companies and country traders: the other Europeans in China; 10. Conclusion; List of abbreviations and notes; Bibliography; Index.