This study eschews the uncritical acceptance of secondary sources that has characterized studies in this field, going back to and reinterpreting previously neglected primary sources, thereby enabling it to chart linkages between the European and Asian trades that have been regarded as parallel but unrelated (or at best competing) activities. In so doing, the work sheds new light on this crucial period.

The 18th century was the crucial period in the development of the Sino-Western relationship. This was the period when tea became the main commodity traded between Asia and Europe and which saw the rise of the great chartered companies and the advent of the opium trade as the means for the British to wrest a profit out of their Indian conquests. This was also the period that saw the last great expansion and contraction of the Chinese junk trade. For 160 years (1684-1843), China tried to contain the growing Western presence and avoid the complication of a state-to-state relationship spanning a wide cultural divide by delegating authority to the principal Chinese merchants trading at Canton with the Europeans. The Co-Hong or Hong merchants, as they came to be called, became increasingly involved in managing these foreigners, the trade, and the collection of revenue. Eventually, the attempt failed and the merchants' quasi-diplomatic status was ended following the first Opium War when Britain forced the opening of China to British trade, the cession of Hong Kong and the abolition of the Co-Hong. This study eschews the uncritical acceptance of secondary sources that has characterized stu