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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
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