When America First Met China: An Exotic History of Tea, Drugs, and Money in the Age of Sail

426 Pages·2012·16.45 MB·English

by  Eric Jay Dolin

OTHER BOOKS BY ERIC JAY DOLIN
Fur, Fortune, and Empire:
The Epic History of the Fur Trade in America
Leviathan: The History of Whaling in America
Political Waters
Snakehead: A Fish Out of Water
Smithsonian Book of National Wildlife Refuges

When America
First Met China
An EXOTIC HISTORY of
TEA, DRUGS, and MONEY
IN the AGE of SAIL
Eric Jay Dolin
LIVERIGHT PUBLISHING
CORPORATION
A DIVISION OF
W. W. NORTON & COMPANY
NEW YORK • LONDON
To Penny, Ron, and Sage
CONTENTS
A NOTE ON THE TEXT
MAP OF EASTERN CHINA
MAP OF CANTON/MACAO REGION
INTRODUCTION
One
“THE ADVENTUROUS PURSUITS
OF COMMERCE”
Two
THE MIDDLE KINGDOM
Three
CHINA DREAMS
Four
THE “NEW PEOPLE”
Five
CHINA RUSH
Six
THE GOLDEN GHETTO
Seven
CHINA THROUGH AMERICAN EYES
Eight
THE OPIUM WAR
Nine
RACING THE WIND
Ten
FADING FORTUNE
Epilogue
ECHOES OF THE PAST
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
NOTES
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
ILLUSTRATION CREDITS
INDEX
PHOTO INSERT
A NOTE ON THE TEXT
T
. The older Wade-Giles
HE ROMANIZATION OF CHINESE WORDS HAS CHANGED OVER TIME
system has been replaced by pinyin, which is now the official romanization
system used in China, and by modern scholars and journalists. When America
First Met China uses pinyin for personal and place names, giving the Wade-
Giles equivalent in parentheses on the first use of each. The only exceptions to
this rule are Western names that are firmly entwined with the history of the
China trade, and that are familiar to Westerners. These include Canton,
Whampoa, Peking, Macao, Lintin, Nanking, Kowloon, Hong Kong, the Yangtze
River, and the Pearl River. For these the pinyin equivalent will appear in
parentheses on first use.