Trade and Empire in Early Nineteenth-Century Southeast Asia

Resumen del libro

Based on extensive original research, this book reveals how trade worked in early ninteenth-century Southeast Asia through the study of one merchant and his wide-ranging network: Gillian Maclaine, a young Scottish 'adventurer (his word) who established an enduring business in Batavia around 1816. The book demonstrates that Southeast Asian maritime trade was just as important to European worldwide commercial networks as the trade with India and China, and it contributes to current debates about western imperialism, colonialism and the nature of empire.