Merchants and Early Modern Capitalism in the South China Sea
Please note the change of time and venue from other talks and as advertised on posters
This paper explores the role of the merchants in various commercial ventures on the South China Coast in late imperial China. The paper focuses on a set of materials from the area between Huizhou in what is now Anhui Province and the coastal region, including Canton (now Guangzhou). This area saw active trade out of tea and ceramics, but also an influx of yang goods, ‘ocean’ goods, such as trepang and raffa. Broadly speaking, the paper asks if it is fruitful to think of these activities as an early modern form of capitalism. What do we gain, as historians, and what do we lose, as East Asianists?
Date:
20 May 2025, 14:00
Venue:
Hovenden Room, All Souls College
Speaker:
Professor Anne Gerritsen (University of Warwick)
Organisers:
Lewis Ebert (St Cross College, Oxford),
Julian Geissler (Queens College, Oxford),
Ross Moncrieff (All Souls College, Oxford)
Organiser contact email address:
ross.moncrieff@all-souls.ox.ac.uk
Part of:
Oxford Seminar in the Pre-Modern History of East Asia
Booking required?:
Not required
Audience:
Members of the University only
Editor:
Ross Moncrieff
