Takeshi Hamashita, arguably Asia's premier historian of the longue durée, has been instrumental in opening a new field of inquiry in Chinese, East Asian and world historical research. Engaging modernization, Marxist and world system approaches, his wide-ranging redefinition of the evolving relationships between the East Asia regional system and the world economy from the sixteenth century to the present has sent ripples throughout Asian and international scholarship.

His research has led him to reconceptualize the position of China first in the context of an East Asian regional order and subsequently within the framework of a wider Euro-American-Asian trade and financial order that was long gestating within, and indeed contributing to the shape of, the world market.

This book presents a selection of essays from Takeshi Hamashita's oeuvre on Asian trade to introduce this important historian's work to the English speaking reader. It examines the many critical issues surrounding China and East Asia's incorporation to the world economy, including:

*Maritime perspectives on China, Asia and the world economy

*Intra-Asian trade

*Chinese state finance and the tributary trade system

*Banking and finance

*Maritime customs.

Table of Contents

1. Editors’ Introduction: New Perspectives on China, East Asia and the Global Economy 2. The Tribute Trade System and Modern Asia 3. Despotism and Decentralisation in Chinese Governance: Taxation, Tribute and Emigration 4. Silver in Regional Economies and the World Economy: East Asia in the Sixteenth to the Nineteenth Centuries

5. The Ryukyu Maritime Network from the Fourteenth to Eighteenth Centuries: China, Korea, Japan and Southeast Asia

6. Maritime Asia and Treaty Port Networks in the Era of Negotiation. Tribute and Treaties, 1800-1900

7. Foreign Trade Finance in China: Silver, opium, and world market incorporation, 1820s to 1850s

8. China and Hong Kong in the British Empire in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century

9. Overseas Chinese Financial Networks: Korea, China and Japan in the Late Nineteenth Century