More about the book
The Taipans is a popular account of Hong Kong's merchant princes from the origins of the first trading houses in eighteenth-century Canton and Macau to the beginning of the First World War. The early taipans, hard-headed business men from Britain, the USA, and India, built up immense fortunesfrom the opium trade. In the 1830s a single company, Jardine & Matheson, controlled one-third of China's foreign trade. In later years some of the original trading houses diversified successfully while others crashed into bankruptcy. At the same time a class of Chinese middlemen and merchantsgrew up, establishing the foundations of Hong Kong's influential Chinese business class. First published in 1981, The Taipans is reissued with a completely new final chapter on Hong Kong's contemporary taipans.
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The Taipans: Hong Kong's Merchant Princes, Crisswell, Colin N.
- Language
- Released
- 1991
- product-detail.submit-box.info.binding
- (Paperback)
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- Title
- The Taipans: Hong Kong's Merchant Princes
- Language
- English
- Authors
- Crisswell, Colin N.
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press
- Released
- 1991
- Format
- Paperback
- Pages
- 260
- ISBN10
- 0195853733
- ISBN13
- 9780195853735
- Series
- Rating
- 2.85 out of 5
- Description
- The Taipans is a popular account of Hong Kong's merchant princes from the origins of the first trading houses in eighteenth-century Canton and Macau to the beginning of the First World War. The early taipans, hard-headed business men from Britain, the USA, and India, built up immense fortunesfrom the opium trade. In the 1830s a single company, Jardine & Matheson, controlled one-third of China's foreign trade. In later years some of the original trading houses diversified successfully while others crashed into bankruptcy. At the same time a class of Chinese middlemen and merchantsgrew up, establishing the foundations of Hong Kong's influential Chinese business class. First published in 1981, The Taipans is reissued with a completely new final chapter on Hong Kong's contemporary taipans.