Hunter", a portrait of the author in oils, is now in the collections of the Yale Center for British Art. Hunter was a close friend of George Chinnery (1774-1852), a British artist who spent most of his life in India and then in Macau, where he enjoyed the patronage of the leading trader James Matheson. Also included is information on the etymology and vocabulary of the pidgin English spoken in the city. Hunter details his journey to Canton, the western firms and their representatives operating in the city, and the realities of doing business with powerful Chinese merchants and officials. Westerners were required to work within the city's cohong system, allowed to trade only with specific Chinese merchants through a highly regulated import and export framework. By imperial edict, Canton was the only city open to foreign merchants. The 'Fan Kwae' at Canton (first published in 1882) sheds significant light on life among the "foreign devils" ("fan kwae") in Canton before the introduction of the treaty port system. Hunter details his journey to Canton, the western firms and in 1837 and accumulating a considerable personal fortune. He subsequently worked for leading American opium dealers, making partner at Russell & Co.
Smith & Sons, America's largest tea importer, as an apprentice. William Charles Hunter (1812-1891) was a Virginian who travelled out to China at the age of just 13, spending two years studying Chinese at the Anglo-Chinese College at Malacca before joining Thomas H.
Hunter's books have become more and more numerous", the first editions "long since exhausted" (p. This edition was published under the auspices of his son, A. The author, a mainstay of the small expatriate community, interweaves recollections of his fellow traders and their business activities with engaging descriptions of the city's powerful mandarins, the hubbub of daily life, and tensions between foreigners and locals.
Second edition, first printing, of this valuable memoir of Canton in the years before the First Opium War.
0 kommentar(er)
