1st Edition

The American Merchant Experience in Nineteenth Century Japan

By Kevin C. Murphy Copyright 2003
    274 Pages
    by Routledge

    272 Pages
    by Routledge

    American merchants established trading firms in the ports of Yokohama, Kobe and Nagasaki which operated from 1859-1899 until the repeal of the Unequal Treaties. Members of a privileged, semi-colonial community, the merchants formed the largest group of Americans in 19th century Japan. In this first book-length treatment of this group, Kevin Murphy explores their interactions with the Japanese in the treaty port system, how the Japanese leadership manipulated them to its own ends, and how the merchants themselves defined the limitations of American business in Japan through their ambiguous but deep concern with order and opportunity, restraint and dominance, and conservatism and dominance.

    PrefaceIntroduction1. Isolation Proposed and Embraced: The Treaty Port Setting2. Life on the Edge: Treaty Port Society3. Formal Power, Actual Weakness: Consuls as Intermediaries4. From Frenzy to Insecurity: The Contours of Trade5. The Price of Isolation: External Pressures6. Business by Proxy: Internal Hollowness7. The Failure of ImperialismBibliography

    Biography

    Kevin Murphy is chair of the Department of History at Millikin University, Decatur, Illinois.