Gentlemanly Capitalism, Imperialism and Global History

279 Pages·2002·0.9 MB·English

by  Shigeru Akita

Gentlemanly Capitalism,
Imperialism and Global
History
Shigeru Akita
Gentlemanly Capitalism, Imperialism and
Global History
By the same author
INTERNATIONAL ORDER OF ASIA IN THE 1930s(in Japanese, co-editor with
N.Kagokani)
THE BRITISH EMPIRE AND THE INTERNATIONAL ORDER OF ASIA (in Japanese)
Gentlemanly Capitalism,
Imperialism and Global
History
Shigeru Akita
Editorial matter and selection © Shigeru Akita 2002
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Gentlemanly capitalism, imperialism, and global history/edited by Shigeru Akita.
p. cm.
Revised versions of papers originally presented at the workshop “Gentlemanly
Capitalism and its Impact on Global History”, held in Osaka, Japan, Oct. 7–8, 2000.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0–333–99306–3
1. Capitalism—Great Britain—Colonies—History. 2. Imperialism—
Economic aspects—Great Britain—Colonies. 3. Great Britain—Colonies—
History. 4. Great Britain—Colonies—Asia—History. 5. Great Britain—
Colonies—Economic conditions. I. Akita, Shigeru.
DA16 .G46 2002
325′.341—dc21 2002025147
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham and Eastbourne
Contents
List of Maps and Figure vii
Notes on the Contributors viii
Acknowledgements xi
Maps xii
1 Introduction: from Imperial History to Global History 1
Shigeru Akita
Part I: British Imperialism and the Global Order
2 Gentlemanly Capitalism and the Making of
aGlobalBritishEmpire: Some Connections
and Contexts, 1688–1815 19
H.V. Bowen
3 Globalism and Imperialism: the Global Context of
British Power, 1830–1960 43
John Darwin
4 Empire, Imperialism and the Partition of Africa 65
Ian Phimister
5 Gentlemanly Imperialism and the British Empire
after 1945 83
Gerold Krozewski
Part II: Gentlemanly Capitalism and Informal
Empire in East Asia
6 Gentlemanly and Not-so-Gentlemanly Imperialism
inChinabefore the First World War 103
Niels P. Petersson
7 British Imperialism and Decolonization: a Chinese
Perspective 123
Shunhong Zhang
8 The International Order of Asia in the 1930s 143
Shigeru Akita and Naoto Kagotani
v
vi Contents
9 Reasserting Imperial Power? Britain and East Asia in
the 1930s 169
Yoichi Kibata
10 British Imperialism, the City of London and
GlobalIndustrialization 185
Kaoru Sugihara
Part III: Response
11 The Peculiarities of British Capitalism: Imperialism
and World Development 207
Peter Cain and A.G. Hopkins
Index 256
List of Maps and Figure
Map 1 The Partition of Africa by 1902 xii
After: Simon C. Smith, British Imperialism
1750–1970(1998)
Map 2 Foreign spheres of influence in China, c. 1900 xiii
After: C. C. Eldridge, Victorian Imperialism(1978)
Map 3 The British Empire, c. 1931 xiv
After: Simon C. Smith, British Imperialism
1750–1970(1998)
Fig. 8.1 The Emerging ‘Devaluation Sphere’ in East Asia
and the International Order of Asia in the 1930s 158
vii
Notes on the Contributors
Shigeru Akitais Associate Professor in the Department of Area Studies
at Osaka University of Foreign Studies, Japan, where he specializes in
the history of the British Empire and Commonwealth. His publications
include ‘British Informal Empire in East Asia, 1880–1939: a Japanese
perspective’, in Raymond E. Dumett (ed.), Gentlemanly Capitalism
and British Imperialism (1999), 1930-nendai Ajia Kokusai-Chitujyo
[International Order of Asia in the 1930s] (2001) (coed. with N. Kagotani)
and Igirisu-Teikoku to Ajia Kokusai-Chitujyo [The British Empire and
International Order of Asia] (2002). He is also involved in research on
global history.
H.V. Bowen is Senior Lecturer at the Department of Economic and
Social History, University of Leicester, UK. He is the author of Revenue
and Reform: the Indian Problem in British Politics, 1757–1773(1991),Elites,
Enterprise, and the Making of the British Overseas Empire, 1688–1775
(1996) and War and British Society, 1688–1815 (1998). He is currently
engaged in an economic and administrative history of the East India
Company in Britain between 1750 and 1850.
P.J. Cainis Research Professor in History at the Department of History,
Sheffield Hallam University, UK. He has published numerous articles on
British imperial expansion and theories of imperialism in learned
journals. He is the author of Economic Foundations of British Expansion
Overseas, 1815–1914 (1980) and British Imperialism, 1688–2000 (with
A.G. Hopkins) (2001). He has just completed a study of J.A. Hobson and
the development of the theory of economic imperialism which will be
published in 2002.
John Darwin is Fellow of Nuffield College and Beit Lecturer in
the History of the British Commonwealth, Oxford University, UK. He
is the author of Britain, Egypt and the Middle East: Imperial Policy in
the Aftermath of War 1918–1922 (1981), Britain and Decolonization:
the Retreat from Empire in the Post-War World (1988) and The End of
theBritish Empire: the Historical Debate(1991). He is currently working
on a history of the British Empire as an international system
c. 1840–1970.
viii
Notes on the Contributors ix
A.G. Hopkins, formerly the Smuts Professor of Commonwealth
History at Cambridge University, is now the Walter Prescott Webb
Professor of History at the University of Texas in Austin, USA. He has
published widely in the field of African and imperial history, beginning
with a pioneering synthesis, An Economic History of West Africa (1973),
and continuing with the work that is the subject of the present volume
of essays, British Imperialism, 1688–2000. This study, written with
P.J.Cain and first published in two volumes in 1993, is currently available
in a 2nd edition in one volume (2001). His most recent book is an
edited collection entitled Globalization in World History(2002).
Naoto Kagotaniis Associate Professor at the Institute for Research in
Humanities, Kyoto University, Japan, where he specializes in Asian and
Japanese economic history. He is the author of Ajia Kokusai Tsusho
Chitujyo to Kindai Nihon [International Trade Order of Asia and Modern
Japan] (2000) and 1930-nendai Ajia Kokusai-Chitujyo [International Order
of Asia in the 1930s] (2001) (coed. with S. Akita). He is currently work-
ing on merchants’ networks in Asia and Japan 1931–55.
Yoichi Kibatais Professor at the Graduate School of Advanced Social
and International Studies, the University of Tokyo, Japan. He is the
author of Shihai no Daisho: Eiteikoku no Houkai to ‘Teikokuishiki’[Price of
Imperial Rule: Imperial Mentality and the Break-up of the British Empire]
(1987) and Teikoku no Tasogare: Reisen ka no Igirisu to Ajia [The Twilight
of the Empire: British Policy towards Japan and Malaya 1947–1955] (1996),
and the editor of The History of Anglo–Japanese Relations, 1600–2000: the
Political and Diplomatic Dimension, 2 vols. (2000). He is currently work-
ing on decolonization, Anglo-American relations and international rela-
tions in Asia in the 1950s and 1960s.
Gerold Krozewski is currently research fellow in the Department of
History, Sheffield Hallam University, UK. He is the author of Money and
the End of Empire: British International Economic Policy and the Colonies,
1947–1958(2001). His principal research interests relate to British, and
more generally European relations with the non-Western world.
Niels P. Petersson is Lecturer in Modern and Contemporary History
at the Department of History and Sociology, University of Konstanz,
Germany. His publications include Imperialismus und Modernisierung:
Siam, China und die europäischen Mächte (2000), ‘Ostasiens
Jahrhundertwende. Unterwerfung und Erneuerung in west-östlichen