Talk:Old China Trade

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[edit] re the globalize template

I placed it as the term China Trade is not exclusive to US history; in British historiography it tends to refer to the British Empire's own trade in and with China, and to people and companies in the business; hence the term Chinaman in its original ship meaning - a ship engaged in the China Trade - or onshore dealers in Chinese wares, specifically porcelain aka "china" hence the term applied also to a dealer in china, and in Britain still does (long story; just survived a complex afd in relation to that article...). But it's not just the British either, but also of course the Dutch and Portuguese and French and Germans; the China Trade in a certain phase is also tied into the marine fur trade, as furs from the Pacific Northwest and California would be traded for porcelain and other wares in Canton, then shipped around the other way to England; this initiated British sales of opium in the other direction, and also the transplanation of tea to India, undermining china's main source of silver, and hence all the economic and sovereignty fuss which led to the Opium War. Not that this article should be about the economics; it's more the story of the trade; who had ports were in Europe and the americas as well as china, and what the various concessions were and the investments in industry and railways etc, the importance of the China Trade in international development (it's why the CPR got built, and also in part Suez...and why Singapore is what it is, and so on...); and the US was a relative latecomer, to boot. I'm sorry I don't have materials to resource this, or the time to develop the material; I'm just pointing out the absence of the British story of the China Trade, and presumably at least France's and Germany's; it seems more related to marine-based trade and western powers investment; i.e. Russian trade with China doesn't seem included as it was of a different nature, and relatively long-established (again to do with fur, re the great market at Khiatka (sp?) on the Manchurian border. It's a complex topic, all the more complex because it's not just about the US; hopefully somebody with the inclination will see this explanation/suggestion and dig up all the rest and get it in the article; I'm sorry I don't have time myself....Skookum1 08:18, 8 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Name/move

This article should just be simply China Trade, both capitalized (as also UK norm), with the explanation that in the US the phrasing is usually/sometimes Old China Trade; redirects from various non-capitalizations should all point to China Trade.Skookum1 08:19, 8 April 2007 (UTC)