{"title":"十九世纪早期海峡殖民地的 \"海盗\"、王室和商人请愿活动","authors":"Scott Connors","doi":"10.1093/pastj/gtae010","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"In the nineteenth century Straits of Malacca, one of the globe’s most significant trading crossroads, merchants were integral to imperial stability and growth. Indeed, historians of the British empire have long sought to understand how colonial governments turned to merchants, both British and Asian, to extend commercial networks, establish local hierarchies and extend processes of state-building. Yet, merchants’ conceptions of their relationship to, and place within, colonial governance are less well understood. This article examines the emergence of colonial merchant politics in the British controlled Straits Settlements in the early nineteenth century. It concentrates on petitions produced by Asian merchants who demanded greater intervention by East India Company authorities in matters of maritime security and diplomacy. Petitions enabled the merchants of Singapore and Penang to inject their political and commercial visions into processes of colonial state-building. Moreover, these cases demonstrate that imperial margins — geographic, bureaucratic, linguistic and political — were productive spaces in which colonial power dynamics between state and society were contested and took on new meanings.","PeriodicalId":47870,"journal":{"name":"Past & Present","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.8000,"publicationDate":"2024-07-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":"{\"title\":\"‘Pirates’, Potentates, and Merchant Petitioning in the Early Nineteenth Century Straits Settlements\",\"authors\":\"Scott Connors\",\"doi\":\"10.1093/pastj/gtae010\",\"DOIUrl\":null,\"url\":null,\"abstract\":\"In the nineteenth century Straits of Malacca, one of the globe’s most significant trading crossroads, merchants were integral to imperial stability and growth. Indeed, historians of the British empire have long sought to understand how colonial governments turned to merchants, both British and Asian, to extend commercial networks, establish local hierarchies and extend processes of state-building. Yet, merchants’ conceptions of their relationship to, and place within, colonial governance are less well understood. This article examines the emergence of colonial merchant politics in the British controlled Straits Settlements in the early nineteenth century. It concentrates on petitions produced by Asian merchants who demanded greater intervention by East India Company authorities in matters of maritime security and diplomacy. Petitions enabled the merchants of Singapore and Penang to inject their political and commercial visions into processes of colonial state-building. Moreover, these cases demonstrate that imperial margins — geographic, bureaucratic, linguistic and political — were productive spaces in which colonial power dynamics between state and society were contested and took on new meanings.\",\"PeriodicalId\":47870,\"journal\":{\"name\":\"Past & Present\",\"volume\":null,\"pages\":null},\"PeriodicalIF\":1.8000,\"publicationDate\":\"2024-07-22\",\"publicationTypes\":\"Journal Article\",\"fieldsOfStudy\":null,\"isOpenAccess\":false,\"openAccessPdf\":\"\",\"citationCount\":\"0\",\"resultStr\":null,\"platform\":\"Semanticscholar\",\"paperid\":null,\"PeriodicalName\":\"Past & Present\",\"FirstCategoryId\":\"98\",\"ListUrlMain\":\"https://doi.org/10.1093/pastj/gtae010\",\"RegionNum\":1,\"RegionCategory\":\"历史学\",\"ArticlePicture\":[],\"TitleCN\":null,\"AbstractTextCN\":null,\"PMCID\":null,\"EPubDate\":\"\",\"PubModel\":\"\",\"JCR\":\"Q1\",\"JCRName\":\"HISTORY\",\"Score\":null,\"Total\":0}","platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Past & Present","FirstCategoryId":"98","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1093/pastj/gtae010","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"HISTORY","Score":null,"Total":0}
‘Pirates’, Potentates, and Merchant Petitioning in the Early Nineteenth Century Straits Settlements
In the nineteenth century Straits of Malacca, one of the globe’s most significant trading crossroads, merchants were integral to imperial stability and growth. Indeed, historians of the British empire have long sought to understand how colonial governments turned to merchants, both British and Asian, to extend commercial networks, establish local hierarchies and extend processes of state-building. Yet, merchants’ conceptions of their relationship to, and place within, colonial governance are less well understood. This article examines the emergence of colonial merchant politics in the British controlled Straits Settlements in the early nineteenth century. It concentrates on petitions produced by Asian merchants who demanded greater intervention by East India Company authorities in matters of maritime security and diplomacy. Petitions enabled the merchants of Singapore and Penang to inject their political and commercial visions into processes of colonial state-building. Moreover, these cases demonstrate that imperial margins — geographic, bureaucratic, linguistic and political — were productive spaces in which colonial power dynamics between state and society were contested and took on new meanings.
期刊介绍:
Founded in 1952, Past & Present is widely acknowledged to be the liveliest and most stimulating historical journal in the English-speaking world. The journal offers: •A wide variety of scholarly and original articles on historical, social and cultural change in all parts of the world. •Four issues a year, each containing five or six major articles plus occasional debates and review essays. •Challenging work by young historians as well as seminal articles by internationally regarded scholars. •A range of articles that appeal to specialists and non-specialists, and communicate the results of the most recent historical research in a readable and lively form. •A forum for debate, encouraging productive controversy.