Beyond a cup of tea: Trade relationships between colonial Australia and China, 1860-1880
type: CreativeWork
description: This thesis examines the trade relationships between China and colonial Australia between 1860 and 1880. At the time, the Australian continent was emerging from the boom created by the 1850s gold rushes in the colonies of Victoria and New South Wales. China had submitted to the debts incurred from the two Opium Wars and, through that, the creation of the Treaty Ports. New companies and export industries were being developed. Trade between Australia and China increased. The key products included coal from New South Wales, sandalwood from Western Australia and tea from China. Together, they created a flourishing trade environment. Attention in the China-Australia trade discourse has been overly restricted to the tea trade and the search for staples to pay for the tea. This thesis moves beyond this past bilateral consideration. Instead, it argues that a fuller understanding of the China–Australia trade relationship needs to be multifaceted and multi-national. Much bilateral trade was conducted via intermediary ports and traders, rather than directly between ports and traders in Australia and China. Further, complex payment and remittance systems involved firms based in an array of countries, including Great Britain, India and the United States. This thesis, thus, states the importance of analysing trade relationships within a multilateral focus. This thesis uses analysis at the transaction level to explain the prevalent multilateral relationships of this period. Archival records from England, the United States and Hong Kong supplement those in Australia to provide insights into the methods employed to complete transactions. This thesis provides history with an interpretation of the records relating to the China-Australia trade. It engages the correspondence and financial records of of key companies like Jardine Matheson & Co. of England, Augustine Heard & Co. and Russell & Co. of the United States and Robert Towns and Co. from Australia, among others, to interpret the …
abstract: This thesis examines the trade relationships between China and colonial Australia between 1860 and 1880. At the time, the Australian continent was emerging from the boom created by the 1850s gold rushes in the colonies of Victoria and New South Wales. China had submitted to the debts incurred from the two Opium Wars and, through that, the creation of the Treaty Ports. New companies and export industries were being developed. Trade between Australia and China increased. The key products included coal from New South Wales, sandalwood from Western Australia and tea from China. Together, they created a flourishing trade environment. Attention in the China-Australia trade discourse has been overly restricted to the tea trade and the search for staples to pay for the tea. This thesis moves beyond this past bilateral consideration. Instead, it argues that a fuller understanding of the China–Australia trade relationship needs to be multifaceted and multi-national. Much bilateral trade was conducted via intermediary ports and traders, rather than directly between ports and traders in Australia and China. Further, complex payment and remittance systems involved firms based in an array of countries, including Great Britain, India and the United States. This thesis, thus, states the importance of analysing trade relationships within a multilateral focus. This thesis uses analysis at the transaction level to explain the prevalent multilateral relationships of this period. Archival records from England, the United States and Hong Kong supplement those in Australia to provide insights into the methods employed to complete transactions. This thesis provides history with an interpretation of the records relating to the China-Australia trade. It engages the correspondence and financial records of of key companies like Jardine Matheson & Co. of England, Augustine Heard & Co. and Russell & Co. of the United States and Robert Towns and Co. from Australia, among others, to interpret the …
author: Guoth, Nicholas Dennis
language: en
keywords: Australia, China, nineteenth century, trade, coal, sandalwood, tea, gold, networks
date published: 2017
date modified: 2026-07-24T01:07:19Z
provider: Australian Catholic University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Australian Catholic University

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/1885/144322