The Dutch East India Company's Tea Trade With China, 1757-1781

Drawing on archival research in the Netherlands and Britain, Liu finds that of all the Chinese goods traded by the Company, tea was by far the most important, and eventually became the cornerstone of its China trade. He focuses on the quarter century of the most robust trade to explore such aspects as the Company's China Committee and its management of the direct China trade, the purchase of teas in Canton, the Dutch-Chinese-European triangle in China, the sale of the teas in Europe, and the golden age of the tea trade and its conclusion. The study may be his 2006 doctoral dissertation in history at Leiden University. Annotation c2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Y. Liu (1974) obtained his MA in History in 2000 at Xiamen University, China and received his doctorate in History in 2006 at Leiden University, the Netherlands. His main interests are the history of overseas Chinese in South-east Asia as well as Sino-European trade.