The eighteenth century witnessed the rise of the China market and the changes that resulted in global consumption patterns, from opium smoking to tea drinking. In a valuable transnational perspective, Leonard Blusse chronicles the economic and cultural transformations in East Asia through three key cities. Canton was the port of call for foreign merchants in the Qing empire. Nagasaki was the official port of Tokugawa Japan. Batavia served as the connection site between the Indian Ocean and China seas for ships of the Dutch East India Company.The effects of global change were wrenching. The monopolies suffered challenges, trade corridors shifted, and new players appeared. Yankee traders in their fast clipper ships made great inroads. As Dutch control declined, Batavia lost its premier position. Nagasaki became a shadow of its former self. Canton, however, surged to become the foremost port of East Asia. But on the horizon were new kinds of port cities, not controlled from above and more attuned to the needs of the overseas trading network. With the establishment of the free port of Singapore and the rise of the treaty ports - Hong Kong, Shanghai, Yokohama - the nature of the China seas trade, and relations between East Asia and the West, changed forever.

包乐史，1946年生于荷兰，早年曾到台湾和日本进修。荷兰莱登大学汉学和历史学博士，现任莱登大学历史系教授，主讲“欧洲与亚洲关系史”。2007年获荷兰女王颁发的“皇家骑士”荣誉勋章。通晓英文、中文、日文、印尼文、荷兰文和多种欧洲语言，对海外华侨史，尤其是印尼华侨史有深入的研究，曾利用荷兰东印度公司档案资料撰写了多本专著和多篇论文，主要是17、18世纪东南亚华侨史，东南亚华侨贸易和当时华侨的社会问题。著作有：Bitter Bonds（获荷兰金质猫头鹰奖）、Visible Cities、《中荷交往史》、《巴达维亚华人与中荷贸易》、《东南民族研究》、《巴城公馆档案研究：18世纪末巴达维亚唐人社会》等。