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.

包樂史，1946年生於荷蘭，早年曾到颱灣和日本進修。荷蘭萊登大學漢學和曆史學博士，現任萊登大學曆史係教授，主講“歐洲與亞洲關係史”。2007年獲荷蘭女王頒發的“皇傢騎士”榮譽勛章。通曉英文、中文、日文、印尼文、荷蘭文和多種歐洲語言，對海外華僑史，尤其是印尼華僑史有深入的研究，曾利用荷蘭東印度公司檔案資料撰寫瞭多本專著和多篇論文，主要是17、18世紀東南亞華僑史，東南亞華僑貿易和當時華僑的社會問題。著作有：Bitter Bonds（獲荷蘭金質貓頭鷹奬）、Visible Cities、《中荷交往史》、《巴達維亞華人與中荷貿易》、《東南民族研究》、《巴城公館檔案研究：18世紀末巴達維亞唐人社會》等。