Cover -- Half-title -- Series-title -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Figures -- Maps -- Tables -- Preface -- 1 Enigma -- 2 Intermediaries of capital -- Insights of the social theorists -- Intermediaries confront dilemmas -- Control of exchange -- Crossing boundaries -- Trust as a bedrock -- Social networks of capital -- Intermediaries alter transaction costs -- Improvements in transportation, communication, and information processing -- Lower risks in control of exchange -- Internalizing intermediary activities within firms -- Agglomeration -- Intermediaries differentiate or dedifferentiate to control markets -- Intermediaries appeal to force -- Dynamics of global metropolises -- 3 From Canton to Hong Kong -- Two protagonists -- The Canton nexus of trade -- A seat at the table -- Canton mercantile system -- Trade crescendo -- Balance of trade in 1828 -- The opium trade ratchets higher -- Protagonists on a collision course -- Down the spiral inside China -- Resurgent literati -- Trade vortex at Canton -- The Opium War and the Treaty of Nanking -- 4 Hub of the China trade -- Trade dilemma -- Compradors -- Alternatives for a mercantile headquarters -- The trade giants choose Hong Kong -- Management center and information node -- Seeds of the Hong Kong agglomeration -- The China trade to the early 1860s -- China trade through the treaty ports -- Canton: decline of the national monopoly -- Amoy: invasion of the junk trade -- Foochow: instant tea port -- Ningpo: underwriters for Shanghai -- Shanghai: Chinese and foreigners cooperate -- Crisis in treaty port trade -- Unimportance of the China trade -- 5 Chinese and foreign social networks of capital -- Transformation of transportation and communication -- The Suez Canal and the steamship -- The telegraph alters intermediary activity -- Chinese intermediaries in China.

The Chinese mercantile hierarchy -- The banking challenge -- Chinese merchants hesitate -- Nanyang Chinese intermediaries -- The base of Chinese merchants -- Chinese merchants cooperate with governments -- Dominance of the international rice trade -- Foreign firms react to competition -- Failures -- Trade services: path to success -- The trade giant transforms -- Banks displace merchants in finance -- Eastern exchange banks -- Hongkong and Shanghai Bank -- Competition and cooperation -- 6 Trade and finance center for Asia -- Hong Kong pivot -- Commodity trade -- Controller of exchange of capital -- Chinese and foreign networks meet -- Shanghai: metropolis of Central and North China -- Comprador management -- Commodity port -- Foreign firms complement Chinese firms -- Singapore: metropolis of Southeast Asia -- Meeting-place for Nanyang merchants -- Commodity trade -- Transformation in control of capital -- Metropolises of Asia -- 7 Industrial metropolis -- Asian political and economic transformation -- Trade and finance languish -- Industrial refugees -- Asian industrialization -- Industrial transformation of Hong Kong -- Laissez-faire or state power -- Growth and decline -- The industrial metropolis grows -- Labor-intensive choice -- Current status of manufacturing -- Foreign direct investment -- Guangdong Province: industrial workshop of Hong Kong -- Instituting reform -- Business networks -- Pace of investment -- 8 Global metropolis for Asia -- Chinese business networks -- Malaysian Chinese -- Archetypal intermediary networks -- Binding the Nanyang -- Hong Kong focuses -- The trade giant roars -- Entrepot trade rises -- Global networks -- The Asian connection -- Emporium of finance -- International banks flock to Hong Kong -- Resolution of a paradox -- World's largest banks -- Circulator of financial capital -- Financial specialization.

Corporate management center -- Intermediary and producer service center for Asia -- 9 Hong Kong, China -- 1997: past, present, and future converge -- Rescission -- Skeptical talk and counter-action -- The China question -- Normal change expected in Hong Kong -- Metropolis and region -- Changes in commodity shipments -- Office center -- Alternatives to Hong Kong -- Tokyo: outside the networks -- Singapore: bridge to the Nanyang -- Shanghai: gateway to Central and North China -- Fallacy of technological intermediation -- Risks in Asia -- Risk management center for Asia -- Guanxi -- Red chips -- Deeply rooted social networks of capital -- Emigration: the false alarm -- China supports Hong Kong -- Bibliography -- Index.

The history of Hong Kong as a metropolis since its foundations to its handover to China in 1997.

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Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2018. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.