An American Engineer in China

by William Barclay Parsons

By the late nineteenth century, twenty-nine Chinese ports were open for foreign trade. Often run by foreign commissioners and no longer subject to the stringent local laws, these ports levied one of the smallest import taxes in the world, and Chinese commerce therefore exploded. Originally published in 1900, this account by William Barclay Parsons (1859 1932) investigates the ensuing surge of economic and industrial development in the eastern provinces. Including an introduction to China's history and the structure of its civil service, the book analyses the corrupt but ingenious world of customs officials, the importance of American cotton interests, and export statistics which reveal the multimillion-dollar smuggling operations that slipped around official embargoes. Set against a backdrop of electric lights and western labels in even the most closed of cities, this book offers a fascinating glimpse into the early stages of today's global market.

321 pages, Hardcover

First published May 31, 2012

About the author

William Barclay Parsons (1859-1932) was an American civil engineer. He founded Parsons Brinckerhoff, one of the largest American civil engineering firms.

Reviews

[Max · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was written in the late 1800s by an American engineer traveling for business. The firm that he started is still in existence. The book is written dryly and succinctly and has an obvious bias, but given the circumstances under which it was written as well as the relatively modern, rational and layman take on the state of imperial Qing Dynasty China just a few years before its collapse, I found the book fascinating.

I picked it up in a rare book shop in Hong Kong. Not sure how widely available it is.