Dutch Commerce and Chinese Merchants in Java describes the vanished commercial world of colonial Java. Alexander Claver shows the challenges of a demanding business environment by highlighting trade and finance mechanisms, and the relationships between the participants involved.

The exceptional commercial success of many Southeast Asians of Chinese origin has generated much contemporary debate about the cultural or social basis of that success. This book shows that those questions have long roots in Indonesia. Dutch colonial officials in the nineteenth century expressed alarm over the rural economy. In the twentieth century more detached assessments sought to describe and explain Chinese business methods and the crucial networks they established through the Archipelago. An indispensable volume which appeared under the name of J.L Vleming used the resources of the Duth colonial taxation service to explain the nature of Chinese commercial and credit systems. This volume contains a selection of the most important writing in Dutch (by prominent lawyer Phao Liong Gie as well as by Dutch officials) that has been translated for the first time. These extracts cover the period from 1850 to 1936, though half the volume is taken from the 1926 book edited by Vleming. Basic demographic data and the revenues drawn from Chinese-held farms are presented in a statistical supplement.

An abridgement and translation of De distribveerende tusschenhandel der Chineezen op Java.

This set examines a vast range of topics covering all experiences of business and economics from across Asia. Dealing with early banking systems in China; the industrialisation of Korea and Taiwan; the evolution of Japanese business practices; economic development; protectionist policies; industrial investment; trade; tourism; and a host of other topics, the books collected here form a vital reference resource across a wide subject area.