A “Versailles of Trade”
A “Versailles of Trade”
The French Company Model of Sino-European Trade
Chapter 2 examines the French East India Company model of Sino-European trade, with a particular emphasis on the features that distinguish it from the two other major models, the English and the Dutch. In France, not merchants but the state itself gave birth to the French East Company, once memorably described as a “Versailles of trade,” and the state continued to play a dominant role in the Company’s operations, exerting the power of approval over the Company’s decisions and issuing the edicts that established its policies. But the lure of private trade, and in particular, the appeal of the Chinese market, played a major role in hastening the demise of the company model, which from the mid-1700s was seen as increasingly obsolete in view of contemporary attitudes and conditions. The creation of the third French East India Company in 1785 after a fifteen-year period of private (open) trade was followed in 1790 by France’s opening her East India and China trade once more to the private sector, and this time it was definitive; the French East Company was permanently abolished in 1793, and for the rest of the Canton era, trade remained open.
Keywords: French East India Company, French company model, “Versailles of trade”, state relationship to Company, Company administration, administrative assembly, general assembly, commodities, crew and trader profiles
Hong Kong Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs , and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us .
