Book ID: CBB392202083

China Bound: John Swire & Sons and Its World, 1816–1980 (2020)

unapi

Bickers, Robert (Author)


Bloomsbury Business


Publication Date: 2020
Physical Details: viii + 534
Language: English

From its origins in Liverpool in 1816, one unusual British firm has threaded a way through two centuries that have seen tumultuous events and epochal transformations in technologies and societies. John Swire & Sons, a small trading company that began by importing dyes, cotton and apples from the Americas, now directs a highly diversified group of interests operating across the globe but with a core focus on Asia. From 1866 its fate was intertwined with developments in China, with the story of steam, and later of flight, and with the movements of people and of goods that made the modern world. China Bound charts the story of the firm, its family owners and staff, its operations, its successes and its disasters, as it endured wars, uprisings and revolutions, the rise and fall of empires - China's, Britain's, Japan's - and the twists and turns of the global economy. This is the story of a business that reshaped Hong Kong, developed Cathay Pacific Airways, dominated China's pre-Second World War shipping industry, and helped pioneer containerization.

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Reviewed By

Review Zhaojin Zeng (Spring 2021) Review of "China Bound: John Swire & Sons and Its World, 1816–1980". Business History Review (pp. 184-187). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB392202083/

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Authors & Contributors
Spadavecchia, Anna
Stadler, Christian
Mike Harvey
Merritt, Jane T.
Bishara, Fahad Ahmad
Whittington, Richard
Concepts
Business history
Business enterprises
Commerce
Merchants
Capitalism
Biographies
Time Periods
20th century
19th century
18th century
Early modern
Modern
Places
United States
Great Britain
China
Indian Ocean
Germany
Europe
Institutions
J.C. Penney Co.
Chance Brothers and Company
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