Ginseng emerged as a major international commodity in the seventeenth century, when the East India Company began trading it westward. Europeans were drawn to the plant’s efficacy as a medicine, but their attempts to transplant it for mass production were unsuccessful. Also, due to a failure of extracting its active ingredients, Western pharmacology disparaged ginseng in the process of modernization. In the meantime, ginseng was discovered on the American continent and became one of the United States’ key exports to Asia and particularly China, but never cultivated a significant domestic market. As such, historicizing the ginseng trade provides a unique perspective on the impact of both culture and economics on international trade. A compelling interdisciplinary history of over five centuries of East–West trade and cultural exchange, this book will be invaluable to students and scholars of transnational history and a fascinating read for anyone interested in the history of international trade.
...MoreSimilar Citations
Article
Hye-Min Lee;
(2016)
Louis XIV’s Ginseng: Shaping of Knowledge on an Herbal Medicine in the Late 17th and the Early 18th Century France
(/isis/citation/CBB853217932/)
Book
Katie Barclay;
Peter N. Stearns;
(2022)
The Routledge History of Emotions in the Modern World
(/isis/citation/CBB256232898/)
Book
Benjamin Breen;
(2019)
The Age of Intoxication: Origins of the Global Drug Trade
(/isis/citation/CBB386032092/)
Book
John Nott;
Anna Harris;
(2022)
Making Sense of Medicine: Material Culture and the Reproduction of Medical Knowledge
(/isis/citation/CBB674744598/)
Book
Lennart Lehmhaus;
Matteo Martelli;
(2017)
Collecting Recipes: Byzantine and Jewish Pharmacology in Dialogue
(/isis/citation/CBB785386127/)
Article
Gimmel, Millie;
(2008)
Reading Medicine in the Codex de la Cruz Badiano
(/isis/citation/CBB001030605/)
Article
Nam, J. K.;
(2014)
Medieval European Medicine and Asian Spices
(/isis/citation/CBB001422424/)
Book
Walravens, Hartmut;
(2005)
A Japanese Herbal in the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine: A Contribution to the History of the Transfer of Scientific Knowledge from Europe to Japan
(/isis/citation/CBB001221360/)
Book
Byrne, Joseph Patrick;
(2013)
Health and Wellness in the Renaissance and Enlightenment
(/isis/citation/CBB001420188/)
Book
Paula S. De Vos;
(2020)
Compound Remedies: Galenic Pharmacy from the Ancient Mediterranean to New Spain
(/isis/citation/CBB999742953/)
Book
Arnold Pacey;
(1991)
Technology in World Civilization: A Thousand-Year History
(/isis/citation/CBB263114511/)
Article
Kapil Raj;
(2017)
Thinking Without the Scientific Revolution: Global Interactions and the Construction of Knowledge
(/isis/citation/CBB276711198/)
Book
Johannes Feichtinger;
Anil Bhatti;
Cornelia Hülmbauer;
(2020)
How to Write the Global History of Knowledge-Making: Interaction, Circulation and the Transgression of Cultural Difference
(/isis/citation/CBB044900400/)
Book
Timothy M. Yang;
(2021)
A Medicated Empire: The Pharmaceutical Industry and Modern Japan
(/isis/citation/CBB110485402/)
Book
Tom Taylor;
(2022)
Modern Travel in World History
(/isis/citation/CBB266413057/)
Article
Mitchell, Michele;
Shibusawa, Naoko;
Miescher, Stephan F.;
(2014)
Introduction: Gender, Imperialism and Global Exchanges
(/isis/citation/CBB001550132/)
Book
Johannes Feichtinger;
Anil Bhatti;
Cornelia Hülmbauer;
(2020)
How to Write the Global History of Knowledge-Making: Interaction, Circulation and the Transgression of Cultural Difference
(/isis/citation/CBB429978866/)
Book
Headrick, Daniel R.;
(2010)
Power over Peoples: Technology, Environments, and Western Imperialism, 1400 to the Present
(/isis/citation/CBB001030031/)
Book
Wael B. Hallaq;
(2018)
Restating Orientalism: A Critique of Modern Knowledge
(/isis/citation/CBB591783066/)
Book
Salmond, Anne;
(2010)
Aphrodite's Island: The European Discovery of Tahiti
(/isis/citation/CBB001030034/)
Be the first to comment!