Includes bibliographical references (p. 264-275) and index.

Preliminary Material / Henry Sze Hang Choi -- Introduction / Henry Sze Hang Choi -- Chinese Junks and Foreign Steamships in Canton River Delta / Henry Sze Hang Choi -- The West River / Henry Sze Hang Choi -- Hybrid Chinese Shipping: Foreign-Flagged Chinese Junks and Chinese Steam Tugs / Henry Sze Hang Choi -- Piracy and Shipping Strategies on the West River / Henry Sze Hang Choi -- Epilogue: The Years after 1910 / Henry Sze Hang Choi -- A Revised Inland Steam Navigation Regulations, 1898 / Henry Sze Hang Choi -- B The Excerpt of the Mackay Treaty, 1902 / Henry Sze Hang Choi -- C Schedule A of Chinese Passengers Act of 1855 / Henry Sze Hang Choi -- D Prospectus and Regulations of the Swatow Ch’ao-yang and Kit-yang Steam Launch Company / Henry Sze Hang Choi -- Bibliography / Henry Sze Hang Choi -- Index / Henry Sze Hang Choi.

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Focusing on the hybrid maritime world of Hong Kong, Pearl River Delta and West River in the last two decades of the late Qing period, this work tells a vivid trading and competition story of previously unknown private Chinese traders and junk masters. This challenges the prevailing view of the domination of China’s maritime trade by modern foreign steamships. Making use of unpublished Kowloon Maritime Customs and British diplomatic records in the late 19th and early 20th century, Henry Sze Hang Choi convincingly shows how these private Chinese traders flexibly adopted to the foreign-dominated maritime customs agencies and treaty port system in defending their Chinese homeland stronghold against the invasion of foreign economic power.