THE RECONSTRUCTION OF HONG KONG NINETEENTH-CENTURY PACIFIC TRADE STATISTICS

Abstract

It might be assumed that because Hong Kong was a British colony, its function was to distribute British exports to East Asia. But it is clear its real importance lay in re-distributing Asian goods within Asia, and more particularly Chinese goods within China. Trade with Britain was of minor significance, and one is forced to the conclusion that really Hong Kong was just a port of Southern China, which happened to be administered by the British (Latham, 1993, p. 83).