The German Experience of Japan’s Treaty Port System

A Case Study of C. Nickel & Co. Ltd., 1860–1923

9789048560554

300 pages

Amsterdam University Press

Hardback $154.00

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Overview

German merchants were attracted to the British Empire’s spheres of influence in northeast Asia from the 1700s. Their numbers increased when Britain established a network of treaty ports in China from 1842 and in Japan from 1858. A latecomer to empire, Germany, unified only in 1871, extended its imperial influence in China in 1898. This is the story of two German merchants, Carl Nickel and his relative and successor Christian Holstein, ancestors of the author’s husband, as they built their company, C. Nickel & Co. Ltd. in Kobe into their own waterfront empire contributing to the growth and modernization of the port. This is the story of how they operated in treaty port Japan where the Japanese government could be anti-foreign and obstructionist, partnering with or in opposition to British colleagues presenting new challenges as Holstein navigated World War One and its aftermath until 1923.

Author Bio

Prue Holstein spent her career working in the private, government and non-profit sectors engaged in the Asian region. She spent some 14 years in Japan, in Tokyo and in Osaka/Kobe working in the private sector and then in senior diplomatic roles with the Australian Federal and the Victorian State Governments. She also served in the United States. Holstein has an MBA from the University of Melbourne and a PhD in Japanese Studies from Monash University and speaks Japanese and German.