Hinterlands and Commodities: Place, Space, Time and the Political Economic Development of Asia over the Long Eighteenth Century (European Expansion and Indigenous Response, 14) by Tsukasa Mizushima

chapter 1
Hinterlands, Commodity Chains, and Circuits 
in Early Modern Asian History
Sugar in Qing China and Tokugawa Japan
George Bryan Souza*
Introduction
This essay (re-)examines a well-known and well-studied example of an Asian 
hinterland: the case of cash-crop production of sugar in South China over the 
long eighteenth century.1 It pays particular attention to this commodity’s 
importance in China’s (internal and external) economy. It overviews expan-

sion of production in Liangnan and on Taiwan and documents how sugar 
emerged as one of China’s primary exports in regional and intra-regional Asian 
maritime trade. Sugar in Qing China and Tokugawa Japan is examined as an 
example of a (generic) commodity and its commodity chain (i.e. how sugar 
was productively, commercially and culturally employed) in order to elucidate, 
analyze, and develop my arguments concerning the conceptual and theoreti-

cal importance of hinterlands, commodity chains, and production, commer-

cial and currency circuits in place, space, and time relationships in Asia in the 
early modern period. It argues that individual commodities and their chains 
must be examined and integrated into an analysis of networks of commodity 
chains and production, commercial, and currency circuits in order to develop 
an essential methodological tool for visualizing and understanding the evolu-

tion and dynamism of commercial expansion and the history of economic 
development.

It is based primarily upon published Japanese2 and Dutch3 archival materi-

als and pertinent secondary literature and organized into five sections: First: 
“Introduction”; Second: “Hinterlands, Commodity Chains, and Circuits”; Third: 
“Chinese Sugar in Qing China and Tokugawa Japan”; Fourth: “Hinterlands, 
Commodities, Commercialization and Monies in Early Modern Asian History”; 
and Fifth: “Conclusions.”
Hinterlands, Commodity Chains, and Circuits
The following questions are answered in this section: what are hinterlands, 
commodity chains, production, commercial and currency circuits? How 
and why are they interconnected? Why are they important in the history 
of production, commercial expansion and economic development in early 
modern Asia?

Hinterlands and Commodities: Place, Space, Time and the Political Economic Development of Asia over the Long Eighteenth Century (European Expansion and Indigenous Response, 14) by Tsukasa Mizushima