- Project Leader : Kawamura Tomotaka (Faculty of Humanities, University of Toyama)
- Collaborators : Sugihara Kaoru (Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University)
- : Ota Atsushi (Research Center for Humanities and Social Sciences, Academia Sinica)
- : Nishimura Takeshi (Faculty of Economics, Matsuyama University)
- : Hisasue Ryoichi (Faculty of Policy Studies, National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies)
- : Miyata Toshiyuki (Graduate School of Global Studies Faculty of Foreign Studies, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies)
- : Kakizaki Ichiro (Internatioinal College of Arts and Science, Yokohama City University)
- : Koizumi Junko (Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University)
Outline of Research
Southeast Asia saw a great transformation in the course of colonization and its incorporation into the world economy between the late 18th and the early 20th centuries. It has been recently argued that under this impact traditional networks of intra-south Asian trade were never destroyed but rather reorganized and developed to play a new role in the political and economic conditions of the nineteenth century. The purpose of this project is to review the latest literature on the modern history of Southeast Asia with this hypothesis in mind, and to forge a new perspective for the region’s economic past in the aforesaid period.
Description
Along with the recent progress of studies on intra-Asian trade, statistical trends and fluctuations of long distance trade between Europe and Asia, and also intra-Asian regional trade among India, China, Japan and other Asian countries have become clearer. Meanwhile, studies on intra-Southeast Asian trade have also made modest advances. This project aims to further this trend and establish a new field of the history of intra-Southeast Asian regional trade between the end of the eighteenth and the early twentieth centuries.
At present, there is no collaborative project for young researchers in the economic history of Southeast Asia in Japan. Other research projects partly cover this topic but do not necessarily focus upon it. It seems significant that this project could provide a platform for intensive discussion among members and invited guests, and eventually produce joint research for publication.
All of the project’s members are historians, who are familiar with CSEAS’s library and are well-acquainted with the archival value of sources and books held there. Through this collaborate research, they will access library resources, as well as keep in constant touch with the CSEAS’s staffs and foreign research fellows.