英帝国扩张与地方资源博弈——18世纪印度迈索尔檀香木入华贸易始末探析

British Imperialism and Local Resource:The Indian Mysore Sandalwood Trade with China Through the Eighteenth Century

18世纪英国主导的印度迈索尔檀香木入华,既是此前亚洲内部檀香文化传播与物质流动的产物,也是近代英国殖民扩张中全球与地方资源博弈的重要案例。双方的资源争夺促使檀香木被封为迈索尔“皇家之树”。1799年,战败的迈索尔王国成为英国间接统治的土邦,英国进而控制迈索尔檀香资源。书写这段贸易故事不仅有助于呈现跨区域网络里中国、印度以及英国的商贸往来,也有助于阐明该贸易网络在何种程度上影响生产地的政治经济和社会历史。

The British East India Company exported the Indian Mysore sandalwood to China since the eighteenth century.The rise of the Mysore sandalwood trade was not only a product of historical sandalwood culture and material transmission inside Asia,but also a crucial case of the interaction on resource between global and local during the colonial expansion of British Empire.Sandalwood played a key role in the Anglo-Mysore Wars and was entitled as the“Mysore Royal Tree”.In 1799,the British won the battle against Mysore Kingdom and controlled the Mysore sandalwood resource,which intrigued the sandalwood rush from the beginning of the nineteenth century.Writing this sandalwood story from the perspective of trans-regional trade network,on one hand,helps to illustrate the commercial operation,and community connection between China,India and Britain,and on the other hand,contributes to understanding how this network affected the local political economic and history of the producing place.