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China and the Erie Canal

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 July 2012

Craig R. Hanyan
Craig R. Hanyan
Affiliation:
Instructor in History at Utica College, Syracuse University
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Abstract

China's Imperial Canal excited the imagination of a succession of travelers. While American and British canal promoters were interested in the technological details, the true importance of the Chinese precedent lay in the breadth of concept — a gigantic, state-supported geophysical manipulation in the interests of interregional trade.

Type
Research Article
Information
Business History Review , Volume 35 , Issue 4 , Winter 1961 , pp. 558 - 566
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 1961

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References

1 A fine discussion of the company and the Northern Inland Lock Navigation Company may be found in Miller, Nathan, “Private Enterprise in Inland Navigation: the Mohawk Route prior to the Erie Canal,” New York History (Cooperstown, 1950), vol. XXXI, pp. 398–413Google Scholar.

2 Ricci's Journals were originally in Italian. Translated into Latin in 1615 by Nicola Trigault, the work did not circulate widely. The edition used here is the recent English translation, Ricci, Matteo, China in the Sixteenth Century: The Journals of Matthew Ricci, 1583–1610, Louis, J.Gallager, S.J., tr. (New York, 1953)Google Scholar.

3 Ricci, Journals, pp. 305–308.

4 Le Compte, Louis, Memoirs and Observations … made in a late Journey through the Empire of China (London, 1697)Google Scholar.

5 Ibid., p. v.

6 Ibid., p. 108.

7 Ibid., pp. 104–105.

8 Ibid., p. 107.

9 Grosier, Jean, A General Description of China (London, 1788), vol. I, pp. 359–360Google Scholar.

10 Halde, P. Du, General History of China, Brooks, R., tr. (London, 1736)Google Scholar.

11 Ghengis Khan.

12 Halde, Du, History, vol. II, p. 272Google Scholar.

13 Ibid., pp. 275ff.

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21 Ibid., pp. 6–7.

22 Ibid., pp. 39–57, 71–76, and plates 2–4.

23 Ibid., p. 12.

24 Staunton, George Leonard, An Authentic Account of an Embassy from the King, of Great Britain to the Emperor of China (London, 1797), vol. II, opposite page 382Google Scholar. There is, moreover, a detailed map of the portions of the Grand Canal traveled by the Embassy. This shows the locations of sluice gates and bridges. See vol. II, opposite page 276.

25 Staunton, Account, vol. II, chap. V.

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27 Ibid., p. 403.

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33 ”Report of James Geddes to the Surveyor General … in 1809 … made pursuant to concurrent resolutions of the Senate and Assembly of March 21 and April 6, 1808,” Laws of the State of New York in Relation to the Erie and Champlain Canals (Albany, 1825), vol. I, p. 24Google Scholar.

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40 “Report of the Commissioners … in Senate, March 2, 1811,” Laws, vol. I, p. 58. “Inclined plane” here, of course, means a running waterway and not a ramp.

41 Ibid., pp. 61–62.

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43 Thomas Eddy to De Witt Clinton, Feb. 28, 1816, De Witt Clinton Papers, Columbia University. The Clinton Papers are quoted with the permission of Columbia University Libraries.

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46 Haines, Public Documents, p. iii. This statement has been brought to my attention by the kindness of Miss Dorothy C. Barck of the New York State Historical Association.

47 Ibid., pp. xlv–xlvi.

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