Contained in:
Book Chapter

«Robbe d’Europa»: Global Connections and the Mailing of Letters, Money, and Merchandise in the Eighteenth-Century China Mission

  • Eugenio Menegon

Manuscript reports and letters written in China by the Propaganda Fide and Jesuit missionaries criss-crossed the oceans and the continents to reach Europe on ships, carts, horses, mules, and palanquins, using both European systems of transportation provided by the various East India Companies and governments, and other local public and private postal arrangements. Missionary agencies also mailed from the West robbe d’Europa («European things»), such as silver coins, foodstuff and drugs (chocolate, wine, cheese, olive oil, tobacco), medicines, galanterie (luxury items), books, devotional objects and prints. Chinese goods (tea, silk, medicines, luxury items, books) were sent in the opposite direction to please patrons in Europe. Without this multi-layered, imperfect, yet workable mailing system, the flow of information and articles fuelling early modern globalisation and, within it, the Chinese missions, would have been impossible.

  • Keywords:
  • Global Connections; China Catholic Mission; Propaganda Fide: Jesuits,
+ Show More

Eugenio Menegon

Boston University, United States - ORCID: 0000-0001-6803-5697

  1. Archivio Storico della Congregazione per l’Evangelizzazione dei Popoli o «de Propaganda Fide» (Propaganda Fide Historical Archives), Rome (APF). Procura Cina
  2. Archivio Storico della Congregazione per l’Evangelizzazione dei Popoli o «de Propaganda Fide» (Propaganda Fide Historical Archives), Rome (APF). Acta Congregationis Particolaris super rebus Sinarum et Indiarum Orientalium (Acta CP)
  3. Archivio Storico della Congregazione per l’Evangelizzazione dei Popoli o «de Propaganda Fide» (Propaganda Fide Historical Archives), Rome (APF). Scritture originali riferite nella Congregazione Particolare dell’Indie Orientali e Cina (SOCP)
  4. Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica, Taiwan, Personal Names Authority Database (Ming & Qing) – Renming quanwei ziliaoku 人名權威資料庫.
  5. Alden, Dauril. 1996. The Making of an Enterprise: The Society of Jesus in Portugal, Her Empire, and Beyond, 1540-1750. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
  6. Amaral Lapa, José Roberto do. 1968. A Bahía e a Carreira da Indía. São Paulo: Companhia Editora Nacional.
  7. Benedict, Carol Ann. 2011. Golden-Silk Smoke: A History of Tobacco in China, 1550-2010. Berkeley-Los Angeles: University of California Press.
  8. Dehergne, Joseph. 2018. Répertoire des Jésuites de Chine de 1552 à 1800. Roma-Paris: Institutum Historicum S.I.
  9. Friedrich, Markus. 2011. Der Lange Arm Roms? Globale Verwaltung und Kommunikation im Jesuitenorden 1540-1773. Frankfurt-New York: Campus Verlag.
  10. Golvers, Noël. 1999. François de Rougemont, S.J., Missionary in Ch’ang-Shu (Chiang Nan). A Study of His Account Book (1674-1676) and the Elogium. Leuven: Ferdinand Verbiest Foundation-Leuven University Press.
  11. Han, Yongfu 韓永福. 2011. “Yesuhui chuanjiaoshi Liu Songling dang’an shiliao 耶稣会传教士刘松龄档案史料 [Archival historical materials on the Jesuit missionary Augustin von Hallerstein].” Lishi dang’an 歷史檔案, 1: 34-44.
  12. Margiotti, Fortunato. 1958. Il cattolicismo nello Shansi [山西] dalle origini al 1738. Roma: Edizioni Sinica Franciscana.
  13. Menegon, Eugenio. 2018. “Interlopers at the Fringes of Empire: The Procurators of the Propaganda Fide Papal Congregation in Canton and Macao, and Their Maritime Network, 1700-1823.” Cross-Currents: East Asian History and Culture 7, 1: 30-69. https://doi.org/10.1353/ach.2018.0002 (last accessed 08/01/2023).
  14. Menegon, Eugenio. 2019. “Quid pro Quo? Europeans and Their «Skill Capital» in Qing Peking.” In Testing the Margins of Leisure. Cases from China, Japan and Indonesia, edited by Rudolf Wagner, Catherine Yeh, Eugenio Menegon, and Robert Weller, 107-52. Heidelberg Studies in Transculturality. Heidelberg: Heidelberg University Publishing. https://doi.org/10.17885/heiup.550 (last accessed 08/01/2023). DOI: 10.17885/heiup.550
  15. Mensaert, Georges. 1958. « Les Franciscains au service de la Propagande dans la province de Pékin. » Archivum Franciscanum Historicum 51, 1-2 (January); 3 (July): 161-200; 273-311.
  16. Standaert, Nicolas, ed. 2001. Handbook of Christianity in China. Vol. I. Leiden: Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004391857 (last accessed 08/01/2023). DOI: 10.1163/9789004391857
  17. Vermote, Frederik. 2013. “The Role of Urban Real Estate in Jesuit Finances and Networks between Europe and China, 1612-1778.” PhD diss., Dept. of History, University of British Columbia. https://doi.org/10.14288/1.0073543 (last accessed 08/01/2023). DOI: 10.14288/1.0073543
  18. Vermote, Frederik. 2017. “Financing Jesuit Missions.” In The Oxford Handbook of Jesuits, edited by Ines G. Županov, 128-152. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190639631.013.6 (last accessed 08/01/2023). DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190639631.013.6
  19. Vermote, Frederik. 2018. “Finances of the Missions.” In A Companion to the Early Modern Catholic Global Missions, edited by Ronnie Po-chia Hsia, 367-400. Leiden: Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004355286_015 (last accessed 08/01/2023). DOI: 10.1163/9789004355286_015
  20. Vermote, Frederik. 2019. “Jesuit Account Books and Their Role in Connecting Worlds.” In Mercantilism and Account Keeping: Comparative Analysis of the Periphery-Core Structure and Its Impacts on Indigenous Market Players, edited by Cheryl S. McWatters, 11-31. Abingdon-New York: Routledge.
  21. Wilkinson, Endymion Porter. 2018. Chinese History: A New Manual, 5th ed. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center.
  22. Zhongguo diyi lishi dang’anguan 中國第一歷史檔案館, Aomen jijinhui 澳門基金會and Jinan daxue guji yanjiusuo 暨南大學古籍硏究所, eds. 1999. Ming Qing shiqi Aomen wenti dang’an wenxian huibian 明淸时期澳門問題檔案文獻匯編 (Archival Documentary Collection on Macao in the Ming and Qing Periods), 6 vols. Beijing: Renmin chubanshe.
PDF
  • Publication Year: 2023
  • Pages: 15-32
  • Content License: CC BY 4.0
  • © 2023 Author(s)

XML
  • Publication Year: 2023
  • Content License: CC BY 4.0
  • © 2023 Author(s)

Chapter Information

Chapter Title

«Robbe d’Europa»: Global Connections and the Mailing of Letters, Money, and Merchandise in the Eighteenth-Century China Mission

Authors

Eugenio Menegon

Language

English

DOI

10.36253/979-12-215-0242-8.03

Peer Reviewed

Publication Year

2023

Copyright Information

© 2023 Author(s)

Content License

CC BY 4.0

Metadata License

CC0 1.0

Bibliographic Information

Book Title

East and West Entangled (17th-21st Centuries)

Editors

Rolando Minuti, Giovanni Tarantino

Peer Reviewed

Number of Pages

228

Publication Year

2023

Copyright Information

© 2023 Author(s)

Content License

CC BY 4.0

Metadata License

CC0 1.0

Publisher Name

Firenze University Press

DOI

10.36253/979-12-215-0242-8

ISBN Print

979-12-215-0241-1

eISBN (pdf)

979-12-215-0242-8

eISBN (epub)

979-12-215-0243-5

Series Title

Connessioni. Studies in Transcultural History

Series ISSN

2975-0393

Series E-ISSN

2975-0261

143

Fulltext
downloads

157

Views

Export Citation

1,346

Open Access Books

in the Catalogue

2,262

Book Chapters

3,790,127

Fulltext
downloads

4,420

Authors

from 923 Research Institutions

of 65 Nations

65

scientific boards

from 348 Research Institutions

of 43 Nations

1,248

Referees

from 381 Research Institutions

of 38 Nations