The son of a village doctor, Rutherford Alcock trained in medicine and became a battlefield surgeon, working in Portugal and Spain during the civil wars there in the 1830s. In a major career shift, he entered the consular service, went to China, and ended up as British Minister (the equivalent of today’s ambassador) to Japan and then China. This progression was unique, indeed bizarre, especially as every senior position he got was one he specifically said he did not want. Nonetheless, he was the man who commenced Britain’s relations with Japan and introduced Japan’s arts and crafts to the UK, in addition to playing a central role in Britain’s relationship with China. He was no rampant imperialist and expressed ambivalence about Britain’s position in East Asia as he contended with intractable issues like the opium trade and how to punish attacks on British interests without starting a war. This book fills a major gap in the study of Japan’s opening to the West from a British perspective, as well as Britain’s relationship with East Asia as a whole, through the eyes of a brilliant, but complicated and contradictory figure.
- Cover
- Table of Contents
- Introduction
- 1. ‘A Young Man in a Hurry’
- London—Hexham—Paris
1809–28
- 2. ‘Perseverance, Courage, and Fortitude of Conduct’
- 3. ‘Highly Qualified for Any Professional Situation’
- 4. ‘The Most Able of Our Consuls in China’
- 5. ‘Acting with Promptness and Decision’
- 6. ‘Desolation around and about Me’
- Shanghai—London—Guangzhou
1853–9
- 7. ‘I Can Hardly Say I Am Disappointed’
- 8. ‘The Scum of the Earth’
- 9. ‘A Hundred Petty Acts of Annoyance’
- 10. ‘Sir Rutherford’
- 11. ‘My Service in the East Thus Terminates’
- 12. ‘There is So Much to Fear and So Little to Hope’
- 13. ‘A Distinct and Disastrous Sacrifice of British Interests’
- 14. ‘Savourer the Dignity of His Position’
- Afterword
- Bibliography
- Acknowledgements
- Index
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