Acknowledgements

This volume is the result of a 2-day Workshop on 'Gentlemanly Capitalism and Its Impact on Global History', held in Osaka, Japan, on 7 and 8 October 2000. The aim of the Workshop was to consider the new perspective of global history, focusing on gentlemanly capitalism as a bridge from imperial history to global history.

Nine papers were submitted to the Workshop and intensive discus­sions took place during this 2-day period. Each paper has been revised in the light of further exchanges that have occurred since then. I would also very much like to express my appreciation to our discussants, Prof. Raymond E. Dumett (Purdue University), Dr Harumi Goto-Shibata (Chiba University), and Professors Minoru Kawakita (Osaka University), Katsuhiko Kitagawa (Kansai University), Man-houng Lin (Academia Sinica, Taipei) and Yukio Takeuchi (Nihon University) for their helpful comments and suggestions to broaden our perspectives on global his­tory. I am also grateful to the audiences who came from all over Japan, for their useful comments.

The Fellowship of the Japan Foundation 2001 has enabled me to be attached to the Economic History Department, LSE, University of London and to edit this volume. The discussions on global history with my colleagues at LSE, especially with Prof. Patrick O'Brien, have been very helpful for my editorial work.

Finally, I would like to thank Professors PJ. Cain and A.G. Hopkins for their contribution, which has made this volume more fruitful.

Shigeru Akita

January 2002

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Map 1. The Partition of Africa by 1902

Map 3. The British Empire c. 1931