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In the Business of Piracy: Entrepreneurial Women Among Chinese Pirates in the Mid-Nineteenth Century

In: Female Entrepreneurs in the Long Nineteenth Century

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  • C. Nathan Kwan

    (University of Hong Kong
    King’s College London)

Abstract

The success of Zheng Yi Sao, perhaps the most successful pirate chieftainess in history, shows that women in South China participated, sometimes prominently, in piracy. This chapter shows that women’s involvement in Chinese piracy continued after Zheng Yi Sao’s surrender in 1810. The British colonisation of Hong Kong and the opening of treaty ports to foreign trade in 1842 produced new opportunities for women and Chinese pirates. Through the case studies of Mrs Bigfoot, Ng Akew and Liu Laijiao, Kwan explores the interactions between women and Chinese pirates. The chapter argues that these women engaged in the business of piracy, profiting from association with pirates. Piracy provided entrepreneurial opportunities for women, marginalised by Chinese society, to advance and improve themselves in mid-nineteenth-century South China.

Suggested Citation

  • C. Nathan Kwan, 2020. "In the Business of Piracy: Entrepreneurial Women Among Chinese Pirates in the Mid-Nineteenth Century," Palgrave Studies in Economic History, in: Jennifer Aston & Catherine Bishop (ed.), Female Entrepreneurs in the Long Nineteenth Century, edition 1, chapter 0, pages 195-218, Palgrave Macmillan.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:palscp:978-3-030-33412-3_8
    DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-33412-3_8
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