Abstract In the Early Modern period, many Chinese people undertook temporary or permanent overseas migrations from the Qing empire (1644-1911) to labour and trade. These circulations were almost entirely organized by translocal kinship networks with little to no involvement from the imperial state itself. In fact, in its earlier years the Qing Dynasty actively sought to prevent or delimit the activities of these migratory networks. Not surprisingly then, the relationship between these networks and the Qing state has often been framed as inherently antagonistic. In this paper, I explore the evolution of this relationship over the 17th and 18th centuries, with particular consideration towards the ways it influenced and was influenced by the circulation of technologies. I argue that as the dynasty expanded and its security anxieties declined, it increasingly found a place for diaspora within the framework of the Qing’s nebulous claim to rulership over ‘all under heaven’. I find that the state was forced at times to collaborate with migrant networks in the construction of a quasi-protectionist system that met key needs for both. This transformation had important consequences for technology transfer, especially in the fields of ship-building, cash crop agriculture, and mining.
Nicholas McGee (Wed,) studied this question.