The Asian Trade in Portable Buildings

Portable buildings were a major article of trade in a number of nineteenth century Asian countries, but there has never been a comprehensive survey of this for any one country, much less for the whole region. Often the same country was both an exporter and an importer, which leads one to question the dynamics underlying the trade. Asian countries exported to European settlements in the Pacific - Australia, New Zealand and California. They imported buildings from Europe, and especially from Britain. The problem in dealing with the issue is that there is very little contemporary data available in any of the Asian countries, and what is available in Europe, Australasia and the United States is uneven, if not random. Despite these limitations it is possible here to answer the basic questions about this issue. What is needed for the future is more detailed research upon documentary sources in Europe, and closer physical examination of surviving specimens in India and other Asian countries. as well as in Australasia.