Agricultural History Review, Volume 55 Part 1 (2007), p. 142

This volume is the thirteenth in the series ‘The Pacific World: Lands, Peoples and History of the Pacific, 1500–1900’. Seventeen such volumes have been produced or are planned, including several others that may be of interest to readers of this journal, such as John McNeill’s compilation Environmental history in the Pacific world (2001) and Tony Ballantyne’s Science, empire and the European exploration of the Pacific (2004). The purpose of the series is to draw attention to the longer history of transpacific interactions, to counter what the general editors consider is the traditional conceptualization of ‘this vast body of water as a colossal barrier to interchange until recent times’ (p.xi). It draws together epidemiological, ecological, demographic and cultural studies, on the premise that ‘Water connects cheaply and yet water geography remains an under-appreciated facet of history’ (p.xiii). This is hardly a new idea – witness for example Oskar Spate’s three volumes on the Pacific, beginning with The Spanish lake (1979), which are not referenced here – but it is one that deserves more attention.

Gerber and Guang have followed the format of the series, drawing together nineteen articles or chapters first published elsewhere, in this case between 1943 and 1999. The sources are mostly quite accessible, but are from a range of disciplines. The aim is to assemble in one place an anthology of materials on ‘Pacific basin agriculture and transpacific rural linkages’ (p.xv), organized around four themes. In the table of contents these are: ‘The dispersion and diffusion of seeds and food plants’, ‘Systems of production and the impact of the Spanish conquest’, ‘Migration of rural people across the region’, and ‘Integration of markets and the stimulus to agriculture’. In the text however, the parts are neither individually introduced nor separated; instead there is a 22-page editorial introduction to the whole volume. This provides an excellent overview, albeit one that is referenced somewhat idiosyncratically.

The approach of the articles assembled, although this is never stated, is consistent with the relatively new approach to imperial history of relations understood as networks and webs, rather than as core and periphery. The first part of the book gives illuminating insights into the diverse routes by which plants and seeds were dispersed, from the Americas into China, for example, or from Japan into the United States. Sometimes it is also revealing on questions of agency. By the mid sixteenth century, maize was being brought to the court in Peking by western tribesmen as ‘imperial wheat’, i.e. as tribute. The transmission home of information about potential agricultural plants was part of the job of nineteenth-century American representatives in Japan. Members of the South American Commission of 1817–18 did much to arouse American interest in plants and crops from that region, the results being more lasting than those of their ostensible political mission.

The articles also put some emphasis on multiple agency and directions of movement, and on the impacts of those not involved in officially-sponsored business. Rural-to-rural migration around the Pacific is a focus, although this invariably occurred within organized frameworks. Chinese agriculturalists had moved into south-east Asia before any strong European influence was felt there, becoming market gardeners around Batavia and plantation producers in nineteenth century Siam. More Chinese lived in rural California than any other part of the United States throughout the nineteenth century: with the decline of mining from 1860, they became tenant farmers, paid farm labourers and fruit and vegetable sellers. Hawaiian planters came to rely on Japanese and Chinese labourers; there was contract emigration of Japanese to Peru from 1898 to 1924.

There are many more themes in this volume that reflect growing processes of interconnection. These the editors liken, somewhat loosely, to the seeds (literal and metaphorical) of historical globalization. Yet inevitably their book is likely to be only a library purchase, given its cover price. For such a price, one expects a high standard of production. It is well bound, but the individual articles are reproduced as scans of the originals and several are these are of poor quality, making figures hard to read. It is a little confusing to have a dual page number-ing system (that of the originals plus the book’s own). There is an index, but unfortunately nothing is said about the authors. However the anthology as a whole is a rewarding read. It does bring together materials that, with the aid of the editorial introduction, go a long way to meeting the goals of both volume and series.