Reading Colonies-Property and Control of the British Far East

　　BY 1945, EVERYWHERE ONE LOOKED IN THE FAR EAST THE BRITISH EMPIRE WAS BEING OPENLY QUESTIONED OR WAS FAILING OUTRIGHT. YET IN THE PREVIOUS CENTURY, THE BRITISH HAD BEEN THE PRE-EMINENT IMPERIAL POWER FROM WEIHAIWEI TO NORTH BORNEO.

　　READING COLONIES: PROPERTY AND CONTROL OF THE BRITISH FAR EAST INVESTIGATES HOW THE BRITISH HELD ON FOR SO LONG. RENT CONTROL LEGISLATION, AND OTHER MEASURES OF PROPERTY LAW SUCH AS LAND IMPROVEMENT OPPORTUNITIES, ARE NOMINATED AS KEY TOOLS USED TO FRUSTRATE DECOLONIZATION IN MOST EASTERN COLONIES. BRITISH COLONIAL ADMINISTRATIONS TRIED LONG AND HARD TO INHIBIT THE DIALECTICAL DISCORD BETWEEN THEIR COLONIAL HIERARCHISM AND LOCAL FORMS OF NATIONALISM WITH THE PROMPTS AND PLAUDITS OF PROPERTY POLICY. IN CASES WHERE INDIGENOUS LANDLORDISM MASQUERADED AS PATRIOTISM, INDEPENDENCE CAME QUICKLY (CEYLON AND BURMA). WHERE PUBLIC HOUSING ESTABLISHED ITSELF AS A KEY POST-WAR PLANK OF SOCIAL POLICY, FREEDOM FROM BRITISH RULE WAS A MORE GRADUAL AFFAIR (BRITISH MALAYA AND HONG KONG).

　　THIS STUDY CONCLUDES THAT BRITISH COLONIAL REGIMES DID NOT OFFER A SHARE OF THEIR INDUSTRIAL MODERNITY TO STAY AT THE APEX OF POLITICAL POWER, BUT READILY ADJUSTED OLD-STYLE LANDLORDISM TO KEEP NATIONALIST USURPERS AT BAY.

Chapter 1    The Limits of Theory
Chapter 2    Reading Colonies via Property Policy
Chapter 3    Judicial Autonomy and Post-War Rent Control
Chapter 4    Property as Anti-Nationalism or Failing Geopolitics
Chapter 5    Reading Capital, Reading Colonies
Chapter 6    Codas

作者簡介



R.B.E. Price

　　Rohan B.E. Price is a Lecturer-at-Law in the School of Law and Justice at Southern Cross University. He holds a PhD in British property law policy in Hong Kong between the world wars and is also the acclaimed biographer of Philip Jacks, Hong Kong Land Officer. Rohan has enjoyed extensive stints teaching and researching in China. He has written widely on law and policy issues in modern China and Hong Kong for many well-regarded journals and reviews.