La mission de Théodose de Lagrené et les enquêtes sur les textiles d’Insulinde (1844-1846)

Through the Treaty of Nanking (1842), Britain obtained permission to trade at five "treaty ports" in China. The following year, the USA and France decided to negotiate directly with the Manchus. The French government appointed Théodose de Lagrené as plenipotentiary minister to sign the Treaty of Whampoa (1844). The mission was accompanied by a commercial delegation, the task of which was to investigate the commerce and the various textile industries in China and in all the countries in which the mission made a stopover. This article examines the various reports written by different members of the delegation, which were aimed at presenting two types of enterprises : those that were in the hands of the local populations of Insulinde (the Philippines, Singapore, Malacca, Batavia and Bogor), and the various attempts made by Europeans (Spaniards and Dutch especially) to introduce, with little success, sericulture in their own colonies. It also provides an appraisal of the textile production of Insulinde, insisting on its fragility as well as on the menace caused by the import of Chinese silks and British cottons, and it concludes with an overview of the proposals made by the emissaries to improve the commercial position of France in the Far East.Salmon Claudine. La mission de Théodose de Lagrené et les enquêtes sur les textiles d’Insulinde (1844-1846). In: Archipel, volume 75, 2008. pp. 167-197