Two volumes in one. Royal octavo. Pp. xii, 152; vii, 386. Group-portrait as frontispiece. Plus large folding map preceding frontispiece, folding map bound-in, and large fold-out plan "Section of Main Caravan Route (.)" bound at end of volume I. Includes a transcript of Bourne's letter to the Marquess of Salisbury. Appendices, glossary, tables, text figures. Hardcover, bound in the original publisher's maroon full cloth, bit soiled and frayed in places, spine gilt; joints and part of spine mended for splits, spine-ends bumped or chipped, maps and first and last leaves foxed. In good overall condition, very good interior. - - First edition. Sir Frederick Samuel Augustus Bourne (1854-1940) was Consul in charge of the Blackburn Commercial Mission. Between October 1896 and June 1897, members of the Blackburn Commission travelled some 4,300 miles through the interior of south and central China. They collected detailed information on all factors relating to how the Chinese met "their own wants in the matter of textiles", including material on marketing, distribution, indigenous handicraft production, taxation and "local customs and usage as they might affect [the United Kingdom's] textile industry". The Commission also investigated in detail remote or less known parts of the country, and provided an account of means of communication by land and water. The report was published in two lengthy sections by The North-East Lancashire Press Company in Blackburn, a very rare imprint. The first part was compiled by Bourne; the second by H. Neville and H. Bell. See further: "Commerce and Capitalism in Chinese Societies", Gary G. Hamilton (London, Routledge, 2006). Bourne published also, among others, "The Lo-Fou mountains: An excursion" (Hongkong, 1895); and "Trade of central and southern China" (Shanghai, 1898).
