MARTIN, R. Montgomery.

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China: Political, Commercial, and Social, in an Official Report to Her Majesty's Government. First edition of this historical survey and analysis of the British position in China. The author served as Colonial Treasurer of Hong Kong from 1844 to 1845 but resigned following a disagreement with superiors over the prospects of the colony (Martin saw Hong Kong as doomed to failure). He was also a staunch critic of the opium trade.Throughout his professional career, Martin (c.1802-1868), wrote extensively on colonial matters. "His life was dominated by a self-appointed task - the study of the British empire, which Martin saw in terms of a vast free-trade area of new territories in allegiance to the British crown" (ODNB). In his dedication to Queen Victoria, he describes the development of Hong Kong as a "wasteful application of Your Majesty's treasury... [and] an erroneous course of national policy."An advertisement in the text gives a print-run of 2,000 copies.

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