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Chops and Trademarks: Asian Trading Ports and Textile Branding, 1840–1920
- Enterprise & Society
- Oxford University Press
- Volume 15, Number 4, December 2014
- pp. 759-790
- Article
- Additional Information
This article is a contribution to the prehistory of modern branding, presenting a case study of the textile trade in colonial Southeast Asia. The visual appearance of brands as well as their social meaning were altered in the cultural encounter of colonial trade. Through these encounters, trademarks were modernized: the reputation of a producer became less important than the distinctiveness of the product.