The German Experience of Japan''s Treaty Port System - A Case Study of C. Nickel & Co. Ltd., 1860–1923

German merchants were attracted to the British Empire''s spheres of influence in northeast Asia from the 1700s. Their numbers increased when Britain established a network of treaty ports in China from 1842 and in Japan from 1858. This is the story of two German merchants, as they built their company, C. Nickel & Co. Ltd. in Kobe.