自由貿易、帝國與情報──十九世紀三十年代《廣州紀事報》中的臺灣知識

Free Trade, Empire, and Intelligence: Knowledge of Formosa in ＂The Canton Register＂ in the 1830s

在以往被臺灣史研究注意到的英文文獻之外，有一種重要的材料為人忽略，那就是，十九世紀在臺灣之外的中國開港口岸裡發行的英文商業報紙與傳教期刊。這些文本裡有大量臺灣的相關消息。本文以中國最早的英文商報《廣州紀事報》（The Canton Register）為例，分析該報1830年代臺灣知識的生產脈絡。本文要進一步地論證，在1830年代的廣州貿易時期，這些英文出版品中臺灣知識的文字生產已見端倪，並具有新的時代意義。與早期葡、西、荷蘭等東來的殖民者，留下關於臺灣的文字圖像等訊息不同的是，這些商業報紙的出現，代表著東印度公司商業壟斷結束後，高舉「自由貿易」原則的新式商人的興起，以其相應的「情報體制」（intelligence regime）的轉變從東印度公司的內部通信消息，轉變成在各個港口流傳且公開的商業新聞。透過這一新的媒體的出現，各式訊息得以在其中，更即時地被主要是商人的讀者公眾檢視與辯正。這一隨著進一步商業貿易而開啟的訊息溝通模式，我稱之為「港際情報體制」。《紀事報》上的臺灣相關消息，提供了一個讓我們檢視這一體制的出現與運作實況的窗口。對商人角色與海上經濟的著重，則有助於我們修正晚近那種偏重國家角色的歐美帝國安全的歷史回顧。

Scholars have previously overlooked a set of important English-language materials useful in the study of nineteenth-century Taiwanese history, namely the commercial newspapers and missionary periodicals published in mainland China's ports, which contain a large volume of Taiwan-related news. Through an analysis of news articles about ＂Formosa＂ published in the 1830s in the earliest English-language commercial newspaper published in China, ＂The Canton Register＂, this article argues that such information is evidence for the emergence of a new ＂intelligence regime.＂ Methods of information gathering under this new regime differed from those previously used by the English East India Company at the end of the Company's monopoly on trade with China. Under the new regime, commercial media established by ＂free traders＂ and enhanced by missionaries, facilitated open, real-time information flows between different ports. This inter-port intelligence regime highlights the role of merchants and the maritime economy, serving as an important corrective to the recent view of history from the perspective of Euro-American security that stresses the role of nation-states.