Learning Shanghainese in 1869

Came across Mr Joseph Edkins of the London Missionary Society’s Vocabulary of the Shanghai Dialect the other day, published in 1869 by Presbyterian Mission Press in Shanghai. It’s handily also online here…. it must have been quite popular as it was republished in 1913. Its popularity was probably mostly due to the fact that Shanghai Municipal Council recommended it as the best study aid to their staff needing to learn Shanghainese – as Municipal coppers and other staff got extra wages if they mastered the dialect, and there wasn’t all that much do in Shanghai in the late nineteenth century, learning Shanghaihua was probably quite popular.