Page 80 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol V

trading patterns, china seas 1857

This nineteenth-century map shows the ancient sea routes used from Greece and the Arabian
peninsula to and from China.

numerous countries in Southeast Asia and on the Second, emigration from Guangdong and Fujian
Indian Ocean. Although this policy was soon discon- seems to have increased during the fifteenth century. Chi-
tinued, several of the links formed by these naval mis- nese merchant communities settled in various parts of
sions were maintained as “tributary” relationships, in insular and continental Southeast Asia.They were viewed
which ritual, diplomacy, and commercial interest inter- with suspicion by the Ming dynasty, and after the Chinese
acted in a complicated way.The best example of a trib- authorities restricted maritime commerce much of their
utary relationship with a strong economic content is the trading activity was considered illegal. This did not pre-
Sino-Siamese (i.e.,Thai) tributary trade, conducted offi- vent a flourishing trade in spices, silk, timber, skins,
cially between the Siamese royal court and imperial rep- gold, copper, tin, medicinal materials, and other valuable
resentatives in South China. Its material underpinnings goods. Apart from Chinese merchants, many local
were the complementary structures of the two groups,Arab traders, Indian businessmen (many of them
economies: Siam produced rice that was needed to from Gujarat) and even Japanese ships were involved in
feed the rapidly growing population of the southern these commercial transactions, often ultimately driven by
provinces of Guangdong and Fujian. The Chinese demand in an increasingly prosperous Chinese market.
demand for rice, in turn, was partly the result of the con- The famous pepper trade to Europe, for example, found
version of rice paddies into fields for cotton, tea, and its equivalent in vast exports of pepper from Sumatra and
mulberry trees for silk, all commodities used at home other islands to China.
and in trade. In the opposite direction, Siam imported The arrival of European ships changed the established
copper from mines in the Chinese province of Yunnan. trading patterns within the region without overturning
This trading pattern persisted up to the middle of the them.The Europeans’ main advantage lay in the size and
nineteenth century. armament of their ships. After a brief period of intrusive