Page 81 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol V

1858 berkshire encyclopedia of world history

violence, the Portuguese understood the wisdom and Treaty Ports, Steam Shipping,
even the necessity of partially adapting to Asian trade. and the World Market
The Dutch and later the British developed their own The “opening” of China and the establishment of the ear-
forms of “country trade,” conducted by private Euro- liest treaty ports (ports designated by treaty for trade) in
pean trading firms along intraregional trading routes. 1842 was soon followed by the introduction of steam
European traders were closely dependent on indigenous shipping into Chinese coastal and riverine traffic. Al-
producers, merchants, and providers of credit. Long- though Chinese-type sailing vessels proved remarkably
distance trade to Europe remained in the hands of the resilient and were completely superseded hardly any-
European chartered companies. While the East India where, steamers possessed advantages that had a deep
Company (EIC) preferred direct contact with Chinese impact on trading patterns. Their carrying capacity was
merchants in Canton (Guangzhou) and other South virtually unlimited, they could easily operate on the sea
Chinese ports, the Dutch Verenigde Oost-Indische Com- as well as on major rivers, and their deployment could be
pagnie (Dutch East India Company, or VOC) relied on organized by large-scale capitalist enterprises. In the
Batavia (present-day Jakarta) as its central emporium China Seas, especially in the south, sail and steam con-
and collecting point in the East.Thus, Batavia served as tinued to coexist. The most dynamic lines of business,
a link between the various Eastern networks and the however, were captured by modern forms of transport.
transoceanic shipping routes. From to 1820s through the 1870s, China’s foreign
There is little statistical evidence for the scope of trade was dominated structurally by illegal and, from
trade in the China Seas in the early modern era. Data 1858, legalized shipments of opium from India to China.
on maritime customs revenue collected at ports in This trade used the South China Sea for transit, but
South China, however, indicate that the volume of hardly affected Southeast Asia, where different networks
trade multiplied between the sixteenth century and the of drug traffic existed. An important change came with
1820s. The expansion of foreign trade facilitated the economic development of the European colonies in
regional specialization all around the China Seas and that part of the world during the last quarter of the nine-
thus had a profound effect on economic activity in the teenth century.The introduction of large-scale plantations
entire region. The rise of port cities, with their cosmo- and of mechanized mining as well as the intensification
politan communities of sailors and traveling merchants, of peasant production for export integrated Southeast
contributed significantly to social differentiation. Yet Asia much more closely into the world economy than
there was no steady progress of opening up to the ever before. Expatriate entrepreneurs of Chinese origin
world. Japan’s Tokugawa shogunate, the military gov- were instrumental in forging these connections. By this
ernment in power from 1600 to 1868, drastically cur- time, an impoverished China was no longer the promis-
tailed Japan’s foreign trade with all possible partners ing market it had been. China now became important as
from the 1630s onwards, and while Chinese maritime a supplier of cheap labor. Chinese emigrants took advan-
commerce flourished after about 1720, many noncolo- tage of the agricultural and mining opportunities in insu-
nial entrepôts in Southeast Asia lost their dynamism at lar and continental Southeast Asia and beyond. The
roughly the same time.Trade in the China Seas not only migration of contract labor from southern China to var-
constantly changed its patterns in space, but also went ious overseas destination, termed “coolie trade” by con-
through long-term as well as short-term cycles of expan- temporaries, was largely organized by Chinese recruiting
sion and contraction that were partly driven by politi- firms, although transport remained in the hands of
cal and military factors, as the market economy of European-owned steamship companies.
maritime Asia in early modern times operated under It was a structural hallmark of Chinese foreign trade
conditions set by rulers and states. between the first Opium War (1839–1842) and the estab-