Book contents
- The Cambridge Economic History of China
- The Cambridge Economic History of China
- The Cambridge Economic History of China
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Tables
- Contributors to Volume I
- Acknowledgments
- Note on Citations
- Introduction to Volume I
- Part I Before 1000
- Interlude
- Part II 1000 to 1800
- 7 Ecological Change and Resource Constraints
- 8 Population Change
- 9 Public Finance
- 10 Political Economy
- 11 Law and the Market Economy
- 12 Property Rights and Factor Markets
- 13 The Rural Economy
- 14 Cities and the Urban Economy
- 15 The Monetary System
- 16 Merchants and Commercial Networks
- 17 Foreign Trade
- 18 Production, Consumption, and Living Standards
- Bibliography of Primary Works Cited
- Index
- References
17 - Foreign Trade
from Part II - 1000 to 1800
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 February 2022
Book contents
- The Cambridge Economic History of China
- The Cambridge Economic History of China
- The Cambridge Economic History of China
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Tables
- Contributors to Volume I
- Acknowledgments
- Note on Citations
- Introduction to Volume I
- Part I Before 1000
- Interlude
- Part II 1000 to 1800
- 7 Ecological Change and Resource Constraints
- 8 Population Change
- 9 Public Finance
- 10 Political Economy
- 11 Law and the Market Economy
- 12 Property Rights and Factor Markets
- 13 The Rural Economy
- 14 Cities and the Urban Economy
- 15 The Monetary System
- 16 Merchants and Commercial Networks
- 17 Foreign Trade
- 18 Production, Consumption, and Living Standards
- Bibliography of Primary Works Cited
- Index
- References
Summary
Foreign trade always mattered in imperial China. Especially during the middle period and early modern times, China experienced enormous growth and expansion of foreign trade. According to Confucian concepts, merchants belonged to the lowest echelon of society; agriculture, not trade, was considered the basis of a stable state and society. Most Chinese governments indeed sought to maintain more or less strict control over foreign commerce and those who were responsible for it. But one has to emphasize the co-operative rather than antagonistic relationship with markets and with the merchant class during most of China’s imperial history. In addition, we can observe certain characteristics and qualitative changes throughout the centuries.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge Economic History of China , pp. 637 - 675Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022
References
Further Reading
Atwell, William S., “International Bullion Flows and the Chinese Economy, circa 1530–1650,” Past and Present 95.1 (1982), 68–90.Google Scholar
Chaffee, John W., The Muslim Merchants of Premodern China: The History of a Maritime Asian Trade Diaspora, 750–1400 (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2018).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chang, Pin-tsun, “The Rise of Chinese Mercantile Power in Maritime Southeast Asia, ca. 1400–1700,” Crossroads: Studies on the History of Exchange Relations in the East Asian World 6 (2012), 205–30.Google Scholar
Deng, Gang, Chinese Maritime Activities and Socio-economic Consequences, c. 2100 b.c.–1900 a.d. (New York, Greenwood Press, 1997),Google Scholar
Deng, Gang, “The Foreign Staple Trade of China in the Pre-modern Era,” International History Review 19.2 (1997), 253–85.Google Scholar
Giersch, Pat, “Cotton, Copper and Caravans: Trade and the Transformation of Southwest China,” in Tagliacozzo, Eric and Chang, Wen-chin (eds.), Chinese Circulations: Capital, Commodities, and Networks in Southeast Asia (Durham, NC, Duke University Press 2011), pp. 37–61.Google Scholar
Haneda, Masashi, and Oka, Mihoko (eds.), A Maritime History of East Asia (Kyoto, Kyoto University Press, 2019).Google Scholar
Heng, Derek T.S., Sino-Malay Trade and Diplomacy from the Tenth through the Fourteenth Century (Athens, Center for International Studies, Ohio University, 2009).Google Scholar
Li, Kangying, The Ming Maritime Trade Policy in Transition, 1368–1567 (Wiesbaden, Otto Harrassowitz, 2010).Google Scholar
Tianwei, Lin 林天尉, Songdai xiangyao maoyi shigao 宋代香藥貿易史稿 (Hong Kong, Zhongguo xueshe, 1930).Google Scholar
Lo, Jung-pang, China as a Sea Power, 1127–1368: A Preliminary Survey of the Maritime Expansion and Naval Exploits of the Chinese People during the Southern Song and Yuan Periods (Singapore, National University of Singapore Press, 2011).Google Scholar
Mancall, Mark, “The Ch’ing Tribute System: An Interpretive Essay,” in Fairbank, John K. (ed.), The Chinese World Order: Traditional China’s Foreign Relations (Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, 1968), pp. 63–89.Google Scholar
Mukai, Masaki, “New Approaches to Pre-modern Maritime Networks,” Asian Review of World Histories 4.2 (2016), 179–89.Google Scholar
Chin-keong, Ng, Trade and Society: The Amoy Network on the China Coast, 1683–1735 (Singapore, Singapore University Press, 1983).Google Scholar
Schottenhammer, Angela, “Brokers and ‘Guild’ (Huiguan 會館) Organizations in China’s Maritime Trade with Her Eastern Neighbours during the Ming and Qing Dynasties,” Crossroads: Studies on the History of Exchange Relations in the East Asian World 1/2 (2010), 99–150.Google Scholar
Schottenhammer, Angela, “Characteristics of Qing China’s Maritime Trade Politics, Shunzhi through Early Qianlong Reigns,” in Schottenhammer, (ed.), Trading Networks in Early Modern East Asia (Wiesbaden, Otto Harrassowitz, 2010), pp. 101–54.Google Scholar
Schottenhammer, Angela (ed.), Early Global Interconnectivity across the Indian Ocean World, vol. 1, Commercial Structures and Exchanges (London, Palgrave Macmillan, 2019).Google Scholar
Sen, Tansen, Buddhism, Diplomacy, and Trade: The Realignment of Sino-Indian Relations, 600–1400 (Honolulu, University of Hawai‘i Press, 2003).Google Scholar
Shiba, Yoshinobu, “Sung Foreign Trade: Its Scope and Organization,” in Rossabi, Morris (ed.), China among Equals: The Middle Kingdom and Its Neighbors, 10th–14th Centuries (Berkeley, University of California Press 1983), pp. 89–115.Google Scholar
So, Billy K.L., Prosperity, Region, and Institutions in Maritime China: The South Fukien Pattern, 946–1368 (Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Area Center, 2000).Google Scholar
Van Dyke, Paul A., Merchants of Canton and Macao, vol. 1, Politics and Strategies in Eighteenth-Century Chinese Trade (Hong Kong, Hong Kong University Press, 2011); vol. 2, Success and Failure in Eighteenth-Century Chinese Trade (Hong Kong, Hong Kong University Press, 2016).Google Scholar
Vogel, Hans Ulrich, Marco Polo Was in China: New Evidence from Currencies, Salts and Revenues (Leiden, Brill, 2013).Google Scholar
von Glahn, Richard, “The Ningbo–Hakata Merchant Network and the Reorientation of East Asian Maritime Trade, 1150–1350,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 74.2 (2014), 249–79.Google Scholar
Wang, Gungwu, The Nanhai Trade: The Early History of Chinese Trade in the South China Sea (Singapore, Marshall Cavendish International, 1998).Google Scholar
Wheatley, Paul, “Geographical Notes on Some Commodities Involved in Sung Maritime Trade,” Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 32.2 (1959), 1–139.Google Scholar
Xing, Hang, Conflict and Commerce in Maritime East Asia: The Zheng Family and the Shaping of the Modern World, c. 1620–1720 (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2015).Google Scholar
Zhao, Gang, The Qing Opening to the Ocean: Chinese Maritime Policies, 1684–1757 (Honolulu, University of Hawai‘i Press, 2013).Google Scholar