Chapter 127 Harbor

"Childe........ This....... That's the case, the Yuegang in Zhangzhou, Fujian Province had declined as early as the second year of the Apocalypse, and now there are basically no ships going there, and now there is only the port of Guangzhou. There are many other small ports www.biquge.info, but they are all small ships. Qiao Zhi had no choice but to tell the truth at this time, lest Wan Qiyang take the wrong path when he arrived.

"Uh......." Wan Qiyang was really embarrassed at this time, he didn't expect that he had made a big mistake, how could he forget the time, alas, the wise man must have a mistake for a thousand miles, Wan Qianyang thought to himself, and only smiled embarrassedly.

"Mistakes and mistakes, I actually want to find out, so let's go to Guangzhou to have a look." Wan Qiyang naturally had no choice but to open his mouth and change his route!

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The Moon Port in Zhangzhou, Fujian Province is a famous foreign trade and trade port in the middle and late Ming Dynasty where "sea ships gather and merchants gather together", "agriculture and trade are miscellaneous, go to the ocean like a market, the sea is day and night, and the remuneration is drunk", and it is also the only port to go to sea as the Ming Dynasty government.

The sea ban policy of the Ming Dynasty lasted for more than 200 years, Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang Chengzu in Hongwu four years (1371) edict "coastal people shall not go to sea without permission", opened the prelude to the sea ban, although Ming Chengzu has an official move to go to the West, but still "ban civil sea ships", strictly ordered "the original sea boats, all changed to flat-headed boats, where there is a division, to prevent them from entering and leaving".

There is a saying about the sea ban, that is, "Longqing opens the sea". After the "Wa Rebellion" occurred during the Jiajing period, there was a controversy between the government and the opposition in the Ming Dynasty over the issue of forbidding the sea. One of the issues is whether to abandon the traditional policy of "sea ban" and whether to open up the overseas trade of its own businessmen.

In 1564, Tan Lun, the governor of Fujian, pointed out in the "Unfinished Matters of the Aftermath of the Article Chen in Preparation for a Distant Plan to Prevent Public Security" that "the people of the world who live by the coast do not know how many of them are not born, and most of them are not born in the sea, so they cannot eat." The country of the sea is thousands of miles away, and I don't know how many of its mortals are, and there is no Chinese thing that continues to silk. then it is not a country. The slack of the royal is strict, the thicker its value, and the more popular it is. Fornication is not allowed, that is, it is robbed. In the past, it was said; The source of disadvantages is like a rat's hole, and one must be left, if it is still stuffed, it will be worn everywhere. That's what it means. Tan Lun used a popular metaphor to illustrate the practical problem, and he asked the imperial court to allow Fujian merchants to trade with foreign countries in the coastal waters, and according to the "History of the Ming Dynasty", many central government officials agreed. Later, Xu Fuyuan, the governor of Fujian, also said in his song: "If the city is generally a businessman, a businessman will be turned into a businessman, and if the city is banned, a businessman will be turned into a businessman."

On January 23, 1567, Ming Shizong died of illness in the Qianqing Dynasty. On February 4, its third prince Zhu Zaiyuan became the emperor, and he was Mu Zong, and the era was Longqing. Ming Muzong, "History of the Ming Dynasty" said that he "inherited the body and kept the text, which can be called the master...... Gai is also more than forgiving, and the righteous are not enough! After he ascended the throne, there was still a new atmosphere of reviving the dynasty, and he told his ministers: "If there is any inconvenience in the decree of the first dynasty, you can revise it in a speech." Soon. The governor of Fujian after Tan Lun, Du Yushi Tu****, took advantage of the opportunity of Longqing's reform of the Yuan and political reform, and asked for the opening of the sea ban in Zhangzhou Yuegang and allowed Chinese merchants to trade at sea. The proposal was quickly approved by the Muzong court, thus forming a situation of "Longqing opens the sea and Yuegang opens". This can be said to be a big change in the Ming Dynasty's overseas trade policy towards the people, and it has completely changed the imperial ancestral system.

This is the origin of "Longqing Open Sea". ①

In the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the main ports of China's foreign trade were Quanzhou, Ningbo and Guangzhou. In the middle of the Ming Dynasty, due to the frequent harassment of Japanese pirates in the coastal areas, in 1522 AD, the two ports of Quanzhou and Ningbo were closed, leaving only Guangzhou.

The official trade of the Ming Dynasty refers to the tributary trade, and the Ming Dynasty had dealings with the following countries at that time: Bo Ni, Siam, Gu Ma Thorn, Chenla (Cambodia), Champang, Sumatra, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Sulu (present-day West Sulu Islands in the Philippines), Guri (the western tip of the Indian Peninsula), Gu Ma Thorn (Mindanao Island in the Philippines), Java (present-day Java Island in Indonesia), Manchurian (present-day Malacca), Kezhi, Fuso (present-day Ben), Ryukyu, Korea and other countries.

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"Hehe, the kid didn't take a few sips and started talking nonsense, what do you look at when you go to the port, those places are a little messy." The old man called Hua also found a step for Wan Qiyang, and he held back a smile in his heart when he saw his embarrassing appearance.

"Now the business is only the goods from the port, and I am still very good at dealing with foreigners, believe it or not, you will know the benefits when the time comes!"

Wan Qiyang looked at the suspicious gazes of the two and was helpless, anyway, these things can only be proved by time.

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Exegesis:

①

It should be said that the "opening of the sea in Longqing" was the result of the struggle of China's maritime pirates and armed smuggling groups during the Jiajing period. Although the Ming Dynasty government suppressed the armed smuggling groups along the coast by force, many people also found that these armed smuggling groups were the bitter fruit of the "sea ban" policy. Because the Ming Dynasty government also felt overwhelmed by these armed smuggling groups, it had no choice but to "change the smugglers into public service" and change its course to eliminate the impact of the pirate smuggling groups on its ruling order by transforming the smuggling trade into a strictly controlled legal trade.

Some people think that the Ming Dynasty's maritime ban policy was canceled after the opening of Longqing, and some think that the Ming Dynasty's late overseas trade earned a large amount of silver had something to do with it...... Now we can study two questions and see the real situation of "Longqing Open Sea":

1. Why did the Ming Dynasty government choose to open the Yuegang port in Zhangzhou, Fujian Province to Chinese merchants and repentance of the ban on trade? It is important to know that Yuegang is located in a remote area, far away from the source of inland commodities and separated from the mainland by heavy mountains.

2. After the opening of the sea ban in Yuegang, will all merchants from all over China who intend to go to sea be able to go to sea to conduct overseas trade?

Let's take a look at the geography of Fujian Yuegang.

Tan Lun said in the same recital: "The Fujian people live by the sea, and they are not allowed to eat unless they travel to and from the sea." Later, in Wanli years, Chen Zizhen, who was the governor of Fujian, also said: "Fujian Province is narrow and densely populated, and grains are scarce. Therefore, the people of the border sea all regard the ship as their home and the sea as their field...... and once the policy of "sea ban" is strictly enforced, the people "will have a depressed livelihood and will inevitably gather in poverty" and carry out armed smuggling. In fact, Fujianese accounted for a large proportion of Jiajing's so-called "war" pirates. For example, Mao Kun once wrote in an article that the Min people accounted for six or seven tenths of the pirate ranks, based on the situation of a Kunshan peasant who had been captured by pirates after his return. At that time, Fujian's economy was very dependent on foreign countries, and Fujian's geographical characteristics were that hills and mountains accounted for more than 90% of the total area of the province, with many mountains and few fields, and the basic application of people's lives depended on foreign supplies; Zhangzhou, where the moon port is located, is even more remote and inconvenient, the moon port is located in the Jiulong River at the entrance of the teaching, and is named after the shape of the place like the moon. According to the record in the "East-West Examination", Zhangzhou Yuegang's own conditions have no advantages at all, because Yuegang has no direct outlet to the sea (its outlet is in Xiamen), and it is not a deep-water port, so overseas trading ships need to go to sea from this, and several small boats need to be pulled to be able to travel, one tide to Guiyu, one and a half to Xiamen.

However, it was not noticed by the court officials of the Ming Dynasty because of its "secluded place in the corner of the sea, as well as in the period of Orthodoxy (1436-1449) and Jingtai (1450-1456), it has become one of the active areas of smuggling activities.

On the occasion of Chenghua (1465-1487) and Hongzhi (1488-1505), many Zhangzhou people smuggled to get rich. Northeast giants compete for the bay", and enjoy the reputation of "Little Suzhou and Hangzhou".

In 1609, a smuggling case involving Zhejiang merchants participating in the Yuegang trade was handled by local officials in Zhejiang: several Hangzhou people took a merchant ship from Yuegang to curb Luo, Luzon and sell silk fabrics for a large profit, and after returning to China, they were convicted of "Tongfan Law". This fact shows that the merchants and people along the coast of Zhejiang cannot go to sea to trade casually.

Let's look at the regulations of "boat citation": "Those who sell fans will be introduced every year, and they will be returned to the hospital for re-examination; Those who sell Guangzhou, Zhejiang, Fuzhou, and Funing, and check the esophagus at the end of the season. Sent to the hospital for reexamination. From this provision, it can be seen that even the merchants of Fuzhou and Funing Prefecture in Fujian Province were excluded from the scope of the distribution of ship guides, otherwise this system would not have stated that "those who sell Guangzhou, Zhejiang, Fuzhou, and Funing will be rechecked at the end of the season and sent to the hospital for re-examination". Some scholars believe that only Zhangzhou and Quanfu are within the scope of legality, and other regions are not included in the scope of legality. Gu Yanwu said in volume 93 of "The Book of Diseases of the Heavenly Counties": "...... At that time, the people of Zhangquan and Luzon were not able to return, or they were bankrupt and oppressed, and they were displaced from the Tuyi, and they built houses and worked as miscellaneous servants to make a living; or marry a woman...... "A large number of immigrants to Luzon are the people of Zhangquan Erfu who can have the opportunity to go to sea.

In addition, such as nitrate, copper, and iron, are not allowed to cross the sea to be smuggled, and they are not allowed to go to Japan.

The Ming Dynasty government did not even recognize the legal rights of Jiangsu and Zhejiang merchants to trade in Haicheng and take a ship from Yuegang, which seems incredible, but it is actually the embodiment of the principle of "in the middle of the passage, the law of the forbidden", and the Ming Dynasty government stipulated very harsh treatment for the maritime merchants of Zhangquan to go to sea. Xu Fuyuan, the governor of Fujian, summed up this policy in a passage that accurately summed up this policy: "Whoever travels between the east and the west will be controlled by the congestion of his ships." Strict limits on the distance they can make, the goods they trade with, the punishment they carry, the supervision of officers and soldiers, the joint sitting of the guards, the cross-examination of those who go to sea cautiously, the prohibition of the retention of the ban, the reward of the head of the generous one, and the crime of trying to refute the accusation." It can be seen that the Ming Dynasty government had strict restrictions on the time of going to sea to the distance of trade, from the time of going to sea to the goods traded. In this way, Chinese maritime merchants are in a very unfavorable passive situation in the competition and competition between overseas trade and Western merchants.

The port is located in the middle of nowhere, and the Zhangquan area has limited supplies to go to sea, so the Chinese maritime merchants who go to sea seem to be tied hand and foot, and the merchants in other regions with developed economies and abundant materials cannot directly participate in overseas trade. However, this occupies a very important position in the history of overseas Chinese immigration, and the number of overseas Chinese going abroad has increased rapidly. "East-West and Western Examinations & amp; #8226;In the preface, it is written: "(Sea) Cheng, water country also, Jia Za half, go to the ocean as suitable as the city". It means that the local people go to sea, just like the people in the mainland rush to the market and go public. The number of overseas Chinese in Luzon, Java, Malaya and other places has increased rapidly. In Luzon, in the late Ming Dynasty, the overseas Chinese in Manila alone generally numbered more than 30,000 people.

The Ming court forbade merchants to go to Japan, but the whereabouts of these merchants who went to sea were difficult to control. When they go to sea, they tend to head south before turning east to Japan. The more forbidden you are to go to Japan, the more profitable your trade in Japan will be. Chen Zizhen, the governor of Fujian, once said: "The profit of selling Japan is twice as high as that of Luzon." Therefore, in the late Ming Dynasty, the merchants who went to Japan were very enthusiastic, and there were more and more overseas Chinese living there, and there were about 20,000 or 30,000 people in Nagasaki, Japan.

At that time, American silver was constantly being exported to China, and Chinese goods were being transported to Latin America through the Pacific shipping routes, which had a significant impact on the emerging world market. Although there were too many restrictions on the opening of the Moon Port, only a crack was opened in the door of overseas trade, but even with such a restrained foreign trade, the opening of the Moon Port still brought a very considerable financial revenue to the Ming Dynasty government, and by 1576, the tariff income of the Moon Port had exceeded 10,000 taels of silver; In 1594, the inflow of silver from the Philippines should have exceeded 264,000 taels, and the tariff revenue of Yuegang reached more than 29,000 taels of silver, so that people regarded Yuegang as "the southern treasury of the Son of Heaven"; Later, it was renamed the "Governor's Office" and specialized in managing overseas trade and tax collection. In 1599, the Mingshenzong sent eunuchs to Fujian as tax envoys, and the right to collect taxes and silver for merchant ships going to sea in Yuegang was also seized by him.

Generally speaking, the main measure of "opening up the sea in Longqing" was the "opening of the moon port", because from the very beginning it was based on the principle of "the law of the ban in the middle of the passage", and did not allow the merchants and people in the areas outside Zhangquan and the second prefecture to participate in overseas trade, and the opening of the moon port area to achieve the "sea ban" in the vast majority of the coastal areas of the country, it could only lead to the rise of smuggling trade. The opening of the port was very limited, and instead of providing any convenient trade conditions for the domestic maritime merchants, many harsh restrictions were imposed, so that the Chinese maritime merchants were ultimately unable to expand the scale of trade because they did not have the national strength as the backing, and were unable to compete and plunder the Western colonial powers. The Ming Dynasty government limited the foreign trade port to southern Fujian, which is located in a remote area far from the inland source of commodities and separated by heavy mountains, which itself is to minimize the impact of the opening of the moon port on the mainland, which greatly reduces the significance of the national economic development; Yuegang excluded foreign merchants from participating in the activities of opening up the sea trade, thus creating an unfair overseas trade environment among the merchants and people of the whole country, and failed to achieve the goal of eliminating the source of piracy, but instead provoked the proliferation of smuggling trade, and at the end of the Ming Dynasty, a "golden age of Chinese pirates" arose along the coast of China, and the large-scale proliferation of smuggling trade is a clear proof.

Yuegang became the central port for Fujian merchants to carry out smuggling trade, and after the Portuguese came to the east in the early 16th century, Yuegang quickly developed into the largest smuggling trade port along the coast of Fujian. Merchant ships from Portugal and other countries were piloted by Fujianese in the waters of Guangdong and rebered at Haicang and Yuegang; Zhejiang people lead to Shuangyu, come every summer, and look at the winter. The smugglers in Fujian can also go to sea from Yuegang to trade with the "Fanboyi Commerce", and there is an endless stream.

By the Jiajing period (1522-1566), the activities of smugglers in the Zhangquan area, centered on Yuegang, were more frequent and more important throughout the country. There are several records in the "Records of Jiajing of Ming Shizong" that are quite illustrative;

(September 4, 1525). At the beginning, the Zhejiang Patrol pressed the words of Yu Shi Pan: "Zhang, Quan, and other prefectures are cunning soldiers and civilians who privately build two-masted ships and go to sea, called merchants, and when they are robbed, please arrest and cure everything."

"In September of the twelfth year of Xinhai (September 29, 1533), the military department said: Zhejiang Fujing Sea border, in the early years, Zhangmin privately built two-masted ships, unauthorized use of weapons, gunpowder, prohibited traders, so robbed."

"On March 24, 1547, the king of Joseon, Li Heng, sent people to send 341 traitors to Xiahai, Fujian..."

“… Edict: Coastal traitors are prohibited, especially in Fujian, which is often obtained by foreign countries, which hurts the national body and ......"

In the face of the frequent smuggling trade activities of Fujian merchants relying on Yuegang, the Ming government also strengthened its control over Yuegang, a place "outside the vulgar assimilation". In 1530, according to the suggestion of Hu Lang, the governor of Fujian, Fujian Patrol Haidao was stationed in Zhangzhou, and an Anbian Pavilion was established in Haicang, northeast of Yuegang, and a member of the Zhang, Quanzhou and other prefectures was stationed in turn. The Anbian Pavilion is also known as the Capture Hall, and its duty is to suppress the smuggling trade and piracy activities of local merchants. In 1536, the Ming Dynasty government accepted the suggestion of the imperial historian and relaxed the restrictions on the offshore trade of local merchants. However, "it is still forbidden for the Han people to go to the sea." Due to the lack of effectiveness, in 1551, the Ming Dynasty government officially set up the Jingbian Pavilion in Yuegang, "to patrol back and forth with a general judgment".

In 1557, pirates from all sides made a big fuss in Moon Harbor. In desperation, Fujian Governor Tan Lun had no choice but to appease these pirates, and set up a coastal defense Tongzhi in Yuegang, and changed the Jinghai Pavilion to the Haiphong Museum. However, these measures were still ineffective, and in 1567 the Ming government officially established Haicheng County under the rule of Yuegang, in an attempt to manage the center of the smuggling trade through civil administration. Therefore, the opening of Yuegang in 1567 was only a forced recognition of the maritime smuggling trade in the Yuegang area by the Ming Dynasty government, and it was a move to stabilize the ruling order in southern Fujian.

In fact, the reason why the Ming Dynasty government opened the sea ban in Yuegang, its basic starting point, as the later Fujian governor Xu Fuyuan admitted, is that "in the pass, the law of the ban." In other words, through limited opening-up, the policy of "sea ban" will be better implemented. It was from this basic position that the Ming government chose to open up the overseas trade of merchants and people in Fujian, which was far from the source of inland commodities and separated from the interior by heavy mountains, so that the sea ban could be effectively imposed on other regions.

A look at the second question will better explain why we say this. After the opening of the sea ban in Yuegang, will all merchants from all over China who intend to go to sea be able to go to sea for overseas trade? In other words, which regions were allowed by the Ming Dynasty government to go to sea to trade overseas through the Moon Port? This is an issue that is directly related to how to evaluate the effect of the opening up of the moon and Hong Kong. Everyone is generally optimistic about the opening of the Moon Port, and it seems that businessmen from all over the country can trade abroad from the Moon Port as long as they apply for the introduction of ships to the sea. Actually, this is a misconception.

First of all, let's look at what is going on with the system of "going to sea and guiding ships"; After the opening of the ban on Yuegang, all businessmen who can go to sea in Yuegang must first survey and report to their neighbors to ensure the settlement, and then apply to the provincial government where they are located, and after approval, the coastal defense agency will issue a ship guide. However, in practice, it is often the tooth merchant (intermediary merchant) and the foreign merchant (intermediary merchant organization specializing in overseas trade) who come forward to act as a guarantee and apply for a ship on behalf of the maritime merchant. The so-called "ship citation", also known as commercial citation, is the evidence for maritime merchants to legally go to sea.

The government of the Ming Dynasty stipulated: "The merchant quotes fill in the limited equipment, goods, name, year, household registration, address, longing for the premises, and the deadline for resale, all of which are open and clear, and the merchants and the public can fill in all the quotes, so as not to omit." The coastal defense officer and the prefectures and counties still put two circulation books, and the equipment, goods, names, years, household registration, addresses, desired places, deadlines, and technical day registration are still opened. Those who sell fans will be led every year, and they will be returned to the hospital for re-examination; Those who sell Guangzhou, Zhejiang, Fuzhou, and Funing, and check the esophagus at the end of the season. Sent to the hospital for reexamination. (Quoted from "Ming Jing Shiwen Edition" in "Research on the History of Overseas Chinese")

All maritime merchants who apply for permission to receive "quotation" must pay "quotation tax". The so-called "tax introduction" is actually a tax paid by maritime merchants to the government for the operation of overseas trade. Initially, it was stipulated that each ship would be taxed at 3 taels, which was later increased to 6 taels. In addition, the Ming government controlled the total number of ship citations, that is, limited the number of ships going to sea----- at first the total number of ship citations issued per year was 50, and in 1575 it increased to 100, but there were also fixed restrictions on the countries of the maritime merchants who received the ship guidance. In 1589, the Fujian government began to set the total number of merchant ships destined for the East and the West at 44, and only one was required for each of them. Later, due to the large number of applicants to go to sea, the number of ship guides was expanded to 110. According to the location specified by the ship's citation. At that time, Chinese maritime merchants who left the port of the moon were allowed to go to some ports and countries in the East and the West, but they were forbidden to go to Japan. At this time, the geographical boundary between the "East and the West" was bounded by Brunei, "Brunei, that is, the country of Borneo, is located in the east, and the West is also from the beginning." After 1593, the Quanzhou government planned to divide the navigation locations of the merchants and people of the two prefectures, and the people of Zhangzhou went to sell the Western Ocean, and the people of Quanzhou went to the East to prohibit mutual intermingling. This motion, of course, met with strong opposition from the Zhangzhou locality, and was finally not passed.

In the second year of the Ming Dynasty's Apocalypse (1622), "the sea was strictly forbidden to have something to do" ("Ming Shilu"), and Chinese merchant ships were strictly forbidden to go overseas to sell; The Dutch colonists successively occupied Penghu and Taiwan, "Ming will rob me of merchants, and Yin or seduce me traitors,......。 As a result, at the time of the Apocalypse and Chongzhen, the smuggling trade and the activities of pirate merchants on the southeast coast flourished for a while. Once the smuggling trade is large-scale, it will destroy the legal trade of Yuegang. By the time of the Apocalypse, Moon Harbor had declined.

Source excerpts: (1) Phoenix.com

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