Asian products, most importantly spices. The Portuguese were not
slow to realise that enticing profits were to be made from trading
directly with China. The first Portuguese vessel to reach the coast of
China arrived in 1517 and was allowed to proceed to Canton, while a
second soon after sailed north to Fujian. The meeting of Ming bureau-
cracy and Iberian arrogance led almost inevitably to misunderstanding
and conflict, however. For the Ming, the newcomers were as difficult
to deal with as the Japanese, for like the Japanese they indulged in
both insolent behaviour and piracy. From 1521 to 1554, by imperial
order, trade with the Portuguese was banned.
After the ban was lifted, the Portuguese were permitted, in 1557,
to establish a trading outpost at Macau, for which they paid an annual
rent. Attempts to send an official embassy to Beijing were, however,
unsuccessful and not until a new dynasty was in power was a European
mission received at the Chinese court. Under the Ming, all official
contacts with merchants and envoys from the Nanyang, among whom
Europeans were numbered, were dealt with at Canton. After the Por-
tuguese, Spanish envoys arrived from Manila in 1575, followed by the
Dutch in 1604, though neither obtained permission to trade, thanks in
large part to Portuguese machinations. The profitable trade that sprang
up between China and the Philippines thus remained entirely in the
hands of Chinese merchants from Fujian.
The Portuguese seizure of Melaka posed something of a challenge
to the Ming in their official dealings with Southeast Asia, for the
deposed ruler immediately appealed to China for assistance in driving
out the invaders and re-establishing the ruling dynasty. But if the
sultan was expecting China to dispatch another powerful fleet, he was
disappointed. Late Ming China had neither the means nor the will to
enforce its own world order, even for the sake of a loyal tributary.
Melaka was far from Beijing, and Ming attention was focused on the
northern grasslands.
In their relations with tributaries in Southeast Asia, the
later Ming relied more on words of high principle than on deeds of
Enter the Europeans