Trade, the Sea Prohibition and the “Folangji” 135
allowed to accompany the tribute missions.^164 Therefore, the continued
use of the name “Maritime Trade and Shipping Supervisorates” during
Ming times is somewhat misleading.
As mentioned earlier, foreigners seldom found the regulated trade
satisfactory, and consequently often became involved in smuggling
activities. The trading ships from Southeast Asia, and later those of the
Portuguese, visited the lesser ports around the entrance to the Pearl
River where local ofβicials levied taxes on their merchandise,^165 giving de
facto authorization to their activities.
Chinese merchants were willing to disregard the prohibitory law and
trade with foreigners off the coast. Chinese junks also violated the law
by making regular voyages to such foreign countries as Siam, Pattani and
Malacca. Many Chinese became sojourners in foreign lands, and some
of these sojourners returned to China as interpreters assisting or even
acting as foreign envoys, while others played an indispensable role on
the China coast as go-betweens or brokers between foreigners and local
Chinese. Despite the illicit nature of these coastal activities, local ofβicials
had long tolerated them.
In a nutshell, neither the ideology nor the policy that governed Ming
foreign relations was coherent or uniformly enforced. Illegal, or as one
might call it “private”, trade βlourished on the basis of a tacit understanding
between the authorized or unauthorized “tribute-bearers”, foreign
and Chinese merchants, and provincial ofβicials, including the eunuchs
appointed to oversee provincial affairs (zhenshou). While the state was
more concerned with coastal security, the provincial ofβicials had both
revenue and personal interests in mind. As long as the form of the tribute
institution was preserved and coastal security was not threatened, the
state and the provincial authorities tolerated such βlexibility.
During the Zhengde Reign (1506‒21), government policy toward
tribute trade vacillated between βirmness and βlexibility. Japan is a case
in point. The regulations of the early Ming era allowed Japan’s tribute
mission to come once every ten years, and each mission was limited to
two hundred men and no more than two vessels. After 1511, however,
the Japanese missions arrived with more than βive or six hundred
- Ibid., 6b. Gao states that “[the Fujian Supervisorate] manages only tribute ships.
Maritime (meaning “private”) trade has not been in operation [since the early
time of Ming Dynasty]”. For a detailed study of the shibo institution, see Zheng
Youguo 郑有国, Zhongguo shibo zhidu yanjiu 中国市舶制度研究 [A study of the
shibo institution] (Fuzhou: Fujian jiaoyu chubanshe, 2004). - Chouhai tubian, 12: 110b, in WYGSKQS, Vol. 584, p. 399.