238 Boundaries and Beyond
The emergence of the monetary economy facilitated the development
of trade. Different currencies were used in Fujian in the later decades
of the Ming dynasty, including Song coins, Spanish silver coins^143 and
others. A Spanish eyewitness, who has been quoted above, tells of the
commercial activity that he saw in Tong’an in 1575:
We passed along a street that was over half a league long, and
which throughout its length on both sides was a veritable βish-
market of different kinds of βish, although there were likewise
some meat and fruit; but most of it was stocked with βish, and in
such quantity that it seemed as if there would never be enough
people to consume what was there. They told us that this was
the ordinary state of that market, and I can well believe it; for we
found it as plentifully stocked on our return trip as if nobody had
taken anything.^144T he nationwide development of a commodity economy gave a signiβicant
impetus to commercial development. In the second half of the Ming
period, the specialization of the handicraft industry reached a new stage
with many new βields being developed. For instance, cotton-weaving,
silk-work and metalworking became increasingly specialized and
divided into several independent manufactory departments. As did other
industries such as the sugar, paper and pottery manufacturing industries,
they spread to different regions.^145 Along with the growth of industrial
productivity and the expansion of marketing, handicraft industry centers
emerged in their early stages.
Agriculture became more commercialized to suit new demands;
people began to convert consumer articles into commodities. Especially
after the mid-Ming period, more food plants were replaced by
commercial crops. The planting of sugar-cane, tobacco, tea and cotton
were a few crops in this category. The planting of such fruit trees as
litchi, longan (both were grown in southern China), olives and banana
were also aimed at commercial proβit. Even grains, as mentioned above,
were commercialized. Going beyond the scope of agriculture, rice-
- As told by Wang Shengshi 王勝時, in his Manyou jilue 漫遊記略 [A brief travel
account], juan 1. The author spent almost two years traveling through seven
out of the eight prefectures in Fujian in 1652–53, shortly after the fall of the
Ming dynasty. - Fr Martin de Rada, “Narrative of the Mission to Fukien”, p. 250.
- Zhongguo renmin daxue 中國人民大學 (People’s University of China),
Mingqing shehui jingji xingtai de yanjiu 明清社會經濟形態的研究 [A study of
the socioeconomic patterns of the Ming-Qing Dynasties] (Shanghai: Renmin
chubanshe, 1957), p. 7.
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