Gentry-Merchants and Peasant-Peddlers 251
was not uncommon for the families of the ofβicials to work together with
the shihao, using their authority to conβiscate petty merchants’ cargoes
or to force them to undertake seagoing business for the shihao.^34 By such
tactics, the prominent families virtually controlled the maritime trade.^35
The xiaomin (literally “little people”) had always had a hard time and
had also fallen prey to the powerful. Without any protection, they easily
laid themselves open to exposure because of their seagoing activities
and hence would be confronted with punishment.^36 Law-abiding petty
merchants had a small chance of survival, especially when their only
livelihood was cut off by the strict imposition of trade prohibition. Finding
no alternative, they could do nothing but become outlaws, as described in
a contemporary record:
Since the shibo was terminated in the early Jiajing Reign,... piracy
has become common. Why? It is because pirates and merchants are
the same group of people. When trade is permitted, pirates become
merchants. When trade is prohibited, merchants transform into
pirates. The laws were orig inally aimed at suppressing commercial
activity, but now they mainly deal with piracy. Rather than being
suppressed, the piracy is growing more rampant.^37A good example is given by Gu Yanwu who says:
(In 1561) the Rebellion of the “Twenty-four Generals” broke out
in Yuegang. At βirst, in the dingsi year (1557) Zhang Wei and other
twenty-three people pooled their capital to build a large vessel.
They constantly supplied the foreign ships and the authorities
failed to stop their activities. In the winter of the wuwu year (1558),
the Coastguard Commanding Ofβicer ... made an attempt to arrest
them but met with the resistance of the twenty-four generals.... (In
1564) Zhang Wei was beheaded.^38Evidently, the self-styled generals were no more than petty traders
who could only afford to build a ship by collaborating with others. The
construction costs of a small boat for off-shore activities varied from 50
- Jiajing dongnan pingwo tonglu 嘉靖東南平倭通錄 [A general record of the
suppression of Wo in Southeast China during the Jiajing Reign (1522‒66)],
comp. Xu Xueju 徐学聚撰 (?), p. 1b. Xu was appointed Governor of Fujian in
1604. - See Fujian tongzhi (1871 ed.), 56: 21a; it runs: “the prominent families mostly
engage themselves in maritime trade”. - Ibid., 87: 1.
- Chouhai tubian, 11: 3.
- Gu Yanwu, TXJGLBS, Vol. 26, p. 8.