352 Boundaries and Beyond
missed opportunity to gain a more complete view of the Chinese junk
trade. In his covering letter to the Foreign Ofβice, John Bowring also
offered his own observations. Taken as a whole, the documents provide
us with rare glimpses into one of the most amazing activities of Chinese
seafarers. Among these observers, Rutherford Alcock had for some years
been casting his eye on the Chinese carrying trade. Before giving his
response to John Bowring’s instruction, he had penned a report on the
matter in 1848.^13 Indeed, his earlier essay might have piqued Bowring’s
interest in the subject.
Overall, on account of my linguistic limitations, I much regret not
being able to consult the non-English western archival or contemporary
materials. Certainly, the amount of sources consulted for the present
discussion represents only the tip of the iceberg. This language
inadequacy has greatly limited the depth of the survey, which is barely
able to touch on the colorful aspects of the trading operations and the
operators. I sincerely admire J.C. van Leur for his accomplished discussion
of the Asian trade around the βirst half of the seventeenth century. By
using the contemporary Dutch accounts, Van Leur was able to describe
some aspects of the trade and the role of Chinese players in meticulous
and exciting detail.^14
Finally, a few selected important works from the large body of
modern scholarship on related topics will be highlighted. The βirst
that immediately springs to my mind are the works by T’ien Ju-k’ang,
who engaged in the investigation of the Chinese junk trade in his two
publications of 1956 and 1957.^15 Although the two works treat the
- Rutherford Alcock, “Report on the Maritime Trade of China, and the Prospects
of the More Valuable Portion being Transferred to Foreign Bottoms”, in FO
17/142, no. 16, Governor Samuel George Bonham to the Viscount Palmerston,
April 14, 1848, Enclosure; the printed version is in British Parliamentary Papers
(BPP), China, 40, Statistical Returns, Accounts and Other Papers Respecting the
Trade between Great Britain and China, 1802‒ 88 (Shannon: Irish University
Press, 1972), pp. 635‒9; also reprinted in North-China Herald (NCH), 1: 23
(4.1.1851), pp. 90‒1. - Van Leur wrote his essays, that were published some years after his premature
death during WWII, more than 70 years ago. See J.C. van Leur, Indonesian Trade
and Society: Essays in Asian Social and Economic History (The Hague: W. van
Hoeve Ltd., 1955). - T’ien Ju-k’ang 田汝康, “Shiqi shiji zhi shijiu shiji zhongye zhongguo fanchuan zai
dongnanya zhou hangyun he shangye de diwei” 十七世纪至十九世紀中叶中国
帆船在东南亚洲航运和商业的地位 [The position of Chinese junks in Southeast
Asian shipping and commerce from the 17th to the mid-19th centuries], in
Lishi yanjiu 历史研究 [Historical research], 8 (1956): 1‒21; it appeared in the
following year as a monograph entitled 17 ‒19 shiji zhongye zhongguo fanchuan
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