354 Boundaries and Beyond
information he provides on the Canton junk trade in and around the mid-
eighteenth century.^17 Last but not least the works of two scholars, namely:
Sarasin Virapol and Jennifer W. Cushman,^18 have provided very useful
information about a very important branch of the Chinese overseas junk
trade centering on Siam.
Marching Toward the Ocean in Perspective
This section will follow the maritime development against the backdrop
of socioeconomic changes during late imperial times and take a look at
how peasants were transformed into seafarers in large numbers.
In explaining the peasant exodus from rural China, not infrequently
the push factor of the mountainous terrain and barren soil resulting in
the scarcity of cultivable land and subsequent rural poverty is stressed.
Among the three regions of southern Fujian, the Pearl River Delta and the
Chaozhou-Shantou Plain, southern Fujian has the smallest area of land
suitable for agriculture, but both Fujian and Guangdong provinces were
in fact facing similar overpopulation and a resultant scarcity of cultivable
land. The following population βigures for the two provinces for the years
1393, 1749 and 1851, as shown by Dwight H. Perkins, are self-explanatory.
In Fujian, the population increased from 3,917,000 to 7,620,000 and
20,099,000 respectively during the three time periods. The population
pressure in Guangdong was just as severe, with increases from 3,008,000
to 6,461,000 and 28,389,000.^19 Although this reason seems very feasible,
researchers on the socioeconomic conditions in late imperial China
generally concur that the land scarcity and population pressure should
be treated in relative terms. Most of them in fact view the eighteenth
century as an age of prosperity. This period saw the establishment of
a solid economic foundation that beneβited from the development of a
commodity economy that had become more widespread in the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries. This can be attributed to the dynamic
response of the population to the unfavorable man-land ratio. In order
- See Paul A. Van Dyke, The Canton Trade: Life and Enterprise on the China Coast,
1700 ‒ 1845 (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2005). - Sarasin Viraphol, Tribute and Proϔit: Sino-Siamese Trade, 1652 ‒ 1853 (Cambridge,
MA: Council on East Asian Studies, Harvard University, 1977); Jennifer
W. Cushman, Fields from the Sea: Chinese Junk Trade with Siam during the Late
Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press,
1995), originated from her PhD dissertation at Cornell in 1975. - Dwight H. Perkins, Agricultural Development in China (1368‒ 1968 ) (Chicago:
Aldine Publishing Company, 1969), p.207.
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