Expanding Possibilities 361
By the eighteenth and the early nineteenth centuries, the development
of regional systems had reached adulthood. Through the by now exten-
sive merchant networks, the producers in Fujian and Guangdong were
connected with domestic and foreign markets. It was a time in which the
China coast and the Nanyang were engaged in one of the most intensive
and prosperous maritime trades in the world.
From the village to central places, port cities and thence venturing
out to sea, peasant peddlers, merchants and emigrants had risen to
the challenge. Hailing from the countryside, they had now undergone a
transformation process of engagement in extra-village activities. They
were no longer peasants living in quiet rural backwaters, isolated from
and ignorant of the outside world. Their agricultural and handicraft
products were transported via the regional and overseas networks. The
movement of their commodities was accompanied by regular human
mobility, geographical or upward.
The discussion will now turn to the core areas of the study, namely the
port cities, coastal trade and inter-port trade with the Nanyang.
Building a Multiport Junk-Trade Enterprise
on the China Coast
Ports and Trading Networks
A port city is an intersection in an extensive and complex network
system. It is like the nodes of networks that grow, extend themselves,
blossom and eventually bear fruit in a similar manner to tree branches.
Adam McKeown describes the connotation and functions of networks in
the following words:
Networks are the transnational institutions, organizations, and
personal connections that make migration into a viable economic
strategy and stable system for the circulation of goods, people,
information, and proβit.^38Hence, a port city is also a center for the convergence and circulation of
information. Merchants are the driving force behind its development. They
congregate in the port not only to seize new trading opportunities, but
(Shanghai: Sanlian chubanshe, 1991), also discusses the rapid development of
commodity economy in China since mid-Ming times. See pp. 23, 25, 30.- Adam McKeown, “Conceptualizing Chinese Diaspora, 1842‒1949”, Journal of
Asian Studies 58, 2 (May 1999): 317.