362 Boundaries and Beyond
also to construct functional networks connecting the sea and the interior,
other port cities and the different regions. Networks complement and
overlap one another. They perform a role of information superhighway
radiating from the nodes of networks.
Although the Min-Yue people were renowned for being superb
seafarers who looked to the sea as if it was their “rice-βields”, they also
ventured overland into the interior. A good example is the overland trade
routes used by the Hong merchants for their tea purchases. Nevertheless,
seaborne activities remained their greatest achievement in maximizing
their coastal geographical advantage. For a long time, in their eyes the
ocean was like a network of highways for their seaborne activities and
expansion.
Expanding Coastal Shipping in the Eighteenth Century
After peace was restored following the paciβication of Taiwan in 1683,
the maritime ban of the early Qing was rescinded the following year.
The imperial Court chose to convince itself that, despite its distrust of
the seafarers, people’s livelihood should be its uppermost concern and
the authorities should refrain from setting up barriers to their fortune-
seeking activities. The upshot was that the once suppressed coastal
shipping was revitalized and its bounds swiftly extended by the Min-
Yue people. By the early eighteenth century, the merchant junks trading
southward to the surrounding area of Canton and northward along the
coast to Ningbo, Zhapu, Shanghai, Jiaozhou, Tianjin, and Jinzhou all
hailed from Fujian and Guangdong. “It was an annual event”, as T’ien Ju-
k’ang puts it.^39
After the lifting of the maritime ban, South Fujian βitted out trading
junks to sail not only to other coastal ports but also to venture to the
Nanyang. By 1685, there were already numerous vessels leaving from
southern Fujian in search of overseas trade.^40 At this time, vessels of
different tonnage, departing from several seaports in Fujian, engaged in
the foreign trade.^41 In order to ease management and control, in 1727
Governor-General Gao Qizhuo memorialized the Court and his petition
resulted in a decree that made Amoy the only designated port (zheng kou)
- T’ien Ju-kang, “Zailun shiqi zhi shijiu shiji zhongye zhongguo fanchuan de
fazhan”, p. 5. - Ng Chin-keong, Trade and Society, p. 56.
- Liao Dake 廖大珂, Fujian haiwai jiaotong shi 福建海外交通史 [A history of
Fujian overseas communications] (Fuzhou: Fujian renmin chubanshe, 2002),
p. 327.
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