Expanding Possibilities 363
for the Nanyang trade in Fujian.^42 This also led to a distinction between
two types of vessels in Fujian, namely: the ocean junks (yang chuan)
and the merchant junks (shang chuan). The former had a larger tonnage
and were permitted to trade to the Nanyang, whereas the latter were
restricted to the coastal trade. The two branches of trade were placed
under the supervision and management of ocean βirms (yang hang) and
merchant βirms (shang hang) respectively.
Playing a role that did not differ from that of Yuegang (Haicheng) in
the past, Amoy became the gateway for the Quan-Zhang people venturing
out into the maritime world. Many of those arriving in Amoy were
sojourners, but more and more settled there and became Amoy men.
As the port city had established itself as a node in the trading networks,
it functioned as the operational base for maritime merchants and a
transshipment center for domestic products from all over the country as
well as for foreign imports.
The coastal trade centering in Amoy beneβited enormously from the
economic growth of Taiwan. Migrants from the Quan-Zhang subregion of
South Fujian had pioneered the agricultural and trading developments
in the island. Prior to the founding of the Zheng regime in 1662, the
Dutch had been there and had developed rice and sugar planting. From
the beginning of the eighteenth century, people from eastern Guangdong
also joined the earlier migrants in agricultural production. Besides rice
and sugar, the two major exports from Taiwan, other daily necessities and
a great variety of native produce were transported to the island from the
mainland.
Plying between Amoy and Luermen in Taiwan were the merchant
junks known as the “straits-crossing ships” (hengyang chuan). Of these,
the sugar ships (tang chuan) had greater carrying capacity. They made
long-distance voyages from Taiwan to Tianjin with only sugar on board.^43
The 1720 edition of the Taiwan District Gazetteer noted thousands of
merchant junks making annual voyages between Taiwan and Amoy,^44
evidence of a coastal shipping network extending outward from its
center in Amoy. The type of vessel sailing southward was known as a
- Zhou Kai 周凯, Xiamen zhi 厦门志 [Gazetteer of Amoy] (Preface, 1832), in
Taiwan wenxian congkan 台灣文獻叢刊 [A Collection of Literature on Taiwan]
(Taipei: Bank of Taiwan Research Unit, 1961), Vol. 95, juan 5, p. 179. - Ibid., p. 166.
- Ng Chin-keong, “The South Fukienese Junk Trade at Amoy from the 17th to
Early 19th Centuries”, in Development and Decline of Fukien Province in the
17th and 18th Centuries, ed. E.B. Vermeer (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1990), p. 305, citing
Taiwan xian zhi 臺灣縣志 [The Gazetteer of Taiwan District] (1720 ed.), in
Taiwan wenxian congkan (1961), Vol. 103, p. 67.