372 Boundaries and Beyond
restricted the number of junks going to Manila to 88 a year, but raised
the βigure to 110 soon after. The bustling trade between Haicheng and
Manila led to a large inβlux of Mexican silver into Fujian that “stimulate[d]
silver monetization in Southeast China”.^73 However, Fujian-Manila trade
entered a period of stagnation caused by the restrictive exclusion policy
adopted by colonial authorities in 1736. T’ien Ju-kang notes that the
number of junks arriving in Manila in 1818 had been reduced to a mere
ten, with a total tonnage of around 5,000 or more.^74 John Crawfurd’s
βigures were even lower. He said only four or βive ships of 400 to 500 tons
each were arriving in Manila.^75 At this point in time, two junks averaging
800 tons were plying between Amoy and Sulu. Another two vessels of
500 tons each, or one large ship of 1,000, visited Makassar. Sailing to
Ambon was a ship of 500 tons.^76
In the western sphere of the Nanhai, J.C. van Leur offers plenty of
information about the Chinese trade with the Indian Archipelago. He
mentions pepper as the largest export to China from the region in the
βifteenth and sixteenth centuries. By the early seventeenth century, the
amount of pepper traded to China might be approximately 2,000 tons
per year, or βive-sixths of the total local production. Sandalwood was the
next most important export. The annual amount of this wood exported
was around 240 to 300 tons. Chinese junks were trading with Bantam in
western Java at this time. Van Leur reckons that the number of Chinese
junks arriving could be eight to ten large ships of 200 to 400 tons each.
The pepper trade in Bantam was mainly in the hands of Chinese junk
traders. The^ Chinese merchants made up a large proportion of the local
rich people and owned luxury houses, warehouses and ships.^77 Five
junks, each of 600 to 800 tons, traded with Batavia. In 1625, says Van
Leur, the total tonnage of the Chinese βleet visiting Batavia was “as large
as or larger than that of the whole return βleet of the Dutch Company”.^78
- Evelyn S. Rawski, Agricultural Change and the Peasant Economy of South China
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1972), p. 76. - T’ien Ju-k’ang, “Shiqi shiji zhi shijiu shiji zhongye zhongguo fanchuan”, p. 16.
- John Crawfurd, History of the Indian Archipelago, Vol. 3, p. 184.
- Ibid.
- J.C. van Leur, Indonesian Trade and Society, pp. 124‒5, 130, 134. Van Leur offers
enlightening insights into Chinese trading activities, as well as the general trade
conditions in the Indian Archipelago in the βirst half of the seventeenth century. - Ibid., p. 198; Leonard Blussé, Badaweiya huaren yu zhong He maoyi 巴达维亚
华人与中荷贸易 [The Chinese in Batavia and Sino-Dutch Trade], trans. Zhuang
Guotu 庄国土 (Nanning: Guangxi renmin chubanshe, 1997), pp. 120‒1; Leonard
Blussé and Wu Fengbin 吴风斌, Bacheng gongguan dang’an yanjiu: 18 shiji mo
Badaweiya tangren shehui 吧城公馆档案研究: 18世纪末吧达维亚唐人社会
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