376 Boundaries and Beyond
Canton was an equally important embarkation point. In the 1760s,
there were around 37 junks of various types that weighed anchor in
Canton. Not all of the vessels belonged to Canton merchants.^93 The junks
also consigned cargo space to foreigners. For example, on top of their
own cargoes, the junks plying between Canton and Batavia accepted
Dutch consignments of goods aboard Canton junks. The Hong owned
their own βleets and employed agents in the Nanyang as purchasers of the
goods for import, including local produce and tin. They also appointed
agents to penetrate China’s interior to procure such goods as tea,
porcelain and silk for export. These agents took charge concurrently of
selling the imported goods in the interior.^94
The foreign trade in Canton was often βinanced by several parties.
Paul A. Van Dyke furnishes his readers with some rare and most valuable
information about how the Canton junks were managed and βinanced in
the 1760s. He says:
At least 9 trading houses (factories) and 13 Chinese merchants
in Canton sponsored the 37 junks [as shown] in the Swedish
records. Additionally, seven Chinese individuals have been clearly
identiβied as the managers of 31 of the 37 junks. Thus, together
with the merchants above, there were no less than 20 Chinese from
Macao and Canton who managed, βinanced and serviced the junk
trade to Southeast Asia. These Chinese junk traders were often
connected in some fashion to the hong merchants themselves,
who were licensed by the customs superintendent ... to trade with
the foreigners.... At least 24 of the 37 junks ... were βinanced by
foreigners....^95There was one signiβicant change in the Chinese junk shipping in the
Nanyang from the latter part of the eighteenth century. Despite the long-
standing predominance of Amoy, the Chaozhou seafarers from Changlim
were catching up fast. On top of their active participation in coastal trade,
the Chaozhou maritime traders also sailed to foreign countries including
Champa, Siam, Batavia, Luzon, Ryukyu, Japan and other places.^96
- Paul A. Van Dyke, The Canton Trade, p. 145.
- Ibid., pp. 145‒60 and Chart 12.
- Paul A. Van Dyke, “A Reassessment of the China Trade: The Canton Junk Trade
as Revealed in Dutch and Swedish Records of the 1750s to the 1770s”, in
Maritime China in Transition 1750‒ 1850 , ed. Wang Gungwu and Ng Chin-keong
(Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2004), pp. 152‒3, 158; also Paul A. Van Dyke,
The Canton Trade, Ch. 8. - Akira Matsuura, Shindai hansen engan kōunshi no kenkyū, p. 586.
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