Trade, the Sea Prohibition and the “Folangji” 145
Zhu’s dismissal did not immediately lead to a change in the sea
prohibition policy. On the contrary, the revised penal regulations (wenxing
tiaoli) promulgated in 1550 contained more stringent measures to
restrict private trade. Now, the death penalty was prescribed for corrupt
military ofβicials whose conduct caused local disturbances or killings,
people who built large-size vessels and sold them to foreigners for proβit
(an act that was now considered on par with smuggling weapons to the
sea or acting as informants for foreigners) and those ofβicials or civilians
who built vessels with more than two masts and shipped prohibited
articles (including weapons, coins, and silk products) to trade at sea
or in foreign lands, or conspired with pirate gangs and guided them on
plundering raids.^208
The Practicalities of Trade
Although the Ming government had developed a most sophisticated
tributary concept and its foreign relations were deβined in terms that
represented the Confucian world view, the system was seldom, if ever,
realized in its ideal form. The Maritime Trade and Shipping Supervisorate,
the embodiment of this high ideal, was deprived of its rigidity. Despite
occasional upsurges in idealism, there was normally room for βlexibility
to accommodate the wishes of both the Confucian state and local
governments when the ideal was transformed into practice. The ability
of private trade to survive within the framework of the Supervisorate
institution was just one such distortion of high ideals.
The downfall of Zhu Wan removed the primary obstacle to Portuguese
trade with the coastal region. By this time, the Portuguese had greatly
expanded their triangular trade network with China and Japan that
now became primarily a matter of exchanging Chinese silks, gold and
porcelain for Japanese silver bullion and copper.^209 To take advantage of
the rapid development in Sino-Japanese trade, the Portuguese urgently
needed a βirm base on the China coast. After prolonged negotiations, in
1554 the Capitão-Mor Leonel de Sousa concluded a verbal agreement
with Wang Bo, the Coastal Surveillance Vice-Commissioner of Guangdong.
Under a mutual understanding, the Portuguese were admitted to
the Guangzhou trade not as Folangji but as Siamese, purportedly
representing a country that was a tributary state. In 1557, the Portuguese
- Huai Xiaofeng, Jiajijg zhuanzhi zhengzhi, p. 138.
- Stephen Chang, Mingji tongnan Zhongguo, p. 246. While copper was exported to
China, copper coins were shipped back to Japan in large quantities.