Expanding Possibilities 401
In a nutshell, the power of sustainability and adaptability greatly
enabled Chinese junk traders to overcome the various challenges, as the
following sections will elaborate in more detail.
Fluidity and Adaptability of the Min-Yue Enterprise
Irregularities as a Form of Sustainability
Fluidity and irregularities went in tandem with maritime activities as a
means of ensuring survival. A trader would always attempt to create a
favorable trade environment and accommodate especially to the wishes
of the law enforcers. Even while doing so, he would also instinctively
evade restrictive regulations, or circumnavigate constraints. Evasion
might also be used simply as an additional means of enhancing his proβit
margins and often co-existed with accommodation.
Given the existence of numerous customs houses or checkpoints
along the coast, evasions were common. The customs duties and trading
environment differed between the checkpoints and between provinces.
They were highest in Amoy and lowest in Hainan. John Crawfurd was
informed by the Chinese traders in Siam that they were subject to the
fewest restrictions at the ports of Ningbo, Shanghai and Soochow. To
protect their proβits, the maritime merchants would exercise great
dexterity in evading duties. Since the duties for native coastal junks
were low, it is little wonder that merchants took advantage of the duty
disparities by clearing their junks out for the west coast of Guangdong or
Hainan, when in reality they planned to proceed overseas to Vietnam or
Siam. When a junk returned from abroad, it would anchor off the port of
Hainan for a few days, allowing the captain time to strike a deal with the
customs ofβicials. If they did not comply, he would threaten to leave for
another port, thereby depriving the ofβicials of their usual perquisites.^189
Another such illustration is provided by Harry Parkes. Counting only
the smaller towns or depots along the coast, he says:
[There were] no less than seventy customs house stations, through
which cargoes can be smuggled, or rather passed, at a lower rate of
compromise than that which is required to satisfy the larger staff
of employees at the Canton headquarters.... [F]oreign-going junks
often discharge the more valuable portion of their cargo outside,
and enter only with coarse goods, shipped as they state, at Haenan
[Hainan] or some southern harbour of the province, at which they- John Crawfurd’s testimony, 1830, p. 455.