THE NANHAI TRADE : A STUDY OF THE EARLY HISTORY OF CHINESE TRADE IN THE SOUTH CHINA SEA

Abstract

I had originally set out to make a study of the Chinese sea trade during Ming times, of Cheng Ho and his successors and of the rise and fall of Chinese maritime power. To introduce this subject, I surveyed the early development of the sea trade of the sung and Yuan periods. And I found that, by that time, it had grown to an inter-ocean trade from one limited and localised in the South China Sea (or the Nanhai). I also found that all the previous studies of this early period of the sea trade of China concentrate on the trading done with countries of the West, especially with India, Persia and .Arabia; and no study has yet been made of the basic sea trade of the first thousand years - the Nanhai trade. The inter-ocean trade of the Sung and Yuan periods was an extension of the Nanhai trade of the millenium before, and the glory of Ming commerce and naval power was the climax of this extended Nanhai trade. I realised that a study of Ming and Yuan eminence, and of the constructive years of the Sung, would not be complete without a more comprehensive study of the early trade of the K'un-lun and the "Posse", and then of the Persians and the Arabs. That I have attempted to do in the following pages. It is meant to initiate a study of the later periods; but more than that, as a story I had not set out to tell, it has introduced me to places, people and events I am now glad to know.