Tribute and Trade

An Overview of Economic Relations between China and Southeast Asia During the Song and Ming Dynasties

Authors

  • John Meyer Calvin University Author

Keywords:

Song, Ming, Southeast Asia, Dai Viet, Melaka, Majapahit, Srivijaya, trade, tributary system, copper coins, porcelain, silk, mandala, luxury goods, spices, foodstuffs, aromatics, global trade

Abstract

China and Southeast Asia have a long, shared history of commerce between them, one that began to flourish during the Song Dynasty. In Chinese history, however, commerce is inseparable from tribute. Southeast Asian polities exploited flaws in the tributary system to prosper at China's expense. The Ming and Song tributary systems are each examined in turn, followed by explorations of global trade's beginnings in Chinese and Southeast Asian commercial relations and the problematic nature of Chinese exports to Southeast Asia during the Song and Ming. From there, the Southeast Asian attitude towards Chinese tribute and trade is analyzed, first generally and then regionally, looking especially at Song and Ming imports from Southeast Asia. The two megaregions had major economic influence on one another from 960 to 1550 C.E. The tributary system fostered Song and Ming feelings of superiority over Southeast Asia, while Southeast Asian societies viewed the system primarily as a means of trade, sustaining their mandala-based societies and fueling their temple construction. 

References

Atwell, William. “Ming China and the Emerging World Economy, c. 1470–1650.” In The Cambridge History of China: The Ming Dynasty, 1368–1644, vol. 8 part 2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998: 376–416.

Bongsu, Raja. “Sejarah Melayu or Malay Annals.” Edited and translated by C. C. Brown in Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 25, No. 2/3 (1952): 5–276. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41502950.

Chau Ju-Kua. Chau Ju-Kua: His Work on the Chinese and Arab Trade in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries, Entitled Chu-fan-chï. Translated by Friedrich Hirth and W. W. Rockhill. Taipei, Taiwan: Ch'eng-Wen Publishing Company, 1967.

Fairbank, J. K., and S. Y. Têng. “On the Ch’ing Tributary System.” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 6, no. 2 (June 1941): 135–246.

Golas, Peter J. “The Sung Fiscal Administration.” In The Cambridge History of China: Sung China, 960–1279, vol. 5 part 2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015: 437–525.

Hall, Kenneth R. Maritime Trade and State Development in Early Southeast Asia. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1985.

Hall, Kenneth R. “Economic History of Early Southeast Asia,” edited by Nicholas Tarling. In The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia: From Early Times to c. 1800, 183–275. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992.

Heng, Derek. “State Formation and the Evolution of Naval Strategies in the Melaka Straits, c. 500–1500 CE.” Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 44, no. 3 (2013): 380–99. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43863212.

Kian Kwee H. “Chinese Economic Dominance in Southeast Asia: A Longue Duree Perspective.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 55, no. 1 (2013): 5–34.

Lobato, Manuel. “‘Melaka Is like a Cropping Field’ Trade Management in the Strait of Melaka during the Sultanate and the Portuguese Period.” Journal of Asian History 46, no. 2 (2012): 225–51. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41933622.

Lo Jung-Pang. “The Emergence of China as a Sea Power During the Late Sung and Early Yuan Periods.” The Far Eastern Quarterly 14, no. 4 (August 1955): 489–503.

Lufrano, Richard J. Honorable Merchants: Commerce and Self-Cultivation in Late Imperial China. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1997.

Ma Huan. Ying-Yai Sheng-Lan: ‘The Overall Survey of the Ocean’s Shores’ [1433]. Translated by J. V. Mills. Cambridge: Hakluyt Society, 1970.

Pires, Tomè, and Francisco Rodrigues. “The Suma Oriental: An Account of the East, From the Red Sea to Japan, Written in Malacca and India in 1512–1515,” edited and translated by Armando Cortesão in The Suma Oriental: An Account of the East, From the Red Sea to Japan, Written in Malacca and India in 1512–1515 and The Book of Francisco Rodrigues: Rutter of a Voyage in the Red Sea, Nautical Rules, Almanack and Maps, Written and Drawn in the East Before 1515, Vol. 2. (1944).

Reid, Anthony. “Economic and Social Change, c. 1400–1800,” edited by Nicholas Tarling. In The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia: From Early Times to c. 1800, 460–507. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992.

Ricklefs, M. C. A History of Modern Indonesia since c. 1200. 4th ed. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2008.

Schottenhammer, Angela. “China’s Emergence as a Maritime Power.” In The Cambridge History of China: Sung China, 960–1279, vol. 5 part 2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015: 437–525.

Wade, Geoff. “Engaging the South: Ming China and Southeast Asia in the Fifteenth Century.” Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 51 (2008): 578–638.

Wade, Geoff. “Ming Chinese Colonial Armies in Southeast Asia,” edited by Karl Hack and Tobias Rettig. In Colonial Armies in Southeast Asia, 73–104. New York: Routledge, 2006.

Wade, Geoff, translator. Southeast Asia in the Ming Shi-lu: An Open Access Resource. Singapore: Asia Research Institute and the Singapore E-Press, National University of Singapore. Last modified, 2005. http://www.epress.nus.edu.sg/msl/.

Wang Yuan-kang. Harmony and War: Confucian Culture and Chinese Power Politics. New York: Columbia University Press, 2011.

Downloads

Published

2024-02-08

Issue

Section

Articles