淸代福建の海船業について

Abstract

Scholarship in recent years has gradually made clear that maritime trade by Qing dynasty Chinese merchants was very active. Particularly, Fujian province was the center of this thriving maritime trade. Fujian province's maritime vessels sailed not only in the coastal waters, but also they were launched on expansive voyages to foreign shores. Especially the coastal regions and harbors of present day Liaoning 遼寧, Tianjin, Jiaozhou 膠州, Shanghai, Ningpo, Wenzhou 溫州, Taiwan were centers of maritime trading activity. Abroad, Nagasaki in Japan, Manila in the Phillipines, Karapa (Batavia) on the island of Java, and Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, and the east coast of the Malay peninsula, were all important centers of Chinese maritime trading activity. That Fujian maritime trade thrived in this way was not only due to Fujian occupying a coastal area, but also to the tendency of surplus agricultural labor to turn to the sea for a livelihood. While relatively few engaged in ship building or became shippers themselves, a very large number became sailors on coastal and foreign-bound vessels. The large number of people variously engaged in these maritime enterprises were part of the reason for Fujian's economic vigor.