The Emporium of the World: Maritime Quanzhou, 1000-1400 9004117733, 9789004117730

Table of contents :
Epigraph
Contents
List of Illustrations
Introduction
The Impact of the Song Imperial Clan on the Overseas Trade of Quanzhou • John W. Chaffee
Overseas Trade and Social Change in Quanzhou through the Song • Hugh R. Clark
The Role of Metals and the Impact of the Introduction of Huizi Paper Notes in Quanzhou on the Development of Maritime Trade in the Song Period • Angela Schottenhammer
Port, City, and Hinterlands: Archeological Perspectives on Quanzhou and its Overseas Trade • Richard Pearson, Li Min, and Li Guo
The Ceramic Boom in Minnan during Song and Yuan Times • Ho Chuimei
Tamil Merchant Guilds and the Quanzhou Trade • John Guy
Behind the Shadows: ArcheoIogical Data on Two-Way Sea-Trade between Quanzhou and Satingpra, South Thailand, 10th-14th Century • Janice Stargardt
Quanzhou: At the Northern Edge of a Southeast Asian “Mediterranean”? • Roderich Ptak
Index

Citation preview

THE EMPORIUM OF THE WORLD

SINICA LEIDENSIA EDITED BY

W.L. IDEMA IN CO O PERATI ON WITH

P.K. BOL • D. R. KNE CHTGES • E.S. RAWSKI E. ZURCHER ' H. T. ZURNDORFER VOLUME XLIX

THE EMPORIUM OF

THE WORLD Maritime OJLanzhou, 1000-1400 EDITED BY

ANGELA SCHOTTENHAMMER

BRILL LEIDEN . BOSTON' KOLN 2001

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

Library of Congress Cataloging-In-Pubficaticn Data The emporium of the world : maritime Quanzhou, 1000-1400 / edited by Angela Schottenhammer. p. em. - (Sinica Leidensia, ISSN 0169-9563 : v. 49) Papers originally prepared for an international conference held in Leiden, the Netherlands, on Sept. 26-27, 1997. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 9004117733 (alk. paper) 1. Quanzhou (Fujian Sheng, China)--Commerce-History-Congresses. 2. Merchant marine-China-Quanzhou (Fujian Sheng)--History-Congresses. 3. Quanzhou (Fujian Sheng, China)--Economic conditions-Congresses. I. Schottenhammer, Angela. II. Series. HF3852.E47 2000 382' .095 1'245-dc21

00-046859 CIP

Die Deutsche Bibliothek - CIP·EinheitsaufnahIne The empos-lurn of the world: maritime Quanzhou, 1000 - 1400 / ed. by Angela Schottenhammer. - Leiden ; Boston ; Koln : Brill, 2000 Leiden ; Boston ; Koln : Brill, 2000 (Sinica Leidensia ; Vol. 49) ISBN 90-04-11773-3

ISSN tn 69-9563 ISBN 90 04 11773 3 © Copyright 2001 byKoninklijke BrillNi/, Leiden, TheNetherlands

All rights reserved. No part of thispublication may bereproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, ortransmitted in anyform orby any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording orotherwise, without prior written permission.from the publisher. Authorization tophotocopy itemsfor internal orpersonal use isgranted byBrillprovided that the appropriatefees are paiddirectlY to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910 Danvers MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject tochange. PRINTED IN THE NETHERLANDS

The complaint that correct abstract thinking (philosophy) "is unintelligible is as much due to another reason; and this is an impatient wish to have before them as a mental picture that which is in the mind as a thought or notion . When people are asked to apprehend some notion, they often complain that they do not know what they have to think. But the fact is that in a notion there is nothing further to be thought than the notion itself. What the phrase reveals is a hankering after an image with which we are already familiar. The mind, denied the use of its familiar ideas, feels the ground where it once stood firm and at home taken away from beneath it, and, when transported into the region of pure thought, cannot tell where in the world it is. One consequence of this weakness is that authors , preachers, and orators are found most intelligible, when they speak of things which their readers or hearers already know by rote - things which the latter are conversant with, and which require no explanation." (G. W. F. Hegel, Encydopaedia ofthe Philosophi£al Sciences, § 3). "(I)n point of contents, thought is only true in proportion as it sinks itself in the facts; and in point of form it is no private or particular state or act of the subject, but rather that attitude of consciousness where the abstract self, freed from all the special limitations to which its ordinary states or qualities are liable, restricts itself to that universal action in which it is identical with all individuals. ... And when Aristotle summons the mind to rise to the dignity of that attitude, the dignity he seeks is won by letting slip all our individual opinions and prejudices, and submitting to the sway of the fact." (G. W. F. Hegel, Encydopaedia ofthe Philosophi£al Sciences, § 23).

CONfENTS List of Illustrations

'"

Vll

Introduction... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... .

1

John W. Chaffee The Impaa ofthe Sang: Imperial Clan an the Ocerseas Trade ofQ&fnzhou... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... .

13

Hugh R. Clark 0wJeas Trade and Social OxmJ! in Q&fnzhou through the Sang... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ....

47

Angela Schottenhammer The Role ofMetals and the Jmpaa of the Introduaiai ofHuizi Paper Notes in Q&fnzhou an the lJecx!opnmt ofMaritime Trade in the Sang Periai... ... 95 RichardPearson, Li Min, and Li Guo Port, City, and Hinterlands: A rrharolutj:al Perspeaices an QJtrnzhou and its Ozerseas Trade.: ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... .

177

HoChuimei The Ceramic fum in Mirman during Song and Yuan Ttmes

237

John Guy Tttmil Merchtnt Guilds and the Qwzzhou Trade.: ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

283

Janice Stargardt Behind the Shadows: A rchamIugical Data an Tuo-uay Sea- Trade benuea Q&mzhou and Satingpra, South Thailand, 10th·14th Century... 309 Roderich Ptak Qwz'Z1xJu.. At the Northern EdJ!ofa Southeast. A sian "Mediterranean"? ... ... ..... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ..... ... ... ... ..

395

Index... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ..... ...

429

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Ho CI lUI MEl, TIlE CERAMIC BOOM Figure 4: Phase A Qingbai (QBI) ware, plates with inside design, Dongtian, Nan'an. Figure 5: Reversed side of the sherds in Figure 4. Figure 6: Phase B Green glazed, incised-combed (GIC) ware, bowls, Xiqu, Dongtian, Nan'an. Figure 7: Phase B/C Black-brown glazed (BBG) ware, small bowls, Jindou, Yongchun. Figure 8: Phase B/C Lead glazed (LGR) ware, vase stands with molded design, Zhizhushan, Cizao,Jinjiang. Figure 9: Phase D Qingbai (QBIII) ware, small vases with molded design, Jiachunling, Dehua. Figure 10: One type of ceramic ring supports used in Phase C, Jiachunling, Dehua.

JOliN GUY, TAMIL MERCIIANT GUILDS

Figure 1: Tamil inscription with Chinese gloss, found in Quanzhou. Museum of Anthropology, Xiamen University, Xiarnen . Figure 2: Kaiyuan temple, Quanzhou. © photo J. Guy, 1983. Figure 3: North verandah of the main hall, Kaiyuan temple, with two stone carved pillars recovered from a Hindu temple. © photo J. Guy, 1983. Figure 4: Vishnu, found in Quanzhou. Museum of Maritime History, Quanzhou.

viii Figure 5:

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Kali seated on the prostrate figure of Siva; in situ Xinji Pavilion, Jinjiang County, Fujian, where she is worshipped as gua'!Yin. © photo Museum of Maritime History, Quanzhou.

Figure 6: Siva as Nataraja , Lord of the Dance; relief sculpture recovered from Quanzhou (but now lost). © photo Wu Wenliang, Quanzhou Zongjiao Shilo, 1956. Figure 7: Cow worshipping a linga; relief sculpture recovered from Quanzhou (but now lost). © photo Wu Wenliang,Quanzhou Zongjiao Shilo, 1956. Figure 8:

Cow worshipping a linga; relief sculpture from Tamilnadu, South India, c. 12th century . Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles.

Figure 9: Elephant worshipping a linga; relief sculpture from Quanzhou. Museum of Maritime History, Quanzhou. Figure 10: Elephant worshipping a linga; relief sculpture in situ Svetaranyesvaraswami temple, Tiruvenkatu, Thanjavur District, South India, c. 9th century. e photo J. Gu y, 1990. Figure 11: Contemporary mural painting above entrance to sanctuary, Svetaranyesvaraswami temple, Tiruvenkatu, Thanjavur District, South India, 20th century . e photo J. Guy, 1990.

JANICE STARGARDT, B EHIND T HE SHADOWS

Pre-ChineseTrade Oijeds Excavated at SatinJ!Pra Citadelby theAuthor Plate 1:

Glass from small jar of the Roman Empire, c. 4th century. © photo J. Stargardt, 1996.

Plate 2:

Terra Cotta sherds with buff slip and haematite decoration from PreAngkorian Cambodia (Chin. Funan/Chen-la), 6th-7th century. © photo J . Stargardt, 1996.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

ix

Chinese Ceramics Excavated at SatinlPra Citadel !?y the Author, Green-glazed Chinese Ceramics Plate J:

Yellowish-green glazed stoneware sherds of small bowls. Ou Kilns, Zhejiang Province, Five Dynasties/early Northern Song, mid-late 10th century. c photo J. Stargardt, 1996.

Plate 4:

Stoneware sherds of shallow bowls, grey body, incized under-glaze design of peonies, glassy olive-green glaze. Longquan Kiln, Zhejiang Province, late Northern Song, early 12th century. © photo J. Stargardt, 1996.

Plate 5:

Stoneware sherds of shallow bowls, pale grey/whitish body, inner surface, incised/combed underglaze design of peony and cursive scrolls, green glaze. Longquan Kiln, Zhejiang Province, early Southern Song, mid-12th century. © photo J . Stargardt, 1996.

Plate 6:

Stoneware rim and side sherds of shallow bowls, pale grey/whitish body, "classic" greenish blue glaze, outer surface moulded raised design of double lotus. Longquan Kiln, Zhejiang Province, mid-Southern Song, early 13th century. Numerous. © photo J. Stargardt, 1996.

Plate 7:

Stoneware footring sherds of shallow bowls, pale grey/whitish body, "classic" greenish blue glaze, outer surface. Longquan Kiln, Zhejiang Province , late Southern Song-Yuan, late-13th century. Numerous, including in destruction layer. © photo J . Stargardt, 1996.

Plate 8:

Heavy stoneware footring of large bowl. Moulded raised design of fish under thickly applied greenish-blue glaze. Outer surface strongly ribbed design of lotus. Longquan Kiln, Zhejiang Province, Yuan 14th century -post-destruction surface find. © photo J. Stargardt, 1996.

Qingbai-glazed Chinese Porcelains E xcavated at SatinlPra Citadel!?y theAuthor Plate 9:

Porcelain sherds of very small cup/incense holder, fine white body transparent glaze; upper and lower parts separately wheel-formed and joined together before glazing. Jingdezhen Kiln, Jiangxi Province, mid-Northern Song, c. mid-ll th century. © photo J . Stargardt, 1996.

Plate 10: Porcelain sherds of lids of small boxes, fine white body with transparent or Qingbai glaze. Lower row impressed designs of circles, late Northern Song, late 11th/early 12th century; upper row raised moulded designs of triangles, scrolls and petals, Southern Song/early

x

LIST

or ILLUSTRATIONS

Yuan, late-12th to early 14th century. Jingdezhen Kiln, Jiangxi Province. © photo J. Stargardt, 1996.

Plate 11: Porcelain sherd of lid of small box, white body with transparent glaze. Northern Song, mid/late 11th century. Dehua Kiln, Fujian Province. © photo J. Stargardt, 1996. Plate 12: Porcelain sherds of bases and lids of small lidded boxes and one small cup/incense holder with foliate rim; boxes moulded with raised scroll design on lids and ribbed design on bases; white or buff body transparent or Qingbai glazes. Dehua Kiln, Fujian Province, late Southern Song/Yuan, late 13th to early 14th centuries. Numerous, including in destruction layer. © photo J. Stargardt, 1996. Southern Chinese Container Jars Excavated OuterUrban Area

I!J the Author in the Satinl/Jra

Citadel and

Plate 13: Coarsely tempered stoneware sherds of mercury bottles showing characteristic heavily carinated inner surface. Guangdong[?] Kilns, exact provenance unknown, c. 12th-14th century. Numerous, including complete specimens found in Satingpra lakes and in Quanzhou wreck . © photo J. Stargardt, 1996. Plate 14: Heavy coarse stoneware sherds of container bowls. Glaze colours dark brown/black, olive/yellow green. Impressed Chinese character. Xicun Kiln, Guangdong Province, 11th/12th century. This specimen contained ashes of monastic cremation burial with clay votive tablet, c. 11th century; excavated by the author in 1972 inside the base of a cylindrical stupa, Wat Satingpra precinct. © photo J . Stargardt, 1996. Plate 15: Heavy coarse stoneware sherds of container jars. Glaze colours dark brown/black, olive/yellow green. Relief moulded and applied designs of animals: lion, dragon - Fujian Province, Jin River Kiln group near Quanzhou, late Southern Song-Yuan 13th/early 14th century - numerous sherds of similar clay body and glaze including in destruction layer. Impressed design of lily buds(?) Xicun Kiln, Guangdong Province, Northern Song, 11th/12th century. © photo J. Stargardt, 1996.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Localfy-made Ceramics, E x cavated Iry theAuthor in the Waste-heap Satin!pra Complex

xi

0/the Kok Moh Kiln,

Plate 16: \'V'hite-bodied unglazed kendi made at the Kok Moh Kiln Satingpra 11th - 12th century and exported together with re-exported Chinese ceramics of the Satingpra type to the sites shown in Fig. 5. Monochrome colours were white, red, grey, buff and rarely black; spouts were decorated and undecorated, bases both flat and on pedestal, necks always slender and elongated with neatly-formed neck rim, bodies always globular, paste extremely fine. © photo J. Stargardt 1998. Plate 17: Red-bodied unglazed kendi made at the Kok Moh Kiln Satingpra 11th-12th century and exported together with re-exported Chinese ceramics of the Satingpra type to the sites shown in Fig. 5. Monochrome colours were white, red, grey, buff and rarely black; spouts were decorated and undecorated, bases both flat and on pedestal, necks always slender and elongated with neatly-formed neck rim, bodies always globular, paste extremely fine. © photo J. Stargardt 1998.

INTRODUCTION

Investigating "international", 1 supra-regional trade relations in ancient China, the literature, both modern and pre-modern, often gives the impression that the Chinese were not really interested in trade as a commercial undertaking, that all they would tolerate was a form of official tribute trade; and with the exception of that tribute trade which tended to pursue the aim of representing China as the great "Middle Kingdom" in the Asian world than being pragmatically designed for commercial purposes, trade and merchants generally were held in fairly low esteem in ancient Chinese society . This picture is not the whole story. Upon closer examination, it emerges that much more trade went on than many official documents reveal, and - to use the words of Abu-Lughod - that tribute trade "was only the tip of an iceberg of unrecorded 'private' trade"," Besides this, the assumption that merchants only feathered their own nests at the expense of others, especially of all the people who produced wealth, in particular the farmers, in its strictest sense was valid only for pedantic Confucian scholars and should not be deliberately applied to the rulings elites in Chinese history. Documents of time periods as early as the Han dynasty (206 BC - AD 220), such as the Yantie tun (Discussions on Salt and Iron) or the economic treatises of the Shi ji (Records ofthe Historian) and the Han shu (Book of Han) , are examples that members of the contemporary elite disputed and argued heatedly about the attitude to be adopted towards trade and commerce. Sporadic maritime trade contacts in China had already existed during the Han dynasty, but a remarkable development in maritime 1 In this volume the expressions "national" and "international" are used in the awareness of the fact that they are not to be understood in a modern sense. 2 Janet L. Abu-Lughod, Before European Hegemony. The World System A .D. 12501350. New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989,317 .

INTRODUCTION

2

trade relations took place under the Song and Yuan dynasties, roughly from the tenth to the fourteenth centuries. This was a period, in which China also experienced an enormous upswing in her inner economic sector. In the eleventh century particularly the state, the central government, began to promote trade actively , a political measure which had consequences in an extension of trade relations and not only within China. It is certainly true, as Janet Abu-Lughod has already shown, that the system of "international" trade relations during the Song and Yuan dynasties was not a global one; but "it was substantially more complex in organization, greater in volume, and more sophisticated in execution, than anything the world had previously known".' In this context, we should be careful not to underestimate the volume of trade and the extension of trade relations during this period. The claim that the "age of commerce" began only around 1400, a time when "the growth in demand for Southeast Asian produce appears to have" risen "relatively suddenly" on Chinese as on Mediterranean markets, is, in my eyes, problematic.' We do have evidence that maritime trade relations had already experienced a boom at the latest in the Southern Song and Yuan dynasties (thirteenth-fourteenth centuries). At the same time, we should be aware of the fact that drawing a clear distinction between official tribute trade and "illegal" private trade will largely be untenable. The Chinese central government and members of the ruling elite were engaged in trade, even promoted it, and their integration into trade and commerce was far from being neglegible for the development of maritime trade during the Song and Yuan dynasties. This volume, therefore, seeks to provide more evidence for these statements and, consequently, examines the history of one emporium of this "rnediseval international world trade system" . It examines some particularly meaningful, interesting, and hitherto often neglected aspects of the maritime trade history of Quanzhou, but it does not aim to present a "total Abu-Lughod, J., Before European Hegemony, 353. Cf. Anthony Reid, Southeast Asia in the Age of Commerce , 1450-1680. Vol. 2. Expansion and Crisis. New Haven, London : Yale University Press, 1993, XIII, 1, 15. 3

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INTRODUCTION

3

history" covering the complete history of this trade between the tenth and the fourteenth centuries. The papers presented in this volume were originally prepared for an international conference on the study of maritime trade and the economic and social development of the Quanzhou region during the Song and Yuan dynasties (tenth to fourteenth centuries). The conference was held in Leiden, the Netherlands, on September 26 and 27, 1997, and brought together a small group of eleven scholars from various disciplines and different areas of research within the confines of this topic . It was sponsored by the International Insitute for Asian Studies (lIAS), the Royal Dutch Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNA W), the Netherland's Organizations for Scientific Research (NWO), and the Leiden University Fund (LUF), and was organized by the IIAS. The stated aim of the conference was to arrive not just at a better, but at a more standardized understanding of the history of the overseas trade of Quanzhou during the Song and Yuan dynasties and it sought to present the actual, interdisciplinary state of research and expose it to a critical debate. The topics of research were therefore not limited to specific scientific fields and aspects, for example to social history, only . Contributions focused mainly on Song-Yuan political, social, and economic history, maritime trade history, and archaeology. The upshot was the conference included a wide range of contributions covering both socio-political, economic, and archaeological topics, and referring to local contemporary developments at Quanzhou, to inter-regional trade relations such as the trade between Quanzhou and India or Thailand, and also to carrying out investigations into developments in areas overseas. Papers were presented by John W. Chaffee (professor at the Department of History, Binghamton University, Binghamton, New York, USA), Chen Peng (Director of the Cultural Department, City Administration Quanzhou, Quanzhou, China), Hugh R. Clark (professor at Ursinus College, Collegeville, USA), John Guy (Indian and Southeast Asian Department, Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK), Ho Chuimei (Chicago Field Museum,

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INTRODUCTION

Department of Anthropology, Chicago, USA), Li Yukun (Director of the Research Department of the Museum of Overseas Communication History, Quanzhou, China), Richard Pearson (Professor at the Department of Anthropology and Sociology, University of British Colombia, Vancouver, Canada), Roderich Ptak (Professor at the Institut fur Ostasienkunde, Munich University, Munich, Germany), So Kee Long (Professor at the Department of History, Chinese University of Hongkong, Hongkong, HK), Janice Stargardt (Director of the Cambridge Project on Ancient Civilization in Southeast Asia, Department of Geography, Cambridge University, Cambridge, UK), and myself (IIAS, Leiden University, Leiden, NL). The contributions of So Kee Long, Chen Peng, and Li Yukun are not included in this volume . Roderich Ptak's contribution is not identical with the paper he presented at the conference. A Chinese version of Li's paper has been published in the first issue of "Haijiaoshi yanjiu" 1998. As discussions during the conference showed, the analysis and examination of materials, facts, and evidence collected by different but related scientific fields can in fact help to arrive at a more comprehensive and integrated understanding of the past - without risking accumulating no more than various disparate heaps of extremely subject-specific knowledge juxtaposed in a more or less incomprehensible pattern. For the historian of China the field of archaeology is a veritable gold-mine which provides valuable additional information, and this is just as true in the case of Quanzhou and its maritime history. New archaeological evidence has made valuable contributions to improving our understanding of the contemporary overseas trade . With the help of numerous thoroughly elaborated case studies, the fruit of years of historical and archaeological research, we have gradually obtained a more complex and deeper historical understanding of the structure of the maritime trade, including concrete trade routes, areas and ports of destination and of further distribution, the origins and the flows of certain commodities, and the political and economic structures of certain areas involved in mari-

INTRODUCTION

5

time trade themselves. Especially the papers of Richard Pearson, Ho Chuimei, John Guy, and Janice Stargardt were placed in this context. Richard Pearson surveys the city plan of Quanzhou and describes the city in relation to the ceramics production in its hinterland, as well as the evidence of trade between Quanzhou, Fujian, and the RyUkyu Islands. His aim is to reconstruct Quanzhou as a living system and to explain its development and decline. In his opinion, the emphasis in explaining the rise of Quanzhou should be moved to the changes in the political economy, both at a state and at a local level. Such changes were, for example, reflected in aspects of trade between Quanzhou and the Ryukyu Islands. Okinawa, one site on the Ryukyu Islands, received ceramics from various regions of China, not only Quanzhou and its hinterland. With Quanzhou functioning as a major transshipment port during the time period under consideration, this situation also suggests that at least a certain quantity of the ceramics exported through Quanzhou were first transported there, mostly along waterways. Finally, also the flow of coinage from China to Japan and the Ryukyus can indicate the commercial activity and especially the development of private trade in China up to the thirteenth century. Ho Chuimei uses a different approach to examine the growth of the Song and Yuan Minnan ceramics industry. Her study is based on archaeological data which were collected during a three-year joint project of the Chicago Field Museum, USA, and the Xiamen University, China. Instead of focusing on dating in the conventional sense, she examines the growth of the Song Yuan Minnan ceramics industry by dividing this time period into shorter phases, discussing both geographical shifts in manufacturing centres - first, from south to north along the coast, then, from the coast to the hinterland - and changes in product types. Finally, she integrates these shifts into the economic and political conditions of Song-Yuan Quanzhou. The existence of Hindu remains in Quanzhou has been known since Gustave Ecke drew attention to the 'Hindu' pillars and foundation stones at the Kaiyuan temple. Such architectural and sculptural relics, taken in conjunction with a bilingual Tamil-Chinese

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INTRODUCTION

inscription dated 1281, can be assumed to demonstrate the thriving connection between the Quanzhou port and Tamil-speaking Hindu merchants in South India . In this context John Guy focuses his paper on the integration of merchants into commercial and organi zational structures, and the commercial activities of local and Tamil merchants. He examines the Hindu remains in Quanzhou laying particular emphasis on aspects of style and iconography as clues to identify the home area of expatriate Hindu merchants. Analyzing archaeological relics and inscriptional evidence of Tamil-speaking traders in Southeast Asia, he shows that the most powerful Indian merchant guilds, the Ayyavole and the Manigramam, were probably also active in South China. Janice Stargardt introduces the results of over twenty years' archaeological research on the ancient ports of the Satingpra sitecomplex, South Thailand, which straddled the Isthmus of the Malay Peninsula. She documents and dates their relations with ports in Sumatra, which may have been the "Sanfoqi" of Song-Yuan Chinese texts (= Srivijaya ?) . Stargardt presents meticulous identifications of the Chinese ceramics excavated in Satingpra, their changing volumes and dates and on the indigenous incenses and ship-building materials, thus documenting major items of two-way trade for the entire Song period. She shows that China's southern trade was was both circumpeninsular and transpeninsular, with Satingpra being an important entrepot on both routes, playing a role in regional and inter-regional trade. The Satingpra data illuminate major unrecorded aspects of Song China's domestic economy as well as its international dimensions. They also reveal profound economic and cultural changes in the Satingpra complex under the impact of that trade. During the course of the conference, most of the participants agreed in their dissatisfaction with stereotyped clichee patterns and generalizations in the field of research , which for various resasons require a stringent, critical re-investigation. In this context, it is particularly dangerous to analyze documents or developments without critically considering the respective historical background and environment of the time when they were written. An adequate assess-

INTRODUCTION

7

ment of the historical past, therefore, often requires an analysis of a wider range of questions than only those which at first sight seem to be directly related to the topic. Consequently, investigating the history of Quanzhou and its maritime trade, the contributors to this volume always seek to consider Quanzhou's integration into both the central government systems of Song and Yuan China and into the broader context of the East and Southeast Asian Seas (Nanyang), which includes the trading cities or regions which were, compared to Quanzhou, located at another edge of the Nanyang seas. This implies the question of political and economic developments in areas overseas, with which the Chinese and Quanzhou merchants had established trade relations. In this context, the present volume also seeks to show the reader the great importance and impact of such inter-dependencies or inter-relationships for the study of historical Quanzhou. An analysis and comparison of hitherto neglected data or materials on socio-political or politico-economic questions, and the insight needed to view the regional development at Quanzhou integrated into a supra-regional historical context - Quanzhou as a part of the Song dynasty - emerge in the papers of John Chaffee and Hugh Clark, and myself. John Chaffee's paper focuses on the impact of the Song imperial clan on the overseas trade of Song period Quanzhou. He assesses the role and importance of the clan during the Southern Song, when Quanzhou served as the major centre in the empire for clansmen, and shows that the presence of the Song imperial clan in Quanzhou, although perhaps not the major factor behind its rise and decline, was at least a "significant accelerator in good times" and "a drag in bad times". Chaffee elucidates that it is very problematic to regard too hastily the increasing financial burden necessary to support the imperial clan as the primary cause of the economic decline of thirteenth-century Quanzhou. He throws more light on the inter-relationship between the imperial clan and overseas trade by investigating four major aspects: the fiscal drain of the clan on the Superintendency of Maritime Trade (Shibo 5Z), the direct involvement of the

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INTRODUCTION

clan in overseas trade, the number of clansmen serving as superintendents, and the not unimportant role of clan members as consumers. At the conference there was also consensus that the involvement of the imperial clan in overseas trade was stronger than has often been assumed. But at the same time the often discussed causes of Quanzhou's economic decline that occurred in the thirteenth century should not, as has hitherto been argued, primarily be traced back to the ever-escalating expenditure of Quanzhou for the support of the large number of imperial clan members who resided in Quanzhou during the Southern Song dynasty. Its causes have to be sought in the broader context of China's official policy towards trade and commerce. Simultaneously, also possible negative effects exerted by external markets should be taken into consideration. Investigating China's official policy towards trade, we are once and again confronted with the question of a distinction between official and private trade. In this context, Hugh Clark demonstrates that a kind of "job sharing" between members of the scholar-official elite and members of the same kindred who engaged in maritime trade seems to have existed. His results can provide further evidence for the economic and political inter-relationship and inter-dependency of the "official" and the "private" maritime trade. Clark furthermore argues that the overseas trade of Quanzhou prompted a social revolution in Minnan that was as profound as the local commercial revolution. This commercial revolution, which reached its apogee in the twelfth century, provided the foundation for a farreaching social revolution, including the onset of a certain mobility. In his contribution Clark also challenges the "mobility-viaexamination model" proposed by Edward A. Kracke. Conversely, he accepts Robert Hartwell's view that for the most part there was certainly very little political and social mobility in Song China. However, through a thorough study of genealogical links and relationsships, and an analysis of the number of successful jinshi examination candidates of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, Clark is able to show that in Minnan social mobility was a real factor in constructing the elite society.

INTRODUCTION

9

The official economic and financial policy of the Song government, its relatively heavy involvement in trade and commerce, had yet another important consequence. In my paper I argue that the drainage of copper coins abroad, which emerged as a major problem for the later Song state and economy, was exacerbated by the central government's introduction of paper money in southeast China in the second half of the twelfth century. The Huizi paper notes were introduced after the resumption of war between the Jin and the Song in 1160, which caused a new fiscal crises for the Song. Confronted with increasing expenditure, the Song government reacted by paying its economic subjects with debt (i.e. credit) instead of "real" money possessing an intrinsic value. Copper (bronze) coins were of major importance to the Song economy, as they functioned as the general measure and equivalent of value and, therefore, represented wealth in its general and abstract form.' But in the long run the attempt to attract more wealth (money) in the form of copper coins from the people by issuing ever-increasing quantities of paper notes had very negative consequences also for the further development of maritime trade. In this context, I want to show that the government's specific monetary policy constituted an important cause of Quanzhou's relative economic decline in the thirteenth century. With its monetary political measures, the government unintentionally undermined the oversas trade, which it originally sought to use to "pay" for its political, economic, and military purposes. The result was a contraction of local trading activities. The outflow of copper coins through the port of Quanzhou cannot solely be traced back to a foreign demand for Chinese copper, but has to be seen against this background of the regional and overregional developments in China. Roderich Ptak eventually looks at the broader context of the East and Southeast Asian Seas and interprets Quanzhou as a port located at the northern edge of a Southeast Asian "Mediterranean" a term borrowed from the spacial perception of the European 5 Silver and gold also served as general equivalents of value, but in China gold did never play the same outstanding role as an "universal money " as in medieval Europe.

10

INTRODUCTION

Mediterranean as it has originally been formulated by Fernand Brandel. He investigates the question of whether Quanzhou was more closely linked to the rest of China or to the postulated "Nanyang Mediterranean". Re-reading of some important Chinese texts, Ptak provides an interesting contribution to the discussions on this topic. Aspects which were raised in the course of discussions and which, at least for the moment, are still afflicted with a "certain uncertainty" are, for example, the problernatics of the dating, the exact classification and identification of Quannan ceramics, and the difficulty of "handling" certain geographical locations such as Srivijaya, topics which therefore necessarily still remain somewhat speculative. A report of the conference in the Chinese language has been written by Li Yukun and was published in "Zhongguoshi yanjiu

luntai"? As far as possible, I have standardized English and foreign technical and special terms as well as the Western transcription of Chinese and Japanese terms. Sometimes, however, it was impossible to use a uniform transcription or expressions consistently throughout the whole volume, a fact which is partly due to individual authors' preferences. I would, therefore, like to ask the reader to excuse one or the other inconsistency in the writing and use of some terms throughout the different articles. Chinese and Japanese characters are not included in the running text, but given at the end of each article in a separate glossary. With the exception of the contributions of John Guy and Janice Stargardt, who are both not sinologists, and with the exception of well-known Chinese or Japanese journals and congshus, characters were also added in the bibliographies. The Western transcription of Chinese 6 Li Yukun, "Helan Laidun daxue Yazhou yanjiu zhongxin juxing 'Song Yuan shiqi Quanzhou haiwai maoyi' guoji xueshu taolunhui" [Organization of an International Symposium on the 'Maritime Trade of Quanzhou during the Song and Yuan Dynasties' by the International Institute for Asian Studies, Leiden University, the Netherlands], Zhongguoshi yanjiu luntai 1 (1998).

INTRODUCTION

11

terms follows the pinyin-system. Only in cases of quotations from other sources which used the Wade and Giles transcription system, or, in the case when individual and proper Chinese names are normally not transcribed according to the pinyin-system, another transcription has been used, such as for example in the case of So Kee Long. Reign periods of emperors have been given in small letters and in italics, the names of official administrative institutions in capitals and in italics (such as e.g. Shibo Sl), official titels in small letters. Names of buildings, temples (such as e.g. Muzong yuan or Kaiyuan si) etc. are written in normal script, not in italics. I should also note here that Chinese and Japanese book and other titles have not been translated.

It goes without saying that the publication of this volume has only become possible, above all, by the financial and organizational assistance of the lIAS. In addition, I gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the conference by the KNAW, the NWO, and the LUF. I am furthermore indebted to all the conference participants and to many friends and colleagues with whom I had the opportunity to discuss our research and who gave me valuable comments and inspirations. Besides discussions with the conference participants, I profited greatly from conversations with Dr Achim Mittag (lIAS, NL), Prof. Leonard Blusse, Prof. Kristofer Schipper, Dr Harriet Zurndorfer (Leiden University, NL), Prof. Paul Smith (University of Philadelphia, USA), and Dr Ivo Smits (Leiden University, NL). lowe a special debt to my colleague Dr Brian Moloughney (University of Otago, New Zealand) for the valuable comments he gave me in conversations and letters. I also thank Prof. Wilt Idema for allowing me to publish this volume in his series Sinica Leidensia, and the staff of the Sinological library of the University of Leiden for that I could always make use of the library's records and facilities. Dr Eduard Vermeer kindly lended me his wan/i-edition of the Quanzhou fuzhi for research purposes.

12

INTRODUCTION

Finally, I want to express my thanks to Ria Hogervorst (Leiden) and Dr Martin Hanke (Hamburg) for all the assistance they gave me to overcome computer problems and to edit the Chinese characters. In publishing this volume I hope to contribute to improve our knowledge on the maritime trade of China during the Song and Yuan dynasties and to draw the reader's attention to some hitherto rather neglected aspects of this topic as well as to certain debatable interpretations of the history of this trade. Dr Angela Schottenhammer Research Fellow at the International Institute for Asian Studies (lIAS) March 1999

THE IMPACT OF THE SONG IMPERIAL CLAN ON THE OVERSEAS TRADE OF QUANZHOU ]OHNW. CHAFFEE THE PROBLEM

In 1231, during his second tour as prefect of Quanzhou, Zhen Dexiu (1178-1235) wrote a lengthy memorial concerning the costs of maintaining the imperial clan presence in Quanzhou (by far the largest clan center in the Southern Song), which essentially set the terms for all subsequent discussions of the fiscal drain caused by the imperial clan.1 In it Zhen details the increasing burden for supporting the imperial clan that had been forced upon the prefectural government. Initially there had been a fifty-fifty split between prefecture and circuit in providing the funds for clan support, but over time the circuit had managed to eliminate its support. As a result the prefecture had come to assume most of the burden, with Zhangzhou, Xinghuajun and the Superintendency of Maritime Trade (Shibo sz) helping out. To support the over 2,300 clan members in Quanzhou, the prefecture paid 90,600 strings for cash stipends (out of a total 145,000+ strings, with the Superintendency of Maritime Trade providing the remaining 54,400); 53,100 strings out of the 60,600 string rice allowance (actually 20,200 shi at 3 strings per shz) with Xinghua Commandary providing 7,500; and 15,600 strings for the educational support of clan youths.' From these dismal figures Zhen goes on to catalog the social and economic woes of the prefecture during the preceding several de1 Zhen Dexiu , Zhen wenzhong gong wenji, 15:10b-16a. Sibu congkan-ed. This essay is treated in detail with several extended quotations in Hugh R. Clark, Community,

Trade, and Networks, 174-6. 2 Zhen, Wenji, 15:12b-13a.

14

JOHN W. CHAFFEE

cades. Until the qingyuan period (1195-1201) the burden of supporting the imperial clan was not a problem, thanks to an adequate tax base and a thriving maritime trade. However, given the reduction of that base because of the encroachment by great families on farming lands and a precipitous decline in the trade, the burden had become acute and had led the Quanzhou government into such dubious practices as demanding taxes from the people a year or two in advance .' Zhen's proposed solution, it is interesting to note, is not to reduce the clan's allowances but rather to redistribute the burden of paying for them by increasing the funds contributed by the circuit fiscal office and the Superintendency.' The problem, as he addresses it, is one of cost-sharing, not the cost of the clan per se. I have begun with this document because it represents one of those instances - uncommon but not unheard of in history - when a single document not only proves central to all subsequent discussion of a particular issue but can even be said to have defined it . Thus modern historians such as Li Donghua and Hugh Clark have used Zhen's memorial to argue that the support of the imperial clan with its ever-escalating demands was a primary cause in the economic decline of Quanzhou that occurred in the thirteenth century.' However, in a cogently argued article on the causes of Quanzhou's decline, So Kee Long [Billy So] disputes this view, noting that the major increases in the prefecture's clan numbers - and thus of expenditures for them - occurred in the twelfth century when their fiscal burden was manageable. Rather, he argues that the real culprit was an acute shortage of copper coinage, the result of a heavy drainage of copper abroad combined with the government's introduction of paper money into the southeast beginning in the mid3 Zhen, Wenji, 15:13a-14a. • Zhen, Wenji, 15:15a-b. 5 Li Donghua Quanzhou yu wuo guo zhonggu di haishang jiaotong. Taibei: Xuesheng shuju, 1986, 186-7; Clark Community, Trade, and Networks. Southern Fujian Province from the Third to the Thirteenth Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991, 174-5. It should be stressed that neither author claims the clan to have been the sole cause of Quanzhou's decline; Clark also points to corruption and pirates.

THE IMPACT OF THE SONG IMPERIAL CLAN

15

twelfth century." As will be apparent in the paper that follows, my view is close to So Kee Long's in evaluating the role of the imperial clan in Quanzhou's foreign trade and, more generally, in its economy, though I stress the role of clan members as consumers of that trade . However, I also follow the contemporary Quanzhou historians Li Yukun and Fu Jinxing in holding that the role of the clan can only be adequately assessed if the full range of clan activities in Quanzhou is considered. Therefore this paper will examine the establishment of the clan in Quanzhou in the early Southern Song and describe its presence there before returning to the specific economic questions of its role in the overseas trade. THE CLAN'S MOVE TO QUANZHOU

The large imperial clan center at Quanzhou in the Southern Sung owed its existence to a chain of events extending back to 1102. In that year, the grand councilor Cai Jing (1046-1126) proposed a solution to a problem that had vexed the court for some time, namely what to do with the large numbers of clan members who were beyond the five mourning relationships (wufu) with the emperor, and who as a result were no longer living in the clan palaces in Kaifeng though they continued to receive food and cash allowances from the government. His proposal. immediately enacted by the emperor Huizong (r. 1100-26) - was radical: to establish large residential complexes which he called Dunzong Halls (Halls of Extended Clanship) in the Western and Southern Capitals (Luoyang and Yingtian fu respectively), and to send all non-mourning clan members to them'! The resulting Dunzong Halls were vast enterprises which in 1120 had over 23,600 rooms of buildings and some 44,000 qing (ca. 660,000 acres) of endowed fields, as well as their own administrative bodies, 6 So Kee Long, "Financial Crisis and Local Economy: Quanzhou in the Thirteenth Century", ToungPao 77 (1991) 119-37. 7 Cai's lengthy memorial is found in Song huiyao jigao. Taibei : Shijie shuju, 1964, Zhiguan section 20:34a-35b. (This will be cited hereafter as SHY, Zhiguan)

16

JOHN W. CHAFFEE

the Western and Southern Outer Offices of Clan Affairs (Xi, Nan-

wai zongzheng szV We know very little about the Dunzong Halls, which probably held 10,000 or so clan members," but at the time of the Jurchen invasion the dynasty and imperial clan were fortunate to have had them. For when in early 1127 Kaifeng fell after a four month siege, as many as 3,000 clan members were taken north into captivity, and most were never heard from again.'? While many of the clan members from the Western and Southern Capital clan centers were killed or seized as well, most of those who made it to the south were from them. Moreover, the Western and Southern Offices both survived, and after a couple of years in which their affairs - like those of the reconstituted dynasty itself - were extremely unsettled, the decision was made to establish the two offices in Fujian: the Western Office in Fuzhou and the Southern Office in Quanzhou." For the Southern Office, the move occurred in the last month of 1129 when clan members, officials and attendents, who had earlier been in Yangzhou, voyaged by sea to Quanzhou. " Although there was some preplanning, with clan officials being given funds to hire the ships and an advance contingent going ahead to make preparations, the fact that this occurred at just the time that Gaozong himself was fleeing the Jurchen by sea suggests that the Southern Office clansmen were also engaged in flight. But whatever their reasons for going, the Southern Office clansmen stayed in Quanzhou, which was to become the preeminent center for th e imperial clan in the Southern Song. 8 See SHY, Zhiguan 20:37a-b for the statistics on the buildings and land holdings and 34b for the roles of the Outer Offices of Clan Affairs. 9 See the author's The Branches of Heaven: A History of the Sung Imperial Clan. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1999, Chapter 5. 10 Li Xinchuan, Jiannian yilai Xinian yaolu, 3:69. Guoxue-ed. (henceforth cited as XNYL). The 3,000 figure is one of a number given by different sources. For a discussion of them, see Chaffee, The Branches ofHeaven, Chapter 6, note 5. 11 SHY, Zhiguan 20:37a; Li Xinchuan, Jianyan yilai Chaoye zaji, 1:25-6. Congshu jicheng-ed., Pt . 1 (this will henceforth be cited as CYl]) . 12 SHY, Zhiguan 20:37b.

THE IMPACT OF THE SONG IMPERIAL CLAN

17

In 1131/9 a drafting official in the Secretariat, Hu Wenxiu, submitted a report in support of a proposal by the Prince of Pu, Zhao Zhongshi (BCBGF j l3 d. 1137) to combine the Western and Southern clan offices so as to reduce the administrative personnel. Although his proposal was denied, the report provided an invaluable census of the clan members under the two offices (see Table 1).14 Since we know that clan members were scattered throughout the empire, the 217 men and 298 women cannot be taken as a measure of clan members in the south. Nevertheless, these were far and away the two largest groupings of the clan, and the fact that, combined, they came to just under five hundred, provides at least an indication of the burden that they posed. Writing about seventy years later, the historian Li Xinchuan cites virtually the same clan population figures, and provides in addition figures for the government's annual expenditures on the Western and Southern clansmen circa 1131: 60,000 strings of cash for the larger Southern branch; 30,000 strings for the Western branch. IS These were enormous amounts for the fledgling Southern Song government, representing 177 strings per clan member.

IJ As a part of my broader study of the imperial clan, wherever possible I have attached a code indicat ing the genealogical location of each clansman in the genealogical chapters of 55, which lists approximately 30,000 clansmen. Each letter represents a generation and the letters themselves function alphanumerically. Thus Zhongshi was the (reading from right to left) sixth son of the fifth son of the second son of the third son of Song Taizong (the second - B - of the three original brothers) . Ii SHY, Zhiguan 20:37b-38a. XNYL 30:590 also has figures which are very close to these: 340+ men and women for the Southern clan, 180 for the Western clan. 15 Ct'Z] Part 1, 1:26. Li provides only figures for the clan members in each branch: 349 for the Southern branch ; 179 for the Western branch. Since the sum of the Southern clan members given in the SHY is 339, the 349 is most likely an arithmetical error. Writing a century later, Ma Duanlin (1254-1325) repeats Li's numbers for both clan members at the two branches and the amount of support given each center in 1131. Wenxian tongkao , 259:2057.

18

JOHN W. CHAFFEE

Table 1 Clan Members with the Southern and Western Clan Offices, 1131 Southern Outer

Western Outer

Totals

Clan Office

Clan Office

Clansmen

122

95

217

Clanswomen

126

49

175

Clan wives

78

30

108

Birth mothers

13

2

15

339

176

516

(i.e., concubines) Totals:

SOURCE: SliY, Zhiguan 20:37b-38a. The report also details the personnel attached to the Southern Office: 6 attached the Southern Office itself, 4 in the fiscal office, 2 attached to the residence halls, and 2 attached to the storehouse. The Western office had comparable numbers of personnel. losses that the clan had suffered. For a comparative perspective, however; we should recall that the Kaifeng clan in 1067 was supported by expenditures of 70,000 strings per month. By that measure, the lifestyles of the Southern Song clan members were necessarily more modest, though obviously that was of little consolation to the local officials of Quanzhou, upon whom much of the burden for supporting the clansmen fell. I shall return to the issue of the affordability of support for the imperial clan, for it is a critical issue in this paper, but an adequate

THE IMPACT OF THE SONG IMPERIAL CLAN

19

assessment requires first an overview of the Southern Office establishment and the imperial clan in Quanzhou. THE SOUTHERN OFFICE IN QUANZHOU

The Southern Office and its associated clan residences in Quanzhou had two distinctive characteristics. First, they constituted by far the largest concentration of clansmen in the empire, and so functioned as the defacto center for all clan affairs even though they were far from the capital in Lin'an. Second, Quanzhou was one of the greatest cities of the Southern Song, one whose economic vibrancy was primarily dependent upon its flourishing overseas trade." Moreover, Quanzhou - and Fujian generally - were at the height of their political influence, thanks to a highly developed academic culture that made Fujian the most successful circuit in the Southern Song civil service examinations." In the section that follows I shall be concerned not simply with what clan life and institutions were like in Quanzhou, but also how the clan related to the city as an economic center. During the century following the establishment of the Southern Office in Quanzhou in 1131, the imperial clan presence there grew dramatically, from 339 clansmen, clanswomen and clan wives to over 2,300 by the shaoding reign period (1228-32) . As we can see from Table 2, the most spectacular growth occurred during the twelfth century, but it continued throughout the period for which we have statistics. To put this in some perspective, the official population of the Quanzhou prefecture was 201,406 households in 1080 and 255,758 in 1241-52,18 which if one assumes an average of 16 The literature on Quanzhou is large, but special notice should be given to three recent treatments of it: Li Donghua, Quanzhou yu wuo guo zhonggu di haishang jiaotong.; Su Jilang [Billy So Kee Long], Tang Song shidai Minnan Quanzhou shi di lun kao. Taibei: Commercial Press, 1992; and Hugh R. Clark, Community, Trade, and Networks. 17 See Chaffee, The Thorny Gates of Learning in Sung China: A Social History of Examinations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985, 149-53 and Appendix

3. 18 Hugh

Clark, Comm unity, Trade, and Networks, 77.

JOHN W. CHAFFEE

20

five people per household translates into a population of one million for the earlier period, and one and a quarter million for the later. Table 2 Imperial Clan Members in Quanzhou

Date

Residing in the Residences

Residing out-

Total Clan Members

side the Residences

1131

ng

ng

339

1195-1200

1,300

440

1,740+

1201-04

ng

ng

1,800+

1228-32

1,427

887

2,314

SOURCES: SHY, Zhiguan 20:37b-38a for 1131; Zhen Dexiu, Wenji, 15/11a for 1195-1200 and 1228-32; and Wanli Quanzhou fu zhi, j. 9 for 1201-4. The last is cited by Li Donghua in Quanzhou yu wuo guo zhonggu di haishang jiaotong, 186-7. Li cites the same gazetteer for a figure of 3,300+ in 1228-32, but this must be a clerical error, since the figure is a thousand off of Zhen's figure for the same date. Li also dates Zhen's second figure as 1217-9, but that is also mistaken, being the date of Zhen's first tour in Quanzhou rather than his second when he wrote the essay from which the figures are drawn. The 2,300 clan members represent only a fraction of one percent in a population of one and a quarter million, but several factors served to give the clan a weight disproportionate to its numbers. First, they were predominantly clustered in and around the city of Quanzhou,

THE IMPACT OF THE SONG IMPERIAL CLAN

21

which had a population of perhaps 200,000 in the Southern Song" Second, since virtually all clan members received government support, either through official stipends or allowances, the fiscal implications of these numbers were considerable, an issue to which I shall return. Third, given their wealth, the number of people whose livelihoods depended on the clan - whether as servants and attendants , craftsmen, merchants, and even monks - must have exceeded the number of clan members many fold. There are two other aspects of Table 2 that deserve consideration. One is the contrast between the over 500% growth in the sixty-odd years from 1131 to the 1190s, and the 33% growth from then until around 1230. Was there a thirteenth century increase in the death rate or decrease in the birth rate that might explain the sharply reduced level of growth? Although such a question cannot be answered conclusively, I have seen no evidence of either of these in the historical records . There is another possible explanation, namely that much of the large twelfth century increase was the result of the migration of additional clan families into Quanzhou. In support of this is the fact that a five-fold growth in a two-generation span of time, while characteristic of the early clan in its Kaifeng palaces, was not the case for the fourth through seventh generations, who largely comprised the imperial clan in the early Southern Song. As to the likelihood of migration as an explanation, we might note: first, that conditions in 1131 were extremely unsettled, so that there could have been an influx of refugee clan members in the next few years; second, there was a proposal in 1139 to have homeless or unsettled clan members sent to the clan centers;" and th at the evidence of later Zh ao genealogies suggests that the geographical movement of clan families throughout the Southern Song was quite common. Since the consensus among economic historians is that the twelfth century was a period of great prosperity for Quanzhou," it is plausible that it would have served as a magnet to clan families 19 See Hugh Clark, Commun ity, Trade, and Networks, 139, 230 n. 71, and Appendix 2. 20 The memorial in question is found in SHY, Dixi 6:12b-13a. 21 See Hugh Clark, Community, Trade, and Networks, Chapter 6.

22

JOHN W. CHAFFEE

living elsewhere. The second noteworthy feature of the table concerns the increasing proportion of clan members living outside of the residential complexes. These complexes, together with the Southern Office buildings, were all located in the western part of the city of Quanzhou. The Muzong yuan (Hall for a Friendly Clan, thus distinguished from Lin'an's Muqin yuan, or Hall for Friendly Kin), was built when the clan first established its presence there. By the jiatai era (1201-4), however, it was inadequate, and so at the request of the prefect Ni Si (1166 jinshz), a New Muzong Hall was built, near the old hall in the western part of the city .22 We know frustratingly little about these large residential complexes and life within them, though a few interesting details have survived concerning the roles of the Western and Southern Offices in clan affairs. One of the more interesting was penal; when clansmen were found guilty of some offense requiring incarceration, they were sent to Quanzhou in odd numbered months and to Fuzhou in the even." Also, in 1156 an idea first proposed in 1133 came to fruition, and that was for annual meetings between the officials of the Western and Southern Offices, so that they could discuss their common problems." Some information can also be gleaned from a record of the Southern Office clan allowances which is preserved in a later Zhao genealogy and summarized in Table 3.

22 Zhao Shitong (ed.), Nanwai Tianyuan Zhaoshi zupu. O riginally 1724; Quanzhou: Yinshua guanggao gongsi, 1994,694-5 (cited henceforth as NWTYZSZPj. Ni Si, it is interesting to note , had been a prominent opponent of Zhao Ruyu . 23 This from an 1163 memorial cited in SHY, Zhiguan 20:40b. For examples of individuals actually incarcerated in one of the Fujian clan offices, see the biography of Zhao Lingjin in Tuo Tuo (ed.), Song sbi, 244:8683-4. 495 ch. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1977 (cited hereafter as SS) , and the Song collection of legal cases, the Minggong shukan Qingmingji, 11:398-9. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1987. 24 SHY, Zhiguan 20:40a.

THE IMPACT OF THE SONG IMPERIAL CLAN

23

Table] Allowances for the Southern Branch Clan Members in Quanzhou Cash (qian) per month

Rice (mz) per month

WITHIN THE HALLS Virtuous (zunxing) or Great (da)

13,000 aian

1 shi (= 10 dou)

Middle (zhong): 20 sui and over

9,100 qian

7 dou

Small (xiao): 10 and over

4,700

4dou

aian Pending (wet): 5 and over

1,000

4 dou

aian

OUTSIDE THE HALLS Great (da): 10 and over

2,000 qian

1 shi

Small (xiao): 5 and over

1,000 qtan

5 dou

SOURCE: NWTYZSZP, 694-5, from the Beiqi Zhaoshi zupu, which cites a Quanzhou gazetteer. Clansmen-officials were specifically excluded, since they were entitled to stipends by virtue of their rank and office, but clans-

24

JOHN W. CHAFFEE

women over twenty sui could receive a dowry of one hundred strings of cash if they were in the residences, or one third that if they lived outside." These allowances , for which we have no specific date, are remarkably generous when compared with the only other legislated general allowances for clan members that we possess, which were those for orphans. First established in 1095, the orphans' allowance was two strings of cash and one shi (Picul) of rice per person per month, which in this table is the same as the allowance for those living outside the residences. It is unclear why those within the residences - who were already receiving their lodging for free - were entitled to so much more. Perhaps this was part of the government's policy of encouraging clan families to settle in the clan centers, but if so it was curiously unsuccessful, given the rapid increase in those living outside during the early thirteenth century that I noted above. But whatever the explanation, the conclusion that clan members were maintained with considerable largesse is inescapable, and I shall return to it when considering the economic impact of the imperial clan in Quanzhou. We also have some intriguing evidence from the epitaph of Zhao Rujie (1199-1249), the wife of Chen Zeng (1200-66), for her natal and affinal families were both involved in the running of the Halls. 26 Rujie's great-grandfather was Zhao Shiwu (BCBPAM; 110853), a hero of the war against the Jin and one of the early administrators of the Southern Office in Quanzhou." Shiwu was from the prominent Prince of Pu branch of the Taizu line, descended from the brother of Yingzong, and as such he and his family were mourning kin of Gaozong and had the right to reside in Lin'an, However, they made their home in Quanzhou, as we know from the tomb of Shiwu's wife, Lady Cai, which was excavated in 2, NWTYZ5ZP, 694-5. This part of a group of documents drawn from the Beiqi Zhaoshi zupu, but the text on allowances cites its source as a Quanzhou gazetteer . 26 Her epitaph is found in Liu Kezhuang, Houcun xiansheng da quanji, 154:4b-5b. 27 Shiwu's biography is in 55, 247:8752-3.

THE IMPACT OF THE SONG IMPERIAL CLAN

25

1973.28 Some years later, Shiwu's son, Zhao Bukuang (BCBPAME; b. 1151), also served as administrator of the Southern Office. Neither Rujie's grandfather nor her father, Zhao Shanlan (BCBPAM-GA), had held such exalted positions, but her husband's grandfather, Chen Junqing (1113-86) had served as teacher (jiaoshou) of the Muzong Hall school before going on to an eminent career culminating as a grand councilor, and her husband in 1250 was supervisor of the Muzong Hall itself.29 In this marriage tie between one of the most eminent families of Fujian (the Chens were from Putian county in the neighboring commandary of Xinghua) and one of the leading families of the imperial clan in Quanzhou, it appears to have been governance of the clan that brought them together.3D Although the clan residences seem destined to remained cloaked in obscurity, we know a good deal about the public face of the Quanzhou clansmen, thanks to records for office-holding and the examinations. In the two southern Fujian prefectures of Quanzhou and Zhangzhou alone, the imperial clan produced twelve prefects, fifty-one county magistrates, and ten superintendents of maritime trade." So common were these postings that having clansmen

28 NYlYCSTP, 578. The excavation is noteworthy for containing a land purch ase deed (shidi zhuan) for a plot of land to support the upkeep of her gravesite. The selling price was a ritually pleasing 99,999 strings of cash which should not be taken literally, but the land is described according to quite believable geographical features. 29 For Chen Junqing, see Chang Bide, Songren chuanji ziliao suoyin, 2601-2, and for Chen Zeng, see Liu Kezhuang, Houcun xiansheng da quanji, 165:12, and also 2510-11 in Chang Bide. 30 The two families also shared a marriage connection with a third family, the Nies. Liu Kezhuang notes th at the Chen tie with them had been established with Chen Junqing, and indeed his wife as well as the wife of his son Chen Su (Zeng's father) were both Nies. So too was the mother of Zhao Rujie. Houcun xiansheng da quanji, 154:4b-5b. 31 NWIYZSZP, 637-46. This list actually gives thirteen prefects, seven for Zhangzhou and six for Quanzhou. However, one of the latter is Zhao Biyuan (BAAKFBDAAAA; 1214 jinshij, who is said to have served as prefect during the chunxi period (1174-89). Since NWIYZSZP acknowledges that early sources do not list him, only the later (Qing) gazetteers, and his lengthy Song History biograph y does not mention service in Quanzhou, it seems safe to conclude that the Qing

26

JOHN W. CHAFFEE

serving as local prefects and magistrates seems to have been little remarked upon.

Table 4 Fujian Imperial Clan ]inshi

Prefecture

Imperial

Clan]inshi

All Southern Song [inshi

Imperial Clan Percent age

jianning fu

6

509

1.2%

Fuzhou

210

2,249

9.3%

Xinghua jun

20

558

3.6%

Quanzhou

122

582

21.0%

Zhangzhou

33

185

17.8%

SOURCES: NWTYZSZP, 647-77 (citing Beiqi Zhaoshi zupu) for the imperial clansmen; Chaffee, The Thorny Gates ofLearning, 197, for the prefectural totals. The three other Fujian prefectures (Nanjianzhou, Shaowujun, and Tingzhou) had no imperial clan jinshi listed. As for the examinations, an astounding 329 Fujian imperial clansmen received jinshi degrees during the Southern Song, representing some 7.3% of the 4,525 Southern Song Fujian jinshi. As we can see in Table 4, moreover, this percentage pales in comparison with those for prefectures where the clan was concentrated, particularly Fuzhou with its 210 jinshi and the southsources were mistaken. Biyuan did serve with distinction as prefect of Fuzhou at the end of his career, so perhaps that was the source of the later error.

27

THE IMPACT OF THE SONG IMPERIAL CLAN

ern prefectures of Quanzhou and Zhangzhou (widely noted as a spill-over locality for the Quanzhou clan families), where roughly one fifth of all jinshi were imperial clansmen

Table 5 Imperial Clan ]inshi in Quanzhou Period

Imp. Clan ]inshi

Total ]inshi

Clan % of Total

Clan }s per exam

Total }s per exam

1127-1162

3

89

3%

0.3

8.1

1163-1189

10

96

10%

1.0

10.7

1190-1224

43

204

21%

3.3

17.0

1225-1247

54

139

39%

6.1

17.4

1248-1279

12

54

22%

1.1

6.0

Totals:

122

582

21%

2.5

11.9

Sources: Bamin tongzhi, 87 j. (1490), j. 46ff for the jinshi totals; and for the clansmen, the Quanzhou fu zhi (1736-95 ed.), as cited in Yang Qingjiang, "Quanzhou Nanwai zongzi jinshi shixi kao", Quanzhou Zhao Song Nanwai Zong yanjiu 1 (1991) 9-29. The NWIYZSZP 64777 also has figures for all Fujian clansmen broken down by year and county. It lists 110 Quanzhou clansmen rather than 122, thus bringing the percentages down slightly, but not enough to modify our general findings. The Fuzhou record of clansmen is quite startling. The paucity of sources makes it impossible to do more than speculate how the

28

JOHN W. CHAFFEE

Western Office clansmen - by all accounts outnumbered by those from Quanzhou - did so well in the examinations. However, given the enormous success of Fuzhou in the examinations generally, the 210 Fuzhou clansmen-jinshi were probably not as prominent, locally, as those from Quanzhou. As for that group, Table 5 is revealing in its details of the Quanzhou examination record over time. Two trends jump out from this table. The first is the dramatic rise in the clan's jinshi numbers, peaking in the period 1225-47 at six degrees per triennial examination and almost 40% of the prefectural total. As in the other Fujian prefectures, it took the Quanzhou clansmen over half a century before they began to appear in significant numbers, but thereafter their presence was an almost constant one." Since clansmen had their own examinations at both the qualifying and departmental examination levels, they were seldom in direct competition with the other candidates in the examinations. Nevertheless, the great privilege that accrued to Song jinshi and the potential power that they represented must have contributed significantly to the visibility and influence of the clan in the life of the prefecture. Second, there is a striking parallel between the large rise and smaller fall of both clan and non-clan prefectural jinshi in the early and late Southern Song. Whatever their differences, the two groups seem to have had a common fortune in the examinations. The causes for this were undoubtedly complex, but the timing of these trends strongly suggests the influence of the Quanzhou economy, for as I have noted, it is generally accepted by economic historians that the twelfth century was a period of unprecedented prosperity for the prefecture and the thirteenth century one of decline. Since success in the examinations involved investments in education that took decades to payoff, and the results of educational cutbacks took decades to become evident, one would expect a lag in the jinshi

32 Clansmen first appear on the jinshilists in 1168 in Zhangzhou, 1171 in Jianning fu, 1190 in Fuzhou, and 1196 in Xinghua . NWIYZSZP, 647-77.

THE IMPACT OF THE SONG IMPERIAL CLAN

29

results, and that in fact is what we find in this table." Thus it is to the Quanzhou economy, particularly its overseas trade, and the role in it played by the imperial clan that I shall now turn. OVERSEAS TRADE AND THE IMPERIAL CLAN

One of the most distinctive features of the Song dynasty was its relative orientation to maritime Asia. Cut off from the ready access to central Asia enjoyed by the Han, Northern Dynasties and Tang, the Song turned to the sea, and thereby helped to spawn the vast trading system extending to the western reaches of the Indian Ocean." And at the heart of that system lay Quanzhou, which in 1087 was granted a Superintendency of Maritime Trade, and by the early Southern Song had supplanted Guangzhou (Canton) as the primary Chinese port in the maritime trade. Through it came the many luxury goods to which the Song upper classes had become attached - spices, incense, cotton, yellow wax, rhinoceros horn, ivory, pearls, silver, gold, tortoise shells and sulphur - in return for silk, silk brocade, porcelain, lacquerware, wine, rice, sugar and illicit copper coins, to name just a few of the goods that were traded." Hugh Clark has suggested that the commercial wealth of Quanzhou was a major reason for its selection as the Southern

33 See Evelyn Sakakida Rawski, Agricultural Change and the Peasant Economy of South China. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Universit y Press, 1972, for a similar argument concerning late Ming jinshi figures reflecting a later period of prosperity for Quanzhou, in that case caused by the inflow of New World silver. 34 The literature on this topic is vast. For China 's turn to the sea, see Lo Jungpang's classicarticle, "The Emergence of China as a Seapower During the Late Sung and Early Yuan Periods", Far Eastern Quarterly 11 (1952); (republished in John A. Harrison (ed.), Enduring Scholarship Selected from the Far Eastern Quarterly· the Journal ofAsian Studies, 1941-1971. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1972,91105). China's role in the broader maritime trading system is admirably treated by Janet Abu-Lughod, Before European Hegemony: the World System A.D. 1250·1350. Oxford : Oxford University Press, 1989. 35 Shiba Yoshinobu, "Sung Foreign Trade: Its Scope and Organization", in Morris Rossabi (ed.), China Among Equals: The Middle Kingdom and its Neighbors, 10th-14th Centuries. Berkeley: Uni versity of California Press, 1983, 107-8.

JOHN W. CHAFFEE

30

Office center," and while there is no evidence to prove or disprove it, the suggestion is reasonable, for as we have seen, the imperial clan was an expensive burden. Moreover, since the Southern Office with its residential complexes and the Superintendency of Maritime Trade comprised Quanzhou's two extraordinary institutions, the connections between the two were complex, with at least four of them deserving attention: the fiscal drain of the imperial clan on the Superintendency, the direct involvement of the clan (or clansmen) in the overseas trade, the many clansmen who served as superintendents, and the role of the clan as consumers in the trade. THE COSTS OF CLAN SUPPORT

In 1133/5, Xie Kejia (1097 jinshz) , the prefect of Quanzhou, submitted a plea for financial relief. Xie noted that the prefecture's regular sources of revenue were barely adequate for its normal expenditures and totally inadequate to support the clan members. They had been aided by a grant of some 20,000 strings of cash from the fiscal commissioner's office, but even with it during the preceding ten months they had run a shortfall of over 62,400 strings! In response , the emperor authorized the sale of 250 monk certificates with the proceeds to go to the prefecture.V These are considerable figures; indeed, the sum of 82,400 strings averages to over 240 strings per clan member, an order of magnitude greater than the basic monthly allowance of two strings of cash and one picul of rice described above. Of course there were also the stipends for those with official rank, the other allowances to which members were entitled, the administrative costs of the Western Office, and possibly even the cost of residential construction, since the move to Quanzhou had only occurred three years earlier. Nevertheless, the burden was great, and as we have already seen from Zhen Dexiu's memorial, it was to become greater yet as clan numbers swelled. Although the fiscal burden that the imperial clan imposed on the prefectural government and on the Superintendency should not be 36

37

Hugh Clark, Community, Trade, and Networks, 140. SHY, Zhiguan 20:38b.

THE IMPACT OF THE SONG IMPERIAL CLAN

31

minimized, Professor So's argument is a powerful one, namely that imperial clan support per se cannot be seen as the primary cause for Quanzhou's decline, since the clan was already being supported throughout the prosperity of the early Southern Song. If anything, he concedes too much in stating that "Expenses on this item [support for the increasing numbers of clan members] increase correspondingly.V' for in fact the per capita support for clan members decreased over the first century of the Southern Song. Even using the 60,000 string figure for 1131 rather than the 82,400 cited above, the 339 members of the clan in Quanzhou received an average of 177 strings per person." By contrast, the 145,000 strings for stipend support in 1231 came to just 63 strings per member. Far from the clan making growing demands on local authorities, there would appear to have been a tight curb on the support it received. THE CLAN AS MERCHANT

The clan's direct involvement in foreign trade first became an issue in 1161 when related scandals erupted involving two of the most senior administrators in the imperial clan. The Western and Southern Office administrators at this time were Zhao Shikan (BGBGFF), and Zhao Shixue (1108-62; BCBLFD) respectively , second cousins in the Prince of Pu sub-branch of th e clan. It seems that they became too cooperative in their annual meetings, for in 1161 both were removed from their offices in a scandal. According to Li Xinchuan, Shikan's crime involved the forcible purchase of an ocean-going junk." The fuller Song huiyao account explains. A Zhangzhou merchant, Wang Qiong, who owned a ship that plied the overseas trade, was bankrupted by expenses following the death of his father, who died while travelling in another locality. Officials insisted that he sell his empty ship to pay his debts, and it was sold 38 So Kee

Long, "Financial Crisis and Local Economy", 123. The figure of 60,000 strings is found both in Ct'Z], Pt. 1, 1:25-6, and Wenxian tongkao, 259:2057. i O XNYL, 188:3151. The same terminology is used in the brief reference to this affair in Shikan's SongHistory biographical entry . 55, 245:8715. 39

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JOHN W. CHAFFEE

to none other than Zhao Shikan, operating under an alias and certainly using crooked means to pressure Wang , in the view of his accuser. When the court learned of this, it ordered the Fujian judicial officials to return the ship to Wang. However, given his debts, and the additional interest they had accumulated, he had had to sell it and again it entered the possession of Shikan, and in fact the memorialist reporting this saw no further recourses open to Wang .41 Like Shikan, Zhao Shixue had also illegally seized a large ship from a merchant. For three years this matter had gone un rectified until in 1159 a new Quanzhou prefect, Fan Rugui (1102-60), had heard the merchant's suit and settled it according to the law. According to Zhu Xi, who chronicled this affair, Fan's reward was removal from office after being slandered by Shixue" Curiously, his epitaph makes no mention of his dismissal, saying only that in 1161 his request for a temple guardianship was accepted and that he died the next year while en route. It also notes that he was promoted to high ceremonial office in 1159 because of his excellent governance of the Southern Office , and praises his service there: In guiding the clan members, he was able to lead them through his personal kindness, first and foremost towards the orphaned and friendless. While severe he was not cruel. In the unity of the clan's culture, there was an air of nobility, like that reported in antiquity." Even Zhao Shikan, the primary culprit in this affair, seems to have weathered it without too much disgrace, for two years later he and his brother Shijian (BCBGFE) were praised by the new emperor Xiaozong for offering to give half of the imperial gifts that had been just been bestowed upon them to support the war effort against the 41 SHY, Zhiguan 20:30a-31a. Although the SHY does not name the memorialist , the HNYL identified him as the right grand master of remonstrance, He Pu (1099

jinsht). 42 Zhu Xi, Zhuzi quanji, 89; cited by Li Yukun, Quanzhou haiwai jiaotong shilue. Xiamen : Xiamen daxue chubanshe, 1992,90. 4J Minzhongjinshi lue, 9:2b-3a. Shanghai: Zhonghua shuju, 1934. The epitaph was written by Ke Songying, the Shaowu commandary preceptor.

THE IMPACT OF THE SONG IMPERIAL CLAN

33

. 44 Jm,

Personalities aside, these two affairs resulted in a theoretically absolute prohibition on the involvement of Western or Southern Office officials in the overseas trade, thus depriving them of a potentially lucrative source of revenue." It should be noted! however, that even if it were followed the prohibition apparently applied only to those serving in clan offices." Given the large number of clansmen resident in the city of Quanzhou, it seems highly likely that many of them were privately engaged in the trade, at least as investors, though we have no evidence to that effect. From the year 1174, there is a suggestive report complaining that Southern Office officials had been involved in a private venture involving the production of wine and its sale to clan members, even while receiving their official stipends. This activity, thenceforth banned, had nothing to do with foreign trade but does reveal yet more entrepreneurial activities on the part of clan officials." The most intriguing evidence for the clan's involvement in overseas trade consists of a large ocean-going ship that was excavated in 1973 at Houzhu, some ten kilometers outside of th e city of Quanzhou, then moved to the grounds of the Kaiyuan Temple where a museum was constructed for it. This ship, which can be dated precisely to the year 1277, measured 78 feet in length and 29.25 feet in beam (24 by 9 meters). It was clearly designed for sea voyages, with a deep draught and twelve bulkheads, and indeed its cargo consisted of goods typical of Song imports from abroad: over 4,800 pounds (2,300 kilograms) of fragrant wood from Southeast H SS, 245:8715. The SS chronicle for Xiaozong's reign gives all the credit for this idea - which was then followed by the rest of the Southern Rank clansmen - to Shijian, who was also the associate administrator of the Great Office. 45 That the prohibition was directed at the clan officials rather than clansmen may imply that Shikan was acting in this affair in his official capacity, which would also make more sense of Shixue culpability. On the other hand, in describing how the ship ended up in Shikan's hands even after being returned to Wang Qiong, says that it "entered the house of the administrator of the Western Office", which suggests a more personal interest . SHY, Zhiguan 20:30b. 46 SHY, Zhiguan 20:30b. 47 Song huiyaojigao bubian, 8.

34

JOHN W. CHAFFEE

Asia, pepper, betel nut, cowries, tortoise shell, cinnabar, and ambergris of Somalian origin." As one of the few major archaeological finds from the Song in recent years, the "great ship" as it was called elicited much interest from scholars and the public alike. But its broader historical significance only became apparent in 1989 when the Fujian historian Fu Zongwen published an article demonstrating that ship belonged to the Southern Office imperial clan. Of the 96 items aboard, 19 were labelled "Southern Family" (Nanjia), and another "Southern Family registry" (Nanjia ji hao). Moreover, other labels referred to clan princely houses, such as "Anjun" for the Prince of Anjun, and yet others to individuals serving as clan officials and to individual clan families." Clearly this was an imperial clan ship, and since it was loaded with luxury goods from Southeast Asia, it is compelling proof for the clan's direct involvement in overseas trade in the late Southern Song. Nor need we assume greed on the part of clan officials for engaging in it, though greed could well have been involved. In light of our earlier finding that the per capita support for clan members had decreased drastically from the 1130s to 1230s, and the fiscal difficulties facing the Quanzhou government in meeting those obligations , it would have made sense for the Southern Office officials to use the profits of trade for the support of clan members. The ship's dating to 1277 suggests one other issue that has not, as far as I know, been noted by other historians. In the 11th month of 1276, Pu Shougeng, an official of likely Arab origin who was the Quanzhou superintendent of maritime trade, arranged the surrender of the prefecture to Mongol forces, and shortly thereafter carried out a massacre of some 3,000 clan members in the city of

48 Jeremy Green, "The Song Dynasty Shipwreck at Quanzhou, Fujian Province, People's Republic of China", The International Journal of Nautical A rchaeology and Underwater Exploration 12, 3 (1983) 253-61; Jie Qinmi and Ge Lin, "Quanzhou Songdai guchuan", Haijiaoshi yanjiu 2 (1989) 84-7. 49 Fu Zongwen , "H ouzhu guchuan: Song ji nanwai zongshi haiwai jingshang di wuzheng", Hai jiaoshi yanjiu 2 (1989) 77-83.

THE IMPACT OF THE SONG IMPERIAL CLAN

35

Quanzhou/" Thus the ship must have arrived in Quanzhou waters at a time when the imperial clan there had effectively been exterminated and there were thus no clan authorities to which to deliver it. Since the Houzhu location where the ship was found is sandy and the excavated ship itself shows no signs of having been wrecked, it seems likely that it was either scuttled, to avoid its falling into Pu's hands, or simply swamped. But even if the latter, the fact that the cargo was not salvaged suggests that political conditions made it impossible for the cargo to be retrieved. " CLANSMEN-SUPERINTENDENTS

The third area of clan influence on foreign trade was bureaucratic, namely the Superintendency of Maritime Trade, which was frequently headed by clansmen. Indeed, nine to ten of the eightyseven Southern Song superintendents (10-11%) were clansmen.Y These clansmen-officials thus had the opportunity to have a direct impact on the foreign trade , and several of them were noted for their actions. In one case the record was notorious. In 1213 Zhao Buxi (BCBBDED) was dismissed, demoted, and barred from future appointments as a prefect or director after being impeached for so For the dating of the surrender and the facts concerning the massacre, I am indebted to Wang Lianmao, "Pu Shougeng tusha Nanwai zongzi kao", Quanzhou wenshi 12:4 (1980) 75-82. The literature on Pu Shougeng is too large to be

catalogued here, but see Shiba Yoshinobu's biography of him in Herbert Frank e (ed.), Sung Biographies, 839-42, which has an excellent summary of the

histor iography prior to the 1970s. 51 I am indebted to Dr. Janice Stargardt of the University of Cambridge for providing me with much of this corroborating detail concerning the wreck. S2 Li Yukun , Quanzhou haiwai jiaotong shi lue, 44. The ten were Ruhuo ca. 11904, Rudang (BCBFAFAAB), Liangfu (CAADAAGBB) ca. 1205-7, Buxi (BCBBDED) in 1203, Chongdu (BCBKFBDAAE) ca. 1217-9, Rugua (BCBPAACD) in 1224-5, Yanhou (CDCKGACA) ca. 1228-33, Ximou, Shigeng (AABDEFBFB) in 1247, and Mengchuan in 1262.Thi s is Li's list, for which he does not provide sources, though their genealogical identifications are mine. I am skeptical of Rudang's service as superintendent, however , for it is mentioned in neither of his biographi es, namely 55,413:12397 and Qian Yueyou, X ianchun Lin 'an zhi, 67:18b-19b. 1268-ed. The former does mention an early posting at the Superintendency of Foreign Trade, but certainly not as the superintendent.

36

JOHN W. CHAFFEE

frequently commandeering foreign ships and then falsifying the records ." By contrast, Zhao Yanhou (CDCKGACA), who in 1228-33 served concurrently as superintendent and Southern Office administrator, was credited with dispersing a gluttonous and greedy atmosphere and filling the coffers of the Superintendency.54 Even more dramatic were the actions by Zhao Chongdu (BAAKFBDAAE; 1175-1230), the fifth son of the former grand councilor Ruyu, when he served as superintendent around 1217-8. Upon his arrival he encountered a situation that had begun when a sea-faring merchant, owing to a death, had changed his cargo. When he arrived , the officials from the prefect on down took many of his goods in the name of "harmonious purchase" (hemaz) , including pearls, ivory, rhinoceros horn, blue kingfisher feathers and scented wood. This practice then took hold, greatly upsetting the merchant community, and resulting in a sharp decrease in the number of ships arriving in Quanzhou. With the help of the new prefect Zhen Dexiu (who is also the author of Chongdu's epitaph), Chongdu abolished these practices and, as a result, there was a three-fold increase in the ships arriving over the next three years. 55 Another example of official actions that benefited commerce comes from Zhao Lingjin (AADBHF; d. 1156), an official whose bitter criticism of Qin Gui almost cost him his career and even his life. Although he served as Quanzhou prefect and not superintendent, during his tenure in 1151-3 he was instrumental in the completion of the long Anping Bridge, which because it connected the port area with the main market, was critical for the flourishing of commerce in the city. When it was finished grateful townspeople

53 SHY, Zhiguan 75:2a-b. This is mentioned by Hugh Clark in Community, Trade, and Networks, 173, who notes that it was one of five cases in a twenty-eight

year period (1186-1214) in which superintendents were dismissed for corruption. Buxi was the only clansman of the group, however. 54 Liu Kezhuang, Houcun xiansheng daquanji, 169:12a. 55 Zhu wengong wenji, 43:33a·b. According to Li Yukun, the number of ships increased from 18 in the first year to 24 in the second and 36 in the third, but he does not cite his source. Quanzhou haihwai jiaotong shilue, 87.

THE IMPACT OF THE SONG IMPERIAL CLAN

37

built a sacrificial hall in his honor. 56 In some ways the most lasting contributions to maritime commerce were made by Zhao Rugua (BCBPAAACDj 1170-1231), who in 1224-5 served first as superintendent but then concurrently as Quanzhou prefect and Southern Office administrator, the only person to hold all three posts at once." His primary importance, however, was as a writer rather than an official, specifically as the author of the Zhufan zhi ("Description of Foreign Peoples") . From what we know of his upbringing, he was well prepared for this task, for his father, Shandai (BCBPAAACj 1138-88), was a successful local official and a demanding teacher of his sons, and his instruction of a variety of books was credited with making them all outstanding scholars of their day." Indeed Shandai had himself been involved with foreign trade, when as an aide (cheng) in Jiangyin, the metropolitan county of Mingzhou, he had responsibility for the affairs of the Maritime Trade Office there. Like Zhao Chongdu in Quanzhou, he was scrupulously honest, not making even a single private purchase, and the result, according to his biographer Yuan Xie, was that the number of Korean junks arriving increased from one per year to six or seven.i" It is Rugua's Zhufan zhi rather than his father's actions that is most memorable, however, for the book is a uniquely important account of the Asian, African and even Mediterranean maritime world as it was known to the Chinese in the thirteenth century, describing, first, countries and cultures, and second, the varieties of goods imported into China. Rugua used both the oral accounts of merchants and the records of the Superintendency in writing the book, and the result was a compendium that both expanded the 56 Lingjin also managed to upset some of the local scholars by granting permission to the city's Muslim community to build a mosque in front of the prefectural school, and indeed their complaints may have been a factor in his subsequent imprisonment by Qin. This information comes from Li Yukun, "Zhaoshi nanwai zongzi", 87-8, citing the biography of Fu Zide in Zhu Xi, Zhuzi quanji, 98:1. It is not mentioned in Lingjin's Song History biography. 57 Fu Jinxing, "Zhao Rushi," Quanzhou shizhi tongxun, 1992, 1:36. 58 Yuan Xie, Xiezhai zhi, 17:284. Congshu jicheng-ed. 59 Yuan Xie, Xiezhai zhi, 17:285.

38

JOHN W. CHAFFEE

Chinese literati's knowledge of foreign places and objects, and has been an invaluable text for the history of maritime commerce ever since.t" CLAN-OFFICIALS, RELIGION AND TRADE

The archaeological record of Islamic mosques and Hindu temples in addition to the numerous Buddhist and Daoist temples in Song Quanzhou provides ample evidence of the considerable role played by religion in the lives of the heterogeneous population engaged in the overseas trade. Indeed, Hugh Clark's account elsewhere in this volume of the transformation of a lineage god into a protector for travelers venturing out to sea provides an excellent example of that role. In two instances that I have found, the imperial clan was also involved in this religious culture. The first comes from 1165 and not Quanzhou but rather the port of Mingzhou to the north. At that time Zhao Bogui (ABBACEAA; 1125-1202) was serving as prefect and spending most of his time providing people with relief from a severe famine that had ravaged the region that year. When he learned that a foreign merchant had died outside the city walls, Bogui insured that a funeral was held with proper mourning arrangements. The following year, the merchant's countrymen profusely praised "the humane government of the Central Kingdom" (Zhongguo renzheng) . His family established three Buddhist temples where people prayed to images of Bogui and the "island barbarians" (daoyz) were greatly moved. According to Lou Yue, writing in the early thirteenth century, even then Bogui was widely revered among the foreign traders." It should be noted that Bogui was not an ordinary clansmen, but rather the younger brother of the emperor Xiaozong, and that fact undoubtedly contributed to 60 See the English translation by Friedrich Hirth and W. W. Rockhill, Chau[ukua: His Work on the Chinese and Arab Trade in the twelfthand thirteenth Centuries, entitled Chufan.chi. St. Petersburg: Imperial Academy of Sciences, 1911; reprinted , Taibei: Ch'eng-wen Publishing Company, 1970. 61 Lou Yue, Gongkui ju, 86:1172. Congshu jicheng-ed.

THE IMPACT OF THE SONG IMPERIAL CLAN

39

the lavish response of the merchant's family to his act of generosity as well as to his elevation to a position of reverence among the foreign community. At the same time, he was a clansman rather than prince, for his brother had been adopted by the heirless Gaozong, so his example well have helped to establish a connection for clansmen and the public alike between the clan and the religious support of the maritime trade. Whatever the impact of Bogui's action, by the late twelfth century the imperial clan in Quanzhou had become firmly associated with frequent semi-official sacrifices to the gods of the ocean (haishen). According to Li Yukun, on eleven occasions daylong sacrifices were performed on the top of Jiuri (Nine Day) Mountain in Nan'an county in the eastern suburbs of Quanzhou city, during which prayers were offered to the ocean gods for the protection of the ships and a peaceful passage. Organized by the Superintendency, those named in the stone inscriptions on the mountain invariably included representatives of the Southern Office. 62 None of the inscriptions speaks to the motivations of the clansmen and Southern Office officials for participating in such a public way in these ceremonies, but the very fact of their participation bespeaks an intimate and publicly acknowledged connection between the clan the maritime trade. CLAN MEMBERS AS CONSUMERS

The fourth and last of the ways that the imperial clan influenced foreign trade is the most speculative but possibly the most important, namely as consumers of that commerce. Obviously, the clan members with their official stipends (for those who were 62 Li Yukun, Quanzhou haiwaijiaotong shilue, 89. Li's account, which is without citation, lists eleven different clansmen who participated in one or another of these sacrifices. NWTYZSZP, 716, provides photographs of some of the stone inscriptions on Jiuri Mountain detailing the participants, though its text is only for ceremonies performed in the fourth and tenth months of 1188 and mentions three clansmenofficials, Zhao Gongjiong, the administrator of the Southern Office during the first ceremony, Zhao Buti, who held the same post by the time of the later ceremony, and Zhao Shanshen, whose position is not identified.

40

JOHN W. CHAFFEE

officials) and allowances, would have been customers for the luxury commodities that made up the overseas trade, and some at least could have afforded a great many of them. We do not know how many of the goods from the Great Ship had been intended for the clan rather than the open market, but presumably the clan authorities would have been able to keep choice items. The most vivid example of clan members as consumers comes from the tomb of a thirteenth century imperial clan wife that was excavated virtually intact in Fuzhou in the early 1980s.63 Huang Sheng (1227-43) and her husband, Zhao Yujun (AADEBCGBAXX, b. 1223), were both from distinguished families. Her father, Huang Pu (1229 jinshz), and his grandfather, Zhao Shishu, had met when both were students of Zhu Xi's disciple, Huang Gan (1152-1221), and this connection had led to the marriage. Although both families were from Fuzhou, they had important connections to Quanzhou; Huang Pu served as the superintendent of maritime trade in 1234-6, while Zhao Shishu (the author of Huang Sheng's epitaph) was administrator of the Southern Office around 1241. And from the tomb was excavated an abundance of silks of the highest quality some 201 items of women's clothing and 153 pieces of cloth, mostly fine silks with beautiful designs - just the kind of textiles that were in demand for exports." This is not to argue that all clan members were like Huang Sheng; she and her husband were so highly placed in the clan hierarchy that they can hardly be considered typical. However, I would suggest that the sudden settlement of hundreds of clan members who were fully and - by the standards of commoners 63 Fujian Provincial Museum (ed.), Fuzhou Nan Song Huang sbengmu (1982). The text of Huang Sheng's epitaph and discussion of her, her husband and their families is found on pp. 82·3. 64 Fujian Provincial Museum (ed.), Fuzhou Nan Song Huang sheng mu, 81-2. Fu Jinxing, "Luetan Nanwaizong dui Quanzhou di yingxiang", Quanzhou Zhao Song Nanwaizong yanjiu 1 (1993) 43, notes that one silk bundle was even labelled, "officially registered as gold thread spun and dyed by the Imperial Clan" (Zongzheng fangran jinsi guan jz) . See also Angela Yu-yun Sheng, "Textile Use, Technolog y, and Change in Rural Textile Production in Song China (960.1279)". Ph .D. Dissertation , Universit y of Pennsylvania, 1990, 109-12.

THE IMPACT OF THE SONG IMPERIAL CLAN

41

lavishly supported by the government must have constituted a powerful impetus for the Quanzhou economy, particularly the overseas trade . Throughout East Asian history, cities like Lin'an which became capitals subsequently grew and flourished thanks to the tax revenues that flowed into them and the wealthy who settled there, often .supported by the revenues. Quanzhou hardly constituted a capital, but the Southern Office clan establishment, while burdensome to the prefectural government, nevertheless accounted for an annual inflow of at least 30,000 strings of support money into the city for much of the twelfth century," as well as the presence of those members and their servants, as elite consumers. But if the imperial clan contributed to Quanzhou's era of greatest prosperity, so too they may have helped to account for its thirteenth century decline. As stated above, this was not because clan members became too rapacious. Rather, the curtailment of the circuit's support cut off the inflow of capital from outside of Quanzhou even as shrinking levels of support made clan members less and less potent consumers. To revisit Table S, although in the Song the examination success of a locality was almost always the result of numerous factors, economics was clearly a crucial one . Thus in a variety of ways, the fortunes of Quanzhou's clan members were inextricably linked to the city in which they had settled .

65 This was half the 60,000 strings allowance money set in 1131, the amount provided by the circuit for much of the early Southern Song, according to Zhen Dexiu. Since these figures do not include the stipends clansmen-officials, who while they were serving outside the prefecture were being paid by government offices elsewhere, and undoubtedly a portion of that money found its way to Qu anzhou as well.

JOHN W. CHAFFEE

42

CONCLUSION

During the hundred and forty-five years that Quanzhou hosted the imperial clan and its Southern Office, their interactions were many and varied, and the clan's impact upon the city's chief economic motor, the overseas trade, was complex. The purpose of this paper has been to delineate some of that complexity. That the imperial clan was a burden for the Quanzhou government, the Superintendency, the neighboring prefectures, and the Fujian circuit is clear. Generations of officials struggled with the problem of how to support this privileged group, which began in the hundreds and grew into the thousands. Moreover, it is certainly possible that encroachment of great families on farming land that Zhen Dexiu also described as one of the prefectures problems, involved many clan families, as Hugh Clark has suggested." Just as clearly, the clan's contributions to Quanzhou and its economy were considerable. With its imperial connection the clan set the prefecture off from others (except Fuzhou of course) and brought in resources in the form of support payments from outside that were then spent in the prefecture. It produced large numbers of jinshi who undoubtedly tried to further Quanzhou's (and their own) interests whenever possible, and a number of prefects and superintendents whose records seem to have been acceptable and sometimes were very good. To the end the clan participated in the overseas trade and it provided many consumers of that trade with the resources to indulge in its luxury imports and exports. Finally, the declines in clan jinshi numbers in the late Southern Song and in the per capita support received by clan members both suggest that the clan shared in the prefecture's decline during the thirteenth century. In detailing these characteristics of the imperial clan, I do not mean to suggest that it was the major factor behind the rise or decline of Quanzhou. For that we must look to far broader economic forces that were at work, within the regional economy of Fujian, the empire-wide economy of the dynasty, and the even 6i>

Hugh Clark, Community, Trade, and Networks, 176.

THE IMP ACT OF THE SONG IMPERIAL CLAN

43

farther flung economie s of maritime Asia. I would suggest, however, clan's presence in Quanzhou functioned as a minor but significant accelerator in good times by bringing in money and increasing consumption, and a drag in bad times by burdening already overburdened government offices.

BIBLIOGRAPHY LIST OF ABBREVIATrONS

Li Xinchuan, ]iannian yilai Chaoye zaji. Congshu jicheng (CS]q -ed. NWTYZSZP Zhao Shitong (ed.) , Nanwai Tianyuan Zhaoshi zupu (originally 1724). Quanzhou: Yinshua guanggao gongsi, 1994. SHY Song huiyao jigao. Taibei: Shijie shuju, 1964. SS Tuo Tuo (ed.), Song shi. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1977. WXTK Ma Duanlin, Wenxian tongkao. Taibei: Xinxing shuju , 1964. XNYL Li Xinchuan, ]inanian yilai Xinian yaolu. Guoxue chubanshe-ed. CYl]

Abu -Lughod , J., Before European Hegemony: the World System A .D. 1250-1350. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989. Ch affee, John W., The Branches of Heaven: A History of the Sung Imp erial Clan . Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1999. Chaffee, John W., The Thorny Gates of Learning in Sung China. A Social History of Examinations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985. Chang Bide I§ flH~ et at. (ed.), Songren chuanji ziliao suoyin * A f$ ~c ~ ;f4 * ~ I. Ta ibei: Dingwen shuju, 1974. Clark, Hugh R., Community, Trade, and Networks. Southern Fujian Province from the Third to the Thirteenth Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991. Fu Jinxing f~3fi £, "Luetan Nanwaizong dui Quanzhou de yinxiang mg ~~ f¥j j~ !M mHIBf~ ED ~ » , Quanzhou Zhao Song Nanwaizong yanjiu 1 (1993). Fu Jinxing, "Zhao Rugua IE!!! it\: ~ » , Quanzhou shi zhi tongxun ~ HI se Jill ~Tl , 1992.

*

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44

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JOHN W. CHAFFEE

"H ouzhu guchuan: Song ji nanwai zongsi haiwai jingshang Fu Zongwen {!1J. di wuzheng f&mJ5FYd: *& r¥i j~*Q] mi jH!:-

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c>-

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o

tJ

Z

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tTl

>tJ

;d

CJl

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oC~jill ~ . Taibei: Xinxing shuju, 1962. (Minguo) Tong 'an xianzbi (.5: ~ ) In] ~ I/.;f. g,t . Taibei: Chengwen shuju, 1967 reprint of 1929 edition . Mori Katsumi ~£C, Nichi S6 b6eki no kenkyu B %:~ ~(7) jjff~ . Tokyo: Kokuritsu shogen, 1948. - , "N ihon Korei raiko no So shojin B ~ ~ 3/(M: (7) %: FJj A ", ChOsen gakuhO

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Mff!'(: J'~ i~ 9 (1956) 223-34.

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Morohashi Tetsuo ~~ .m fI& ;~ , Daikanwa jiten j;;:ii fO $! . 12 vol's plus indices. Tokyo: Taishugen shoten, 1957-60. (Qianlong) jinjiang xianzbi (~ ~~U ~ ~I ~vHt. Taibei: Chengwen shuju, 1967 reprint of 1765 edition.

HUGH R. CLARK

92

(Qianlong) Xianyou xianzhi

(~JIi) fl1J iM ~ ~t.

Taibei: Chengwen shuju, und ated

reprint of 1873 reissue of 1771 edition .

(Qianlong) Yongchun zhouzhi (~l ~ft) ljdHI·/~ . Taibei: Yongchun wenxianshe, 1972 reprint of 1757 edition .

Quanzhouwan Songdai haichuan jajue yu yanjiu

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edited by the Fujiansheng Quanzhou H aiwai jiaotong bowuguan. Beijing: H aiyang chubanshe, 1987. Shiba Yoshinobu Jt i& ~ f~ , S6dai shOgy6shi kenkyu itfj ~ '£ !iff . Tokyo: Kazama shobe, 1968. So Kee Long, "Financial Crisis and Local Economy: Ch 'iian-chou in the Th irteenth Century", T'oung Pao 77 (1991) 119-37. Song huiyaojiben ~ !filf * . Taibei: Shijie shuju, 1963. Song Xi I!ffl , "Songshang zai Song-Li maoyi zhong de gongxian j'l'ij :(£ Ii jfi ~ ~ I¥J ~ 1li:", reproduced in the author's Songshi yanjiu luncong '£ liff?A: ~ ~. Taibei: Zhongguo wenhua xueyuan, 1980, vol. 2, 139-185. Sudo Yoshiyuki mJ iJj Z, "N an So no chomafu saisan to sono ryUtm katei i¥.i (J) ? .bjij 1fj g:. if. t -f (J) im,jill ~ fIt', Sudo Yoshiyuki, Chugokukeizai shi kenkyu ~ ~~i~ '£ !iff ?A:. To kyo: daigaku shuppansha, 1962,321-61. Tuo Tuo Jm Jm (ed.), Song shi '£. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1977. Wang Xiangzh i x.~Z, Yudiji sheng ~:f:t!!.*cMi. Taibei: Wenh ai chubanshe, 1962. Yue Shi ~ ,£, Taiping huanyu ji if- ~ ~ gc. Taibei : Wenh ai chubanshe, und ated reprint of 1803 reissue of Chen Lansen's I~ ifii ~ 1757 recomp ilation . Zh ao Yubi It11i Wi£', Xianxi zhi fUJ~ ~. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1990 Song Yuan jangzhi conggan repr int of 1257 ed. Zhu Weigan 71dlE ~, Fujian shigao fill}! '£ ~ . 2 vel's. Fuzhou: Fujian jiaoyu chubanshe, 1984. Zhuang Weiji J± ~ ~ and Chen Dasheng illf[ it tt , "Q uanzhou Q ingjingsi shiyi xink ao ~ HI Jji =1f '£ jfi *fr ~ " , Quanzhou lsilanjiao yanjiu lunwen xuan ~ HIittJtfT ~ ~ tiff ~ ~ ~, edited by th e Quanzhoushi Quanzhou lishi yanjiuhui HI m~ HIIfI '£ !iff ?A: if of the Fujian sheng Quanzhou haiwai jiaotongsh i bowuguan. Fuzhou : Fujian renmin chubanshe, 1983, 102-14.

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THE ROLE OF METALS AND THE IMPACT OF THE INTRODUCTION OF HUIZI PAPER NOTES IN QUANZHOU ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF MARITIME TRADE IN THE SONG PERIOD ANGELA SCHoTTENHAMMER THE PROBLEM

The metals trade in Song China becomes manifest and emerges in different guises and economic functions. For various reasons the merchants were interested in the trade in metals, and the metals, primarily copper and the precious metals, performed various economic functions in "national" and supra-regional, "international" trade. Chinese (Fujian) merchants made profits from the trade in certain metals because of the use value inherent in these metals in which other countries and societies were interested. Iron and copper immediately spring to mind. Iron was a metal which was fundamental to the production of agricultural implements, instruments of production, tools, cooking utensils and, of course, weapons. Copper, on the other hand, as a kind of material worthy of being used for higher religious purposes, was greatly in demand for use of ritual vessels in Southeast and East Asia. Seizing the opportunity, Chinese merchants exported iron and copper to countries which did not (yet) have an established iron or copper mining industry and!or whose output was not sufficient to provide for their needs. In this context in 1135 it was said that copper and iron are sources of profit. Great merchants draw upon them without the authorization to achieve this. They sell implements and utensils to every household, and make a tenfold profit. In their seagoing ships they transport these goods for sale in places as far away as Shandong .' 1

Li Xinchuan (1166-1243),Jianyan yilaixinian yaolu, 85:1395. Zhonghua shuju-ed.

ANGELA SCHOTTENHAMMER

96

Or, raw iron (shengtie) reaches [Ningbo] from Fujian and Guangdong. Ships come here regularly to sell. [Iron] is cast into implements and utensils.'

Other merchants were more interested in the precious metals and copper primarily as a means of purchase and payment within the supra-regional trade. Metals could be used in this way because of their intrinsic value, which allowed them to function as a measure of value in various societies. Generally speaking, in many places in Southeast Asia gold and silver were preferred. Chinese merchants are supposed to have shipped gold and silver to Champa in exchange for agricultural products during the thirteenth century.' Viewed against the background that thirteenth-century Quanzhou needed greater amounts of staple foods such as rice, it seems reasonable to assume that a part of this trade was passing through the port of Quanzhou. According to the Song huiyao, the Chinese traded with gold, silver, coins, lead, tin, silk, and porcelain in exchange for frankincense, spices, rhinoceros horn, jewellery, pearls, fragrances, foreign cloth and many other products.' Another form assumed by the metals trade consisted of taking advantage of national and regional price differences of one metal relative to others. In the mid-thirteenth century the revenue officer Bao Hui (1182-1268) observed that foreign vessels brought cargoes of silver to the ports of Guangzhou and Quanzhou to trade for copper, that is, bronze coins (tongqian)5, offering an extremely faShiba Yoshinobu, Sodai shOgyoshi kenkyu. Tokyo: Kazama shobo, 1968,301. 2 Wang Yuangong (Yuan), Zhizheng simingxuzhi, 5:10b. Song Yuan diJangzhi san-

shiqi zhong, 5896. J Robert S. Wicks, Money, Markets, and Trade in Early Southeast Asia. The Development of Indigenious Monetary Systems to AD 1400. New York : Cornell Southeast AsiaProgram, 1992,207. See also 210-219. 4 Xu Song (1781.1848) et al. (eds.), Song huiyao jigao. Taibei: Shijie shuju-ed.

Zhiguan 44:1a-b. (hereafter SHY). 5 Bronze is an alloy of copper and tin and sometimes other elements (as zinc, lead). In the present article the term "copper coins" will be used interchangeably with "bronze coins"; correctly speaking it should read "bronze coins", but both Chinese texts and Western secondary literature mostly use the term "copper coins"

THE ROLE OF METALS

97

vorable price of one liang of silver for one string of coin, which was three times the prevailing domestic price of coin ." Both Japan and Vietnam, for example, exported gold to China in return for coins. These different manifestations of the economic and commercial use and treatment of metals each featured more prominently at various time periods in the ancient metals trade. In the course of Song period maritime trade in Quanzhou, i.e. a trade which was not restricted to the national borders of economy, great changes and developments took place which stemmed from the economic functions of certain metals as a unit of exchange and as a measure of value." The entry of parts of the Chinese economy into foreign trade had particular consequences for domestic trade and commerce.' One phenomenon was the great outflow of bronze cash, which was in great demand in countries overseas. As the Song dynasty progressed, we become aware of an increasing tendency for (tongqian), as the basic element of the alloy is in fact copper. 6 Bao Hui (1182-1268) , Bizhou gao/ue, 1:20b. Siku quanshu zhenben sanji-ed , fasc. 246. In their home countries the price of coins in relation to silver must have been considerably higher. Otherwise, it would not have been profitabl e for these foreign merchants to offer one liang of silver, expressed in copper cash, for three times the silver price prevailing in China . 7 Basically I shall restrict my study to the metals iron , lead, copper, silver, and gold, which were the most important metals in economic terms for Quanzhou's overseas trade . As in Song China copper cash functioned as the general equivalent and measure of value and as the means of circulation in trade - one could say, copper cash was the mone y of Song China - the main emphasis will , of cour se, lie on copper (bronze) and its economic function as money. According to Bennett Bronson, tin was Southeast Asia's premier metal in order of economic importance, at least from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries . But it could apparently be produced cheaply enough by those countries and was normally not imported from China. Bennett Bronson, "Patt erns in the Early Southeast Asian Metals Trade", 1. Glover, P. Suchitta et al. (ed.), Early Metallurgy, Trade and Urban Cent res in Thailand and Southeast Asia. Bangkok : Wh ite Lotus Co., 1992, 63-114, 83. 8 Text passages such as the one from the SHY quoted above indicate that the foreign trade in fact consisted to a great extent of an outflow of material wealth in the form of metals from China, whereas the import products were mainly consumer goods or luxury articles. These were, however, normally not used as a means of payment in trade, but eventually "dropped out" of the local and domestic circulation , and were, it was hoped, supposed to be reconverted into copper cash or other metals to purchase new domestic and foreign consumer and luxury articles.

98

ANGELA SCHOTTENHAMMER

Quanzhou merchants to endeavour to withdraw their wealth in the form of bronze coins, precious, and to some extent also other base metals from internal Chinese circulation, to hoard them and then to ship them to overseas destinations. At the same time, sources indicate a relative economic decline in Quanzhou's overseas trade in the thirteenth century. This leads to the question of whether or not the thirteenth-century economic decline in Quanzhou was in any respect related to the outflow of metals through the Quanzhou port and specifically to this withdrawal of metallic valuables from the internal national and regional circulation sphere. Were there indeed a coherent relationship between these phenomena, this, of course , raises the question of its particular characteristics. Examining the reasons for the decline of Quanzhou's economy in the thirteenth century, why should it be necessary to consider basic economic principles such as use and exchange value, and the functions of money within trade? Seeking an answer to this relative decline, it becomes evident that phenomena like the drainage of real wealth in the form of copper cash and consequent political restrictions, the attempt of the government to attract more wealth in the form of money and bullion into its treasuries, allied with the government's issue of Huizi paper account notes all had negative results on the further economic development of maritime trade. The question is, therefore, in which way these phenomena were interrelated; how are they to be explained? First, it should be emphasized that the developments have to be viewed in the political context of the attitude of the Song govern ment towards the conduct of the merchants. On the other hand, such phenomena and the specific manifestations in the use of certain metals in overseas trade cannot be explained without consideration of the principal economic functions they fulfilled within trade, both domestic and foreign, as.the economic laws of trade developed quite independently of and eventually, as we shall see, even contrary to the intentions and wishes of the state." Within trade relations which 9 It was exactly the particularity of copper cash and the precious metals in representing (use and exchange) value and, it was the specific handling of this part icularity by both the merchants and the state which had the decisive influence

THE ROLE OF METALS

99

are as developed as those in contemporary Quanzhou the economic rules of trade and the specific reaction of the state to trade - above all the introduction of paper money to trade - produced a correspond-ing development in the monetary functions of certain metals . This is the reason why the main emphasis of this examination will be put on the economic importance of metals, primarily copper and the precious metals, as exchange values as an expression of wealth.'? And this is the reason why the present paper also focuses on principal economic categories", although the latter have to be genu-inely distinguished from the purely historical process treating the history of metals. The academic basis for my economic investigation was mainly provided by the works and theories of Aristotle (384-322 BC), Sir James Steuart (1712-1780), Adam Smith (1723-1790), David Ricardo (1772-1823), and the fundamental study of Peng Xinwei on the history of Chinese money. Too often, disregard of the principal economic functions and categories produces interpretations of a regional economic development from an anachronistically modern standpoint, contrasting regional developments with the eventual, far more recent results of a world-wide economy; consequently it is not uncommon that the view taken of the difficulties of the Song economy becomes unclear. In this context the currency system of imperial China is, for example, regarded as chaotic, primitive, and inadequate for the needs of a market economy." An economic investigation, in my eyes, can bring more light to specific historical developments concerning trade. on the further development of the local overseas trade on the whole. 10 I shall also investigate the significance of gold, but compared to copper and silver, gold played a minor role in the maritime trade of Quanzhou during the Song period . 11 Technical problems of metallurgy may be touched on at random, but will not be specified. 12 Uyod E. Eastman, Family, Field, and Ancestors: Constancy and Change in China's Social and Economic History, 1550-1949. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988, 108. Here , the Chinese economy is viewed from the final result of the world-wide silver and gold standard, and copper is regarded as an inappropriate coinage, although it had fulfilled its function as coinage in Chinese society for several hundreds of years.

100

ANGELA SCHOTTENHAMMER

The economic reference to and interference of the state in its money had in fact considerable influence on the development of trade. However, even as the authoritative body supervising the national economy, which included the power to tax and to determine the means by which obligations had to be fulfilled, the state was not able to invent or introduce new economic functions. Three functional roles are generally applied to money by modern economists: (1) means of exchange, (2) measure of value, (3) store of value. Despite its specification into categories, this constitutes a relatively incoherent enumeration of some uses of money. Use as a store of value should not be regarded as an economic function, but as a consequence of the fact that money represents value. Besides these three functional roles commonly attributed to money, Richard von Glahn has introduced a fourth, money as a means of state payment." It is in fact true that functioning as a means of payment is a monetary function. However, when the state uses money for state payments, this is not a new or separate function of money. The characteristic in this case is soley that it is the state which uses money in its function as a means of payment. The specific subject which is using money in a certain function does not alter its qualitative (objective) function within the economy. In the present article I want to argue that besides high taxation policy, corruption, piracy, and political and economic changes in countries overseas - possible negative influences exerted by external markets on the development of the Quanzhou trade - the state monetary policy, from the devaluation of its bronze coins to the introduction of Huizi paper account notes , constituted another important cause of Quanzhou's relative economic decline in the thirteenth century. Confronted with severe military and financial problems, the Song government tried hard to obtain as mu ch wealth in the form of bronze cash and precious metals as possible from IJ "Moreover, there are other attributes of money that are equally important in historical terms . In particular, to these three functions a fourth will be added that often is elided from contemporary economic analysis: (4) means of state payments ." Richard von Glahn, Fountain ofFortune. Moneyand Monetary Policy in China, 10001700. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996, 16.

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101

trade, both domestic and foreign , and from society. The Song government sought to use flourishing trade relations to increase its revenue. The intention to fill the state coffers was given a special emphasis in its economic and financial policy. But some of these political measures brought negative results instead. This was made painfully evident when the tough economic rules of trade asserted themselves with the integration of its economy into foreign , international trade. THE ECONOMIC FUNCTIONS OF METALS WITHIN MARITIME TRADE

TheImportance ofMetals in their Quality as Use and Exchange Value 1. Use value Undeniably the importance of metals is connected with their utility as instruments of production. The utility of a thing makes it a use value. Use values become a reality only by use or consumption: iron, for example , is a useful material for the production of agricultural implements or weapons . But use values also constitute the substance of all wealth, whatever may be the social form of that wealth. They are the material depositories of exchange values, of commodities to be exchanged on the market. If a product has no use value to a buyer, he will not purchase it (I leave aside the possibility that he himself may be willing to resell the product, that is, that he acts as a merchant himself). Therefore the function or quality as a use value is the first and most simple aspect of a commodity. Actually, the use value of a specific metal should not be regarded as an economic function; its use value is instead the sheer requirement to fulfil all its economic functions within trade, to perform a function as a measure and equivalent of value, and it should therefore be examined in the sphere of the study of the commercial knowledge of commodities. Nevertheless, the use value metallic products had for foreign people and countries constituted a very important proportion of the metals trade at that time; the use value of metals served as the object of merchants' business calculations. Therefore, accepting the premise that the quality to possess a use

102

ANGELA SCHOTTENHAMMER

value is the prerequisite for being able to perform a role as an exchange value and as an equivalent of value, I would like to begin my investigation with this aspect. In this context, it is also important to note that it is a characteristic of traditional China that copper and iron, two metals which were of major importance for religious , or agricultural, and military purposes, at the same time functioned as exchange values and as measures of value, and thus were divested of their quality as use and production elements in society. It is absolutely true, as Bennett Bronson has noted, that a number of factors must be taken into consideration when examining the ancient metals trade. A given area mayor may not have access to ore supplies, to the mining and smelting technology appropriate to those ores, or the capital necessary for developing certain types of deposits. It mayor may not have developed the habit of breaking up production stages, and the capability through either chance or skill, or a combination of both, of manufacturing metallic products which were sufficiently unique to ensure the retention of a substantial share of distant markets." All these factors are necessary conditions for local and national ore-smelting and manufacture of metal products. The Chinese had acquired early the necessary skill and technology to cast iron for manufacturing in big, fuel-efficient blast furnaces, enabling them to produce large volumes of consumer goods and to obtain a world monopoly in a major trade commodity, at least until the sixteenth century. IS As a means to manufacture weapons, iron and steel in particular were fundamental to a state's economy. Iron (Fe) was highly versatile, covering a wide range of uses. In Quanzhou it was mined and smelted in various areas. Concerning taxes on iron, the wanli edition of the Quanzhou fuzhi notes that

14 Bennett

Bronson, "Patterns in the Early Southeast Asian Metals Trade", 73. As the present study is supposed to be an economic investigation, I do not intend to go deeper into this aspect of metals and would like to refer the interested reader to the study of Bennett Bronson already quoted, and, among others, primarily the works of Joseph Needham and Peter Golas. 15

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"in the [reign period] kaibao (968-975) of the Song, 201 tax stations and offices (chang wu) for the smelting of metals (kengye) were established in the districts. The places (chang) where iron was produced in Quanzhou were Yiyang in Yongchun , Qingyang in Anxi , and Chishui in Dehua ; Shijun, Luwan, Niutouyu, and Changjitou in Jinjiang, Bukeng, Huangqi, jiaotou, Xudai, Gangwei, Shaliu, Lutou, Fengqian, and Niudai in Huian all possess iron filings (tiesha). In the third year of [the reign period] qingli (1043) regulations were set up to prohibit its trade overseas. Later it was proclaimed that its sale should be permitted in Liangzhe; but shortly afterwards [this permission] was withdrawn. Until the [reign period] chunyou (1241-1252) at the iron deposits of Dongyang and Feihu in Yongchun, and Xinyang, Shangtian, and Qiucheng in Dehua there were still branches where [iron] was produced; they were controlled by a controller general (tongpan) . In every district an annual "furnace-tax-money" (lushui qian) was levied, which was sent to the foundry in Jianningfu. "16

The Sanshan zhi notes : "Iron is produced in Ningde, Yongfu, and other districts; there are three different qualities...[the iron] which is used to cast utensils and tools is the raw iron (shengtie); when has been smelted for another three times, beaten, and manufactured into thin folios or rings with a hole in them [such as the ancient coins], this is soft iron (xutie) or wrought iron (shutie); when you mix it with raw, soft [iron], it is used for the production of knives, swords, and blades; this is steel (gangtie) . What the merchants sell in [Liang]zhe is all raw iron."17

Iron probably occupied a major position as an export commodity to areas which did not (yet) have an indigenous iron industry, but were important consumers of metals. The quotation cited in the introduction suggests that it was exported to Jin territories. Metal vessels including a few iron and silver pieces, although the majority was made of bronze, were also found in the Sinan shipwreck dated to the early fourteenth century. 18 The Mekong delta and Cambodia in 16YangSiqian (Ming), (Wantl) Quanzhou/uzhi, 7:3a-b. 17 LiangKejia (1128-1187), (Chunxl) Sanshan zbi, 41:4a (484:586). Siku quanshu-ed. 18 "Metal vessels are a much smaller component of the Sinan cargo than the

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Southeast Asia 19 stand as examples of areas poor in metals. But as Janice Stargardt has noted, Thailand produced and worked a lot of iron (around Lopburi in Central Thailand and in the south around Satingpra) and, as these regions are much closer, they were probably but not necessarily a more likely source than Southeast China." People in Java or the Philippines", which for the reasons cited above did not yet have an established mining and smelting industry, featured among the potential customers of Quanzhou. Similarly, the fact that many regions and countries of the contemporary Islamic world did not dispose of enough of their own iron supplies , could indicate that Muslim traders also exported iron through the port of Quanzhou. According to the Zhufan zhi iron was exported from China to Palembang, Beranang on the Malay Peninsula, Java (iron tripods), the Philippines, and Hainan." Although rich iron ores were also to be found in other regions, the absence or presence of such ores was not the decisive factor in determining whether a large-scale iron production was set up . The same could be said of other metals." Sites on the west coast of Thailand, with Chinese and Indian artefacts of the sixth to the ninth centuries, yielding tin in the form of trinkets, ingots, and rolls of hammered strip", could suggest that small quantities of tin utensils thousands of ceramics... Most of the Sinan metal vessels are of bronze, with a few silver and iron pieces; shapes include vases, ewers, cups, plates, incense burners, lamps (or candle holders) and mirrors. " Carla M. Zainie, "The Sinan Shipwreck and Early Murimachi Art Collections", Oriental Art 25:1 (1979) 103-114, 109. In the following Zainie shows that those metal vessels were relatively popular in fourteenth and fifteenth century collections in Japan . 19 Bennett Bronson, "Patterns in the Early Southeast Asian Metals Trade", 97. 20 Cf. Janice Stargardt, "Behind the Shadows: Archaeological Data on Two-Way Sea-Trade between Quanzhou and Satingpra, 10th_14 th Century", this volume. 21 Java is said to have had large iron deposits, but no developed iron industry; similar the Philippines. Bennett Bronson, "Patterns in the Early Southeast Asian Metals Trade", 89. 22 Fr. Hirth, W.W. Rockhill, Chau [u-ku« on the Chinese and Arab Trade in the twelfth and thirteenth Century. Amsterdam: Oriental Press, 1966, 61, 69, 78, 160, and 177. 23 Whether or not a certain area finally developed its own mining and smelting industry depended on the factors already described by Bennett Bronson. 24 Bennett Bronson, "Patterns in the Early Southeast Asian Metals Trade" , 103.

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were still being exported through the Quanzhou port at the time of its independence in the late ninth and in the tenth century, when the local metals production was promoted, alongside ceramics manufacture, by the independent rulers. But tin was apparently never a very important export commodity of Quanzhou. I am indebted here to Janice Stargardt, who told me that Vietnam, the Malay Peninsula, South Burma, and Bangka and Billiton Islands all had huge deposits of tin . Archaeological evidence shows an active Southeast Asian regional trade in tin as well as tin artefacts from the fourth century AD at the latest." Lead (Pb) and tin (Sn) are mentioned as Chinese export commodities in the Song buiyao" Lead seems to have occupied a not unimportant place within Quanzhou's overseas trade; it was found in large quantities in the mountainous hinterland of Quanzhou and was cast and smelted by the local people. According to the Quanzhou fuzhi, its sale overseas was eventually (no exact date is mentioned) prohibited by the officials." The Zhufan zhi says that lead and tin were commodities exported from China to Annam, trade gold, iron censers, needles, and lead were exported to the Philippines, and lead sinkers for nets, and tin were exchanged in barter in Sanxu and exported to Borneo." Silver (Ag), too, was exported in the form of refined manufactured goods like cups, bowls, ornaments, and similar utensils, commodities which might be summed up in the term "luxury articles". Copper (Cu) and gold (Au) occupied an important position in the religious spheres of Asian societies. Gold was used in Southeast Asian jewellery, for religious images, ritual implements, and also functioned as an article of tribute and trade." Bennett Bronson says copper was scarce in all parts of insular and peninsular Southeast

25 Personal

conversation, September 1997.

SHY, Zhiguan 44:Ia, 27 Wanli Quanzhou fuzhi, 3:44a. 28 Fr. Hirth, W.W. Rockhill, Chau]u-kua, 49,156 ,160 and 162. 29 Robert S. Wicks, Money, Markets, and Trade, 303. 26

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Asia except the Philippines and Sumatra." Japan possessed copper ores, but at that time did not yet have a developed copper-mining and smelting industry. In the tenth and early eleventh century, large quantities of copper were also consumed in the Cola kingdom (South India), mainly for the manufacture of copper plate inscriptions (mostly land donation deeds). Copper and the precious metals were also used for superior household utensils among the upper echelons of society . Chinese bronzes, mostly imitations of Tang and earlier bronze figures were highly valued among the Muslim elite and were exported to places as far away as Fustat (Old Cairo)." Besides being used for Buddha statues and images as well as ritual vessels, copper was also used for ornaments, utensils, mirrors, and weapons. The ]ingkou qijiuzhi reports: Foreign merchants from Sanfoqi (Srivijaya) bring raw copper [from the hinterlands of Quanzhou?] and seek to have vessels (wa) of it made in Quanzhou. They take them back to their home countries in order to decorate their temples." Arabic and Hebrew records of the eleventh century emphasize amongst many other products, such as spices, cotton, and porcelain, that iron and steel, brass and bronze vessels were South Indian commodities or Chinese products which reached Fustat through South Indian ports." Generally speaking, with the practice in South India of engraving inscriptions onto large copper plates, it seems plausible that, despite the presence of local sources, additional foreign copper was needed, which may have been imported from China.

30 Bennett

Bronson, "Patterns in the Early Southeast Asian Metals Trade", 107. Rogers, Michael, "China and Islam The Archaeological Evidence in the Mashriq", D. S. Richards, Islam and the Trade ofAsia. A Colloqium. Oxford: Bruno Cassirer and University of Pennsylvania Press, 1970,67·80, esp. 77·79. 32 Unknown author,Jingkou qijiu zhuan, 9:14b. Shoushange congshu.ed., fasc. 4243. 33 Andre Wink, At-Hind. The Making of the Indo-Islamic World. Vol. I: Early Medieval Indiaand theExpansion ofIslam, 7' h·ll th Centuries, 297. 31

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Obviously, the largest proportion of the metals exported through the Quanzhou port were mined and smelted locally, this is to say, not in Quanzhou directly, but in its mountainous hinterlands, especially in Jianzhou, Shaowujun, Tingzhou, and Nanjianzhou." Following the Quanzhou juzhi, the export of the major metals iron, copper, and lead had already been officially prohibited by the mid to late eleventh century, but we have no concrete data on the dimensions of illegal export. At the same time , the precious metals were obviously not yet affected by such prohibitions. Yuan Yueyou (1140-1204), referring to the later twelfth century, speaks of a prohibition on the making of gold ornaments, and of sumptuary laws against the manufacture and wearing of gold ornaments." Simultaneously, sources like the Wenxian tongkao indicate an immense increase in the state's income from taxation of iron, copper, lead, and silver mines in Fujian, which continued until 1078, the tax rate normally being 20% at that time. 36 In this context, the dimensions of the re-sale of metals, which had officially been bought up by the government, remain also uncertain. Therefore, unfortunately, it is impossible to deliver any concrete data on what dimensions this trade using metals either as refined manufactured goods or as raw products assumed. Especially at the beginning of the Song dynasty, I assume that it may have occupied greater dimensions than the trade in coins; but as it is the case with copper, because of its major importance to the Chinese government for the minting of coins, we have numerous sources referring to the trade in coins, but only few references to the economic importance of copper for the production of use values and the trade in them. Nevertheless, it is probably safe to conclude that with the state prohibitions and the general decline of output during the Southern Song dynasty" the entire export volume of base metals He Qiaoyuan, Min shu, 39:972-973 . Yuan Yueyou (1140-1204), Dongtangji, 10:7b-8b. SKQSZB-ed. 36 Ma Duanlin (1254-1325), Wenxian tongkao, 18:29-36. 37 As Peter Golas has already pointed out, especially for the Southern Song dynasty we do not possess extensive figures about the amount of metals mined, or about state expenditure and income. Peter Golas, "The Mining Policy of the Sung Government", Kinugawa Tsuyoshi (ed.), Collected Studi es on Sung History DediH

35

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which were used to produce tools, implements and the like, declined , although, as I mentioned before, the extent of the contraband trade is impossible to delineate . 2. Exchange value and the emergence of money The historical evidence makes it abundantly clear that a significant proportion of the metals trade did not refer to the merchants' interest in the pure use value of metals. In this context, the importance of the metals, especially that of precious metals, is derived from the fact that they possess an intrinsic value and represent a certain exchange value. These metals functioned as money in the regional and supra-regional trade. The emergence or the origin of money is a result of the trade itself and not its prerequisite. It is import ant to keep this tenet in mind and not to treat money as an independent unit of its own which emerged, or existed, separately from trade, and at the same time constituted a necessity for the execution of trade; if money is regarded as such an independent necessity for and condition of trade, difficulties will always arise in finding a correct explanation for and deduction of the characteristics of money from the economic functions it fulfilled in trade." The economic functions of money, from coins to paper money, crystallize from the exchange value of commodities. The development of trade, i.e. of the exchange of commodities, historically strove for and demanded the emergence of one commodity in which the exchange value of every commodity would be expressed, and which would consequently serve as a general measure and equivalent of value for cated to ProfessorJames T.e. Liu in Celebration 0/his Seventieth Birthday. Kyoto: DoshOsha, 1989,417. 38 The specific significance of the metals which, still today, amazes economists and historians lies in their function as an equivalent of value, in the role they perform as money in regional and supra-regional trade. In his recent discussion on money and monetary policy in pre-modem China, Richard von Glahn noted : "The precise origins of money, in Europe as well as in China, remain obscure, and economists differ in their opinions on whether money first emerged as a means of exchange or a measure of value. In the footsteps of the Swedish economist Knut Wicksell (18811926), economists have tended to treat the means of exchange function as logically antecedent to the measure of value function, though the latter often is regarded as historically more important." Richard von Glahn, Fountain ofPortune.

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all commodities being exchanged in trade. This particular commodity had, of course, to be different from the commodities exchanged in trade which implies, that it had to be dispensable in the production process of society and as an every-day consumer article; its sole "use value", now, was to stand for and function as an expression of value. Consequently, the values of the whole world of commodities were, now, expressed in terms of a single, in premodern societies sometimes still more than only one, commodity set apart for this purpose. Their values were represented by means of their equality with this particular commodity. And the reason why this commodity resulted in a product directly interchangeable with other commodities was the fact that the labour necessary to have it produced ranked as identical with any other sort of labour required for the production of any other commodity." It is wellknown already from ancient history that the role of this particular commodity was eventually taken over by metals - by bronze in China and by the precious metals in Europe. Metals emerged as a general equivalent of value in trade, as money. The characteristic of metals of representing value gains in importance within trade relations which were not restricted to "national" borders, because the government, even as early as the Song period, in a financially difficult situation and in an economy which was based upon extended trade relations", came to balance its J9 The great thinker who was the first to analyze the form of value was Aristotle . He clearly enunciated that the money-form of commodities is only the further development of the simple form of value - i.e. of the expression of the value of one commodity in some other commodity taken at random. He said "5 beds = 1 house is not to be distinguished from 5 beds = so much money" ... "Exchange cannot take place without equality, and equality not without commensurability." Cf. Aristotle, The Nichomachean Ethics. Translated with Commentary and Glossary by Hippocrates G. Apostle . Dordrecht, Boston: D. Reidel Publishing, 1975, book V, Syntbese Historical Library. Texts in theHistory ofLogic and Philosophy. Vol. 13. But as Greek society was founded upon slavery, and had, therefore, the inequality of men and of their labour-powers for its natural basis Aristotle was unable to see that to attribute value to commodities is merely a mode of expressing all labour as equal human labour. 40 This means an economy which at least partly relied on the production of commodities for exchange on markets for money and, thus, on a respective quanti-

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loss of wealth in the abstract form of money. In the following subsection I would therefore like to briefly the general history of the development of metallic coins and the emergence of paper account notes as a means of exchange and means of circulation. A correct understanding of the nature of bronze cash and the emergence of paper account notes used in the economy of Song China is essential to our understanding of how and why the eventual introduction of these paper notes could influence the maritime trade at Quanzhou. GENERAL HISTORY OF THE USE OF METALLIC COINS IN TRADE AND OF THE EMERGENCE OF TOKENS OF VALUE REPRESENTING MONEY

The specific significance of metals lies in their function to serve as a general measure and equivalent of value. In order to fulfil the function of an equivalent of value, the respective metal had to meet the principal requirements of serving as a measure of value. This means that a certain amount of a metallic substance (for example one ounce of silver) represented a particular value. To perform that function, it was necessary first for this measure of value itself to represent value in being a product of work expended. The characteristic of being a product of work expended is what put commodities of different qualities into a quantitative relationship to one another: independent of their particular use values, the commodities were judged and compared according to their "abstract" value, in the pure quantity of work which was needed to produce them. Only a commodity which represented value itself could perform a function as a measure of value, and, once generally accepted as a measure of value in trade, as an equivalent of value. Secondly, such a measure of value had to be divisible into quantitative, qualitatively uniform proportions, a certain amount, size, and weight of a specific metal representing a certain value. Because of their high specific gravity, gold and silver possess these qualities to an ideal ty of such a medium of exchange. Under such economic conditions not only merchants, but also the state increasingly measure their wealth in the form of money.

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degree." In pre-modern societies several different equivalents of value normally existed at one time, for example silk, grain, copper, and silver. This can be traced back to the fact that the emergence of equivalents of value was in a process of development during which a common equivalent of value had not yet gained general acceptance. With developing trade, the exchange value of an increasing number of commodities expressed itself in a particular substance such as silver; consequently it became necessary to express different exchange values in accordingly different quantities of silver. The "price" of a commodity appears in the form of its exchange value as a certain quantity of a metallic substance, for example silver or copper. Thus, all commodities receive a "price" which is expressed in specific quantities of silver, respectively copper." The shortcoming of a price-expression which only measures prices in different quanta of silver is obvious. For the purpose of calculation, the measuring of prices in certain quantities of silver is suitable; but for the practical use within trade to compare all commodities with one another in reducing their exchange values to a specific quantity of silver was a drawback. Therefore, starting from the measure of value, there was the technical necessity to develop a specific and independent unit of measurement according to which a particular weight quantity of silver, including smaller sections of it, could be fixed in order to render all the different exchange values of the commodities comparable in terms of prices. During the Song dynasty prices were, as a rule, expressed in terms of copper coins, also regionally distributed iron coins; in Southern Song times paper money was introduced. Silver was only 41 The question why it was primarily the precious metals which developed as the generally and internationally accepted equivalents of value may be answered as follows: apart from their high specific gravity, the relative scarcity, and the relative softness of the precious metals made them unusable for instruments of production in the ordinary production process. Furthermore, they appear to be dispensable as an every day consumer article. 42 The exchange value of a commodity is represented in a particular qualitative material substance like silver and a certain quantity of that substance, for example one ounce of silver. The exchange values of other commodities consequently represent themselves in a multiple or a fraction of this specificquantity of silver.

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used for large business transactions, and was normally not used to denominate prices." Under these circumstances, one bolt of cloth was no longer equivalent to eight kilograms of copper, but 2,000 44 qiani 5 (mace). One Song qian, as a rule, was equivalent to one tenth of an ounce (liang), i.e. a full-bodied, solid copper coin weighing roughly four grams." To obtain one (short) string of 770 copper coins, according to the Song huiyao, two jin (a 633 g) eight liang (a 40 g) of copper (1,586 kg), one jin fifteen liang of lead (1,233 kg), three liang of tin (120 g), and five jin of coal (3,165 kg) were needed ." This formed a coin containing about 54% copper. In the same context, expressed in silver, one bolt of cloth was no longer 126.382 grams of silver, but 3.16 liang of silver." As silver was 43 The regions which circulated silver-denominated notes of account during Southern Song, could have been exceptions to this rule. Peng Xinwei, Zhongguo huobishi. A Monetary History of China, translated by Edward H . Kaplan. Vo!.l. East AsianResearch Aids and Translations. Vo!.5. Western Washington University, 1994, 426. (Original, 502). Taking account of the particular development in Fujian to be described later, these silver-denominated account notes probably were also circulating in Fujian at that time. H This price, valid for 1127, was taken arbitrarily from a table of Southern Song cloth prices contained in Peng Xinwei's, A Monetary HistoryofChina, 407. 45 A qian originally seems to have indicated one metal piece of a hoe or a spade, for which there is evidence in the Books of Odes. See Yang Lien-sheng, Money and Credit in China. A ShortHistory. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1992,24. 46 See SHY, Shihuo 11:3a. In later times, qian simply designated one"cash", being the equivalent to one coin. Classical Chinese still gives evidence of the double meaning and understanding of the units of measurement originally representing a fixed weight unit, which developed historically into an independent, arithmetical money unit. This can also be' seen in the double meaning of the character "zhong", meaning both the weight and the value, later also the purchasing power, of a unit . 47 SHY, Shihuo 11:3a. 48 Th is price is based on a calculation that in 1173 (qiandao 9) one ounce of official silver (1 liang 40 g) was commensurate with four pounds (jin 633 g, thus 2,532 g) of copper. Assuming a full-bodied copper coin a4 g, this would be equivalent to 633 copper coins. 2000 copper coins could accordingly have been the equivalent of 126.328 g of silver, or 3.16 liang of silver. Peng Xinwei, op.cit., quotes the SHY, Shihuo 43:40: "In qiandao 9, 1st month, 6th day, Jiang Liao said... to stabilize copper, it should be sold officially, and used to set wages. I request that one ounce of official silver be commuted from 4 catties of copper in paying taxes." (He gives, however, different chapter and page numbers). According to a table in Richard von Glahn's, Fountain of Fortune, 106, 700 standard, and up to 1,400-1,500 private, coins could be

a

a

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uncoined, the silver liang was identical to its actual weight in silver, during the Song normally 40 g.49 This historical process which integrated an increasing number of commodities into trade by measuring their exchange values in different quantities of silver, i.e. which gave them a price that was expressed and fixed in certain quantities of silver, transformed silver from a pure'measure ofvalue to - money. When this had been done, the different exchange values of the various commodities were compared with one another in their different prices, i.e. in different quantities of silver. These prices had to refer to a unit of measurement, to an invariable, fixed quantity which was divisible into quantitative proportions, and which was already present 'in the local economy as a fixed unit of weight of the metals, in our case silver. In this way the measure of value became a standard of prices." Within this development from a measure of value to a standard of prices ideally imagined quantities of metals (silver, or copper) are sufficient to satisfy the requirements of a standard of prices, in order to function as calculation or reckoning money. As long as there was more than one standard of prices at the same time, trade was disadvantaged, as the merchants had to calculate different prices for the same commodity. In Europe, both silver and gold served as standards for a very long time, whereas in Song China bronze coins circulated in conjunction with iron coins, especially in the border regions. This double standard, as well as the circulation of copper and iron coins in different denominations, exchanged for one liang of silver around 1500, one liang at that time consisting of 37 g. Following the same logic and applying for example English measures, a certain commodity was no longer equivalent to one (troy) ounce of gold (.1 31.1 g), but 0.083 of a sovereign, or pound sterling, one sovereign consisting of 12 ounces. 49 The measures ars based upon the index of the Hanyu da cidian, republished in 1995. so In many pre-modern economies the standard of prices designated a unit of measurement which was identical to its original measure of weight, for example one pound sterling silver. The diverging of the original unit of measurement (weight) and the designation for this weight unit is an eventual result of trade itself and will be explained when the transition from coins to tokens of value is expounded. Besidesthe precious metals silver and gold, base metals such as copper or iron also functioned as measures of value and standards of prices.

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both small and large, provided a real problem for the Song economy . As a consequence of counterfeiting, and in order to prevent it, the government often changed the ratio of copper relative to iron and the ratio between small and large coins , political measures which were often not particularly advantageous to trade. In his book on Chinese currency, Vissering gives a survey of various political measures the Song government undertook to change the relative value and the ratio of iron and bronze coins." To recapitulate, a commodity became a measure of value because the exchange value of other commodities were measured and expressed in it; this commodity possessed an intrinsic value, a value which was variable depending on specific local and national conditions of production. The function a metal performed as a standard of prices was an invariable, fixed weight unit which gave the prices their measure, in which they were calculated as an independent monetary unit. Therefore, they represented an independent arithmetical unit of .measurement, which made all the commodities comparable with one another in terms of prices, in calculating different weight quantities in monetary units. In order to perform their function as a standard of prices (i.e. for purely reckoning purposes) , no gram of a metal, of real silver or copper, is necessary; but practically to fulfil the function of a means of circulation within trade - a particular minted weight unit, hard coin is required. The generality and liability of the standard of prices provide the state with the responsibility for taking care of it within an official coinage system. 52 The full-bodied metal coin officially minted and provided with a state stamp - the reign period of the emperor who issued the coins - entered the circulation process as real money with its own independent name (unit of measurement), such as, for example, qian or dirhem. The coin , now, measured the 51 W. Vissering, On Chinese Currency. Coin and Paper Money. With Facsimile 0/ a Banknote. Leiden: E.]. Brill, 1877, 134-159. His investigation is primarily based on an investigation of the Wenxian tongkao. 52 This does not mean that the state was the "inventor" of money . The state operated as sovereign for the requirements of the circulation in its economy.

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prices of commodities in the specific form of money, and mediated purchase and sale in trade. In short, the coin functioned as a means of circulation (1), and it faced the commodities as an independent monetary name incorporating value itself (2) . However, in its particular characteristics of representing a real value, the coin found itself in contradiction with its function as a means of circulation. Because by circulating the exchange of commodities the coins wore out. Submitted to the hurly-burly of the everyday circulation process, the coin gradually lost weight and thus value. As a consequence, the original weight (4 g) and the abstract money designation (qian) , which gave the prices their unit of measurement, gradually diverged. Nominal weight and real weight began a process of separation, i.e. coins of the same denomination became different in value, as they were different in weight. Here, the difference between the metal as a measure of value and as a measure of prices, which kept commodities in circulation, became evident, as its practical use as a means of circulation (1), takes away its substance of value (2) . This divergence between its characteristic of representing real value and mediating or circulating the values of commodities opened the way for numerous counterfeits, of which the state was the chief perpetrator when debasing coins . The weight of the still full-bodied coins was officially reduced to that of the circulating coins with less metal weight. This is the economic reason why the market price of a metal could rise above its coin price, a development which prompted the state to interfere: on the one hand, the state determined to which degree the official coins representing a certain value could lose weight; on the other hand, the insight into the necessity for the divergence of the coin representing real value and mediating the commodities as a means of circulation, in historical terms, resulted in the practice of minting the smaller fractions of a bigger money unit in less valuable metals. In this way, in historical terms, the transition to money as a token of value was executed, to substitute the real value of coins by mere tokens ofvalue.53 53 The state melted the solid metal coins down to bullion, and the metal weight of the newly cast coins was reduced to the weight of the average circulating coins. The

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The ultimate consequence of this substitution of metallic coins by tokens of value was the issuing of valueless paper money. The paper money in its total denomination only had to designate the quantity of the coins substituted in terms of value in order to fulfil its function as a means ofcirculation. The fact that the metallic coins themselves effected a separation between their nominal and their real weight, thus creating a distinction between them as mere pieces of metal on the one hand, and as coins serving as circulation medium with a definite denomination on the other hand - this fact led to the possibility of replacing metallic coins by mere tokens of valueless material, by symbols serving the same purpose as the coins, such as paper. I am convinced it is important to emphasize this fact, because the issue of paper money had decisive consequences for maritime trade in Quanzhou. In contrast to modern market econo-mies , in which the state paper money is the general legal tender - supposed to create capitalistic growth by giving credit from central and private bank institutions - in the Song period paper money as well as the copper currency were a result of simple commodity circulation. And there was more to it than this . An important factor in overseas trade for the Song economy turned out to be the parallel functioning of both bronze coins and paper money as a means of circulation. Within trade, the movement of the commodity circulation represented itself inversely as the circulation of money being brought into the circulation by merchants acting as purchasers. To be able to purchase commodities with money, the merchants had to have already sold goods; in other words, in order to act as owners of money within trade, they had to have disposed of money before being able to carry out their own successful business transactions. This temporal and geographical divergence of the advance and reflux of money, the time difference between sale and purchase, gained specific importance in overseas trade relations, as it normally coins became a symbol or a token of their real value. Therefore, in the spheres of everyday trade, in which a certain quantity of coins had to circulate very quickly, so that the coins consequently lost weight very fast, those of a higher metallic value were substituted by coins consisting of base metals of less value.

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took long time periods - differing in relation to the distance of the destination - before the merchants earned their money back. They had to have money and commodities invested to have goods sold in countries overseas, and it could take months before they were able to dispose of the positive results of this trade back at home, whether in the form of foreign commodities which were later sold on the domestic markets, or in the form metallic equivalents of value." Long distance trade, whether by land or by sea, very early led to an elementary form of credit on the basis of the requirements of trade the merchants, privately, gave each other credit. The actual payment in the form of money was thus delayed . In view of the earlier commercial success of merchants, they considered each other trustworthy. Shiba Yoshinobu has already provided an investigation into overseas trade companies crediting each other, and of the specific capital flows." This is the history of how private paper certificates, such as the "Huizi" (literally "agreement bonds") emerged . Originally, Huizi paper notes had been issued by private merchant associations in Hangzhou and its environs as a kind of private exchange notes, which Peng Xinwei says were called "convenient money" (bianqian). This meant that instead of paying with copper cash in a business transaction, a merchant could use such an exchange paper note for payment - virtually as a promise to pay - when purchasing commodities from somebody else. He would normally do so when he had not yet sold his own commodities and was short of ready money at the moment he intended to buy. Purchase and sale diverged in terms of time. Consequently, the paper notes served as a promise to pay in cash as soon as a merchant was solvent, as soon as the money was available. Through the contractual agreement between two (or more) merchants to accept a promise to pay at a later time, these exchange notes were treated like money. In such a business transaction money obtained yet another economic func54 Doubtlessly, Quanzhou merchants primarily imported foreign commodities destined to be sold on domestic markets . 55 Shiba Yoshinobu, S8dai shOgy8shi kenkyu, 78-132.

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tion: it was not simply a means of circulation, but a means ofpayment. It is easy to see that to be credible, to be able to make use of such exchange notes, the merchants had to have already sold commodities in the past. Only on the basis of business activities already successfully accomplished and in the expectation of future, successful business transactions, the "promise to pay at a later time" - here in the form of exchange notes - entered the circulation as a means of payment. The paper notes circulated among private businessmen whose real values for the moment were still in the circulation sphere - in other words, they had not yet retrieved the money plus profit they had invested - and who speculated on their future profit and business success. Indubitably the use of exchange notes among merchants proved a great facilitation to trade, as it rendered them independent of the temporal and geographic limitations of the circulation process. As such a promise to pay, these exchange notes were a result of trade and occurred as a necessity of extended trade relations. THE INTRODUCTION OF STATE TOKENS OF VALUE AND THE CONSEQUENCES FOR TRADE AND COMMERCE

When a private association, mostly a co-operative of various rich merchants, issued such exchange notes, the speculation on their future business success plus interest formed the starting point for these merchants. In using exchange, i.e. paper notes, the merchants actually facilitated their trade activities enabling them to separate purchase and payment temporally and geographically. Thus, they were put into a position to raise credit from each other. In this context, the private Huizi exchange notes may be regarded as an early and simple form of credit resulting from the circulation of commodities. This means of private enrichment of merchants was readily seized upon by the Song government, which in 1160 prohibited the circulation of these private Huizi and issued its own paper notes, named "official notes" (guanhuz). 56 The paper notes were issued at 56

I shall refer to this problem again in the section on Song government refer-

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nominal values of one, two, or three strings of copper coins (a 770 coins)." According to the Zhongwai lishi nianbiao, an imperial decree of the fifth month of the year 1172, "the laws concerning paper money should come into force in all districts of Fujian", but at the beginning of the year 1173 these laws were abolished again for Fujian, to be partly reintroduced in 1186 (see Appendix 1). Thus, Huizi were issued and circulating in Fujian from 1172. Following the Zhongwai lishi nianbiao, local traders were, however, not forced to use them before 1186. This short temporary abolition of the "laws concerning paper money" may perhaps be traced back to a response of the government to a possible negative reaction by local merchants." This monopolization of the circulation of private Huizi was supposed to be a means to raise credit from trade and society by paying no longer with real values such as copper coins .or silver ingots which possess an intrinsic value, but with debts. The government intended to extract financial resources from its economy to serve its own requirements. For example, in the ninth year of the reign period chunxi (1182), Huizi were issued to draw in the copper cash of Lianghuai; by 1191 even the iron coins of that region were to be replaced by such "account notes" .59 The state paid some of its expenditure in paper notes which included the promise they would be redeemable in "real money", i.e. copper cash, at a later time, officially at least until 11766°, which meant in practice three years ences to the metals trade. 57 According to the Wenxian tongkao, in the beginning, the Hu izi were used only in Zhejiang, but later their circulation was extended to Huai, Zhe, Hubei, and Jingxi. Wenxian tongkao, 9:27a. There is no explicit reference to their introduction into Fujian. 58 It is possible that they first tried to refuse the paper notes, or immediately withdraw their real values from the circulation, thus impeding local domestic trade. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find further evidence to substantiate this hypothesis . 59 Peng Xinwei, op. cit., 416. "Account notes" is the expression Peng uses for these stately issued paper notes, or "Huizi", 60 In 1176the circulation period of new issues was fixed at from six to nine years. Originally restricted to an equivalent of 10 million strings of copper cash per issue, the equivalent had been raised to 30 millions of strings by 1195. From that time

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after their issue. As the state itself was not an active business agent making a profit with a ready-made credibility among merchants, it had to force the people to accept its paper notes by exercising its sovereign power. The substituting of valuable copper coins by worthless paper money was also putatively regarded as a useful instrument to impede the outflow of copper cash abroad, a consideration which turned out to be an illusion within the context of the government's financial policy. The fact that because of mismanagement and decreasing wealth some rich merchants no longer reliably redeemed the exchange notes they had issued, consequently arousing popular anger, is undeni~ble. But when the government monopolized such exchange notes, the ' economic reason behind this political measure was not the intention to prevent the abuses perpetrated by private merchants." The immediate advantages for the Song government of the issue of these Huizi were the following: first, it could now pay in worthless paper money, reducing the costs for the production of its national means of circulation, bronze coins, and could also pay with a "promise to pay"; second, it was able to keep and attract great quantities of valuable copper coins into its treasuries. Already by demanding tax payments in cash and at the same time supplying its economy with paper notes, the government attracted more cash than it spent. Furthermore, especially after increasing military expenditure and high indemnities resulted in a growing financial burden after the mid-twelfth century, paper account notes were issued to withdraw copper cash from circulation.f Exercising its onwards the amount of the paper notes per issue as well as their circulation period increased steadily. Yang Lien-sheng, Money and Credit in China, 54-56. 61 The fact that the state already assumed direct control of such exchange notes at the time of their initial issue, actually meant that it deprived the agents of trade of the use of a "promise to pay" as a means of payment in private trade; the state thus prevented the free development of this early form of credit for the necessities of trade and functionalized the exchange notes for its own purposes instead. 62 In chunxi 7 (1180) the people in Jingxi region are said to have been ordered to exchange their copper cash against iron coins and account notes within two months. In 1169 already the copper coins of Lianghuai had been collected to be

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sovereign power, the Song state was able to issue all these paper notes and force the people to accept them. An imperial decree of the 7th month of 1186 ordered that in the districts and townships (xian) all the business transactions had to be executed by using half Huizi and half cash (Appendix 1). This order seems to have come into force all over the empire, including Fujian. But once having entered the sphere of circulation, these paper notes were withdrawn from the state's power and developed peculiar economic consequences. In this context, the issue of Huizi did not cause problems as long as the government guaranteed the convertibility of its "forced loans", that means as long as the government measured the quantity of its paper notes observing the tenet of relating them as tokens of value to the quantitative substitute of valuable metallic coins within circulation (the quantity of paper notes issued should be equivalent to the quantity of real values which they represent). If the paper notes exceeded their proper limit, i.e. the amount in metallic coins of the like denomination which could actually be current in the circulation, they would - apart from falling into general discredit - in fact represent only that quantity of metallic coins, which, in accordance with the laws of the commodity circulation, was required, and which alone was capable of being represented by paper. " Of course, the government had no exact insight into such

exchanged for iron coins and Huizi. By 1191 even the iron coins of this region were replaced by account notes. See Appendix 1. Accord ing to Peng Xinwei in chunxi 9 (1182) account notes were issued to draw in the copper cash of Lianghu i (peng Xinwei, A Monetary History of China, 416). This is a possible refererence to a second political measure to draw in the copper cash of that region , as in the past 13 years copper cash had again been flowing into Lianghu ai region. In 1192 the iron coins of Huaidong were exchanged for official monk certifications, in 1203 the copper cash of Linghai was exchanged for Jiaozi exchange notes. See Appendix 1. 63 Following the fundamental law of the circulation the quantity of money functioning during a given time period as circulating medium is determined by the sum of prices of the commodities circulating and by the average velocity of the currenc y. In other words , given the sum of the value of commodities and the average velocity of their metamorphoses, the quant ity of metallic coins functioning as mon ey depends on the value of this metal - in our case copper. The comm odity pri ces are not, conver sely, determ ined by the quantity of the circulating medium.

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issues." The crucial point in contemporary Quanzhou was, however, not simply its lacking knowledge of the laws of the commodity circulation, but the fact that it was not interested in them, as it had discovered the issue of Huizi as the means to withdraw financial resources from its economy to serve its own political and military projects. Various Chinese sources report that Hu izi notes were used by the govemment to pay for such undertakings. Zhen Dexiu, for example, informs us that Hu izi were used to pay for the construction of warships and the repairing of military outposts." The Huizi were not regarded as a (more comfortable) means of circulation substituting the bronze coins, but as a means to raise credit, although the Song government, in contrast to merchants, did not issue them on the basis of already successfully accomplished business activities and in the expectation of future, successful business transactions. The Huizi were not supposed to function simply as the circulation medium in trade, but as a means ofpayment based upon credit. The government used them as a means ofpayment, but in the long run without making real payments. As long as the government guaranteed the convertibility of its paper notes, this did not alter their functioning as a means of circulation. But the government only partly redeemed the paper notes in copper cash or silver, often only at times when the confidence in them had already begun to evaporate, i.e. when they had already suffered from a depreci ation." The policy of the Song government M As far as the quantity of paper notes substituting bronze coins is concerned, exact statistical investigations of prices at a specific time would have been necessary, which were not existent at that time. Instead, the empirical demand for copper coins was enough to provide the trade with the respective quantit y of coin or paper notes. 65 Zhen Dexiu (1178-1235), Xishan xiansheng Zhen wenzhong gong wenji, 9:2b-3a. SBCK-ed., fasc. 1264-1287. He also writes about the use of monk certificates as the financial means to pay for the repairing of warships . Xishan xiansheng Zhen wenzhong gong wenji, 15:3b-4a. 66 For example, in the second year of the reign period qiandao (1166) 1,000,000 liang of silver from the inner and south treasuries were used to redeem the depreciated Huizi. Wenxian tongkao, 9:27a-b, 9:29a (1176) . In the beginning of the reign period jiading, i.e. about 1208, draft notes circulating in Sichuan, Chuanyin, were redeemed with gold and silver (9:32a).

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of postponing dates for redemption, issuing ever-increasing amounts of paper notes, or redeeming them with new notes throws unequivocal light on its purpose of raising credit from the economy, while keeping real wealth firmly in its own hands. This policy consequently raised the suspicion of the merchants, prompting them to believe that its paper notes were not simply replaceable as a means of circulation, but only represented a means utilized by the state to attract real wealth into its own treasuries . By the beginning of the thirteenth century (jiading 4, i.e. 1211) the Huizi had been discounted to a point that the people could no longer have them converted (into cash incorporating an intrinsic value). Thereupon, officials were dispatched to make inquiries in the provinces of Jiang and Zhe. 67 Although the government continued to issue the Huizi for some time, the people were extremely unwilling to accept them, and those already held by them could only be used for paying taxes. The Jin invasion in 1218 (jiading 11) provoked a further increase of the printing of 5 million Huizi in order to meet the military expenses. In 1245 a million strings of Huizi were used to reward the naval and land forces. Regulations made public in 1248 (chunyou 8) even removed the expiration date of the Huizi from the 17th and 18th issue. At the same time, various other local paper currencies, such as the Sichuan vouchers or draft notes (Chuanyin) , the Hu paper account notes (Huhut) , and the Huai exchange notes (Huaijiao), were issued in ever-increasng quantities and their "value" fell daily. In 1137 silver account notes (yin Huizt) had already been issued in Sichuan and Shaanxi." The depreciation of the Huizi was the logical consequence of sheer over-supply, the government having issued such quantities that the degree to which the Huizi as tokens of value should represent a substitute of valuable coins within the circulation was out of all proportion. The reluctance of the merchants to accept such "unconvertible" paper notes only helped to accelerate their depreciation. In this way, the Song government was eventually confronTuo Tuo (ed.), Song shi (hereafter SS), 39:757. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1977. Cf. Peng Xinwei, A Monetary History 0/ China, 420-426, especially also for details on risingprices (380-426). 67

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ted with the limits of its sovereignty. Within the realms of foreign trade this was especially sensible. Because, conversely, the maintenance of the copper currency as national tender made this valuable means of circulation an object of speculation for the merchants, particularly during times of the increasing depreciation of paper notes which functioned as a domestic means of circulation and particularly at an overseas trade port such as Quanzhou. On the basis of a great demand for Chinese copper cash the merchants did not simply use it as a means of circulation or as a means of exchange to pay for the commodities they sought to purchase, but they "discovered" the bronze coins in their quality as money commodity: the bronze coins were not used as a mediator or means facilitating the exchange of commodities, but became an object of trade, a commodity, themselves . Both paper money (Huizt) and copper cash served as domestic means of circulation, but whether they were paid in paper notes or copper coins was of great importance to the merchants. The paper notes rapidly lost their "value", both as a means of purchase and as a means of payment in trade, whereas the copper coins did not - at least not to the same extent, even if we take into account the debasement of coins later implemented by the state. During the reign period chunxi (1174-1189) people who accepted paper money usually exchanged it for copper coins as soon as possible in order not to lose purchasing power." The bronze coins, a relatively unproblematic tender in domestic trade, were, however, accorded a different weight and importance in foreign trade . When the Huizi were subjected to a gradual depreciation and the state tried to withdraw cash from circulation but at the same time the bronze coins still fulfilled their function as a domestic means of circulation and means of payment, this triggered a specific form of economic behaviour among the merchants: the more the government sought to attract wealth in the form of copper coins into its own hands, the more the merchants endeavoured to withdraw their cash from circulation. The ideal situation would have been to pay in Huizi and to be paid in copper cash. This tendency to withdraw the bronze 69

Cf. Peng Xinwei , op. cit., 421 for further details.

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coins from circulation was exacerbated by the government's practice of gradually decreasing the intrinsic value of copper coins . In the mid-eleventh century on average a copper coin consisted of 65% copper, 25% lead, and 10% tin . Southern Song coins often contained only 40% copper, but 50-60% lead." As the market price of copper in relation to coins and of coins in relation to paper notes rose, the copper coins "regained" their original commodity character. They themselves became a trade commodity, an object of trade, and were sometimes hoarded. Eventually, the combination of the circulation of depreciated paper notes, the government interest in attracting wealth in the form of cash and precious metals, and the circulation of more devalued copper coins only increased the tendency to withdraw copper coins and precious metals from internal circulation. This implied not only the melting down of copper cash," also referred to as "secret melting" (sixiao), but also the burying of coins and metallic objects, and their export abroad: The people who want to export copper coins on Japanese ships "in the beginning eagerly collect cash (xianqian); some [immediately] send it out to the people in the sea. Others bury it at some hidden places in the vast and distant mountains; some transport it beforehand to the coast of the district in small boats , [a distance] which already [covers] fifty to seventy miles. Then, they wait for the official investigation [of the ships] as to whether they carry coins on board (jiankong) to be completed, and then, they sail forward into the sea, and from every place they subsequently transport [the copper coins] on the [big] ships... "72

In 1222 state ministers said that in recent years Quanzhou officials had confiscated over one thousand catties of copper ingots, which gleam like gold, and are all made of pure copper." Even superSeeRichard von Glahn, Fountain ofFortune, 51. "Hence in chunyou 8 (1248), the Investigative Censor Chen Qiulu said that the Juxin copper utensils and the Liquan musical instruments were all made from copper coins. In Changsha alone there were 64 copper smelters on Wu Mountain, and there were several hundred copper households at Matan and Eyang Mountain." Peng Xinwei, op. cit., 413. 72 Bizhou gaoliie, 1:18b-19a. 7J Peng Xinwei, op. cit., 413. 70 71

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intendents of maritime trade (shibo shz) , who were supposed to control such practices, were engaged in this apparently extremely lucrative metals trade. In this way the Song government, which originally had intended to increase its wealth in the form of coin and bullion, was eventually confronted with hard economic principles, principles which were beyond the reach of its sovereign power. THE USE OF METALS AS EQUIVALENTS OF VALUE IN MARITIME TRADE

Local Means of Circulation, Supra-Regional Medium of Exchange, and Means ofPayment In different countries metals fulfilled their role as a measure and equivalent of value in different ways. For the maintenance of a "national" or regional economy, for an internal circulation of commodities , it was sufficient that a certain commodity which served as an equivalent of value within trade fulfilled the principal requirements of a measure of value as described above. In "national" and regional trad e, the demand for such a measure of value crystallized in relation to other commodities (price), subject to local and national particularities. As So Kee Long has already demonstrated, until the mid-twelfth century the region of Song Quanzhou relied almost entirely on copper coins." But with the introduction of local (Fujian) taxes to be paid in silver, silver probably became a more common measure of value in local trade , although it never functioned officially as a price standard. At the beginning of the Song dynasty large iron coins were minted in Fujian, probably in jianzhou." These underwent depreciation at that time . Prior to 983 (taiping xingguo 8) the price ratio between "iron an copper coins was

7i So Kee Long, "Financial Crisis & Local Economy: Ch 'iian-Chou in the Thirteenth Century", Toung Pao 77 (1991) 119-137. 7S There is a large thick iron coin with a large dot on its reverse above the hole, which was probably minted in Jianzhou , Fujian. See Peng Xinwei, A Monetary History a/China, 333.

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3:1, in 1005 (jingde 2) the ratio had fallen to 10:1. 76 During the reign period taiping xingguo (976-984) Fujian is supposed to have produced a total of 100,000 strings of iron coins. Therefore, it is

possible that in the first fifty years of the Song dynasty, the Quanzhou region had to deal with problems of counterfeiting and officially changing ratios between copper and iron coins, which may have effected the maritime trade. In 1045, the transport commissioner Gao Yijian submitted a proposal to introduce a double standard system in Quanzhou, i.e. to use bronze cash for all domestic transactions and iron coins for the trade with foreigners ." This proposal gained little acceptance and Gao Yijian was subsequently dismissed from office. The explanation for the firm rejection of this proposal may probably be seen in the following considerations of the court and the government: despite considerable coin drainage, as early as the eleventh century, the court simply wanted this trade, because it was interested in certain foreign commodities; the overseas trade yielded such a great "profit" for the state - in the form of foreign [luxury) commodities or in the form of coins earned by reselling the foreign goods it had obtained through taxation or government purchase (hemai, choumaii, as a consequence of which the prohibition on the use of copper coins in this trade would have been identical to an immense reduction of the volume of trade, and therefore to its own disadvantage, whether th is be in the form of commodities required or in the form of coins. Also the fact th at in 1045 the court had not yet begun to think seriously about establishing a "tax-office", a Superintendency of Maritime Trade (Shibo sz), in Quanzhou, implies that in the mideleventh century the primary aim was not yet to use maritime trade mainly as a means to fill the state coffers by means of taxation, but suggests that the court under Emperor Renzong (r. 1023-1063) was primarily interested in the foreign commodities, such as spices, perfumes, and medicines (xiangliao). An obligation to accept iron cash would certainly have angered many foreign merchants, as a result of which maritime trade would have decreased instead. 76 77

Peng Xinwei , A Monetary Hi story ofChina , 382. So Kee Long, "Financial Crisis & Local Autonomy", 133-134. See SS, 180:4380.

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The decisive questions for domestic merchants in the use of metals in foreign (maritime) trade were the following: which metals were in demand in the respective foreign countries or were circulating as a measure of value, which metals were at their own disposal, and how could they make profitable business transactions by using a specific metal as an object of trade and as a measure of value, or a means of payment in supra-regional trade? The outflow of precious metals from early Islamic India has already been analyzed by J. F. Richards." In his examination of money, markets, and trade in Southeast Asia, Robert S. Wicks has emphasized that metals were by no means preferred as measures of value at any time or by all countries." The most famous and widely used non-metallic measure and equivalent of value in contemporary Asia was silk." Wicks came to the conclusion that silver was by far the most widespread measure of value on the mainland, while gold was preferred in island realms. On the Malay Peninsula" during the early thirteenth century articles of trade were valued first according to their equivalents in gold or silver prior to being exchanged at fixed rates." The reason for this "mainland-island dichotomy"!', he believes, was not the differential availability of precious metals - as both metals were relatively evenly distributed throughout Southeast Asia - 'but, perhaps was due to the presence of a dominant "metallic hierarchy" in which certain metals were relegated to distinct func78 J. F. Richards, "O utflows of prec ious metals from early Islamic Ind ia", J. F. Richards (ed.), Precious Metals in the Later Medieval and Early Modern Worlds. Durham: Carolina Academic Press, 1983, 183-205. 79 Robert S. Wicks, Money, Markets,and Trade, 303. 80 Whether or not metals gained general acceptance as an equivalent of value in a certain region or country, was essentially dependent on the stage of development of the local econom y. Besides silk, for example, salt, rice, cowries, cloth, or, in remote mountain or steppe regions even cattle, were also used as measures of value. It is plausible that within a society which is basically orientated towards self-sufficiency such measures of value were to a far greater extent directly linked to their use values than in societies which were at least partly dependent on trade. 81 At a place called Langyasi = Langasuka. 82 Robert S. Wicks, Money, Markets, and Trade, 306. 83 There is. no necessity for gold instead of silver or vice versa. Both metals can fundamentally be used as a measure of value as well as for other monetary functions.

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tional niches within Southeast Asian societies. Pertinently, although bronze rarely served as a metal for creating coinage, it was a common material for casting images throughout Asia. Gold (with one exception) was always valued more highly than silver, and silver was considered more precious than the so-called base metals, such as copper and tin.,84 India and the Indian Ocean were fully integrated in the domain of the dinar and dirhem, theuniversal gold and silver coinage of the early medieval world. The Muslim trade system with its general equivalents and measures of value naturally effected all the regions involved. In this respect, regions which formerly esteemed precious metals primarily for religious or practical reasons came to learn about their purely economic function and value as well. But also independently of the Muslim trade , various regions developed their own comage. From the sixth to the ninth centuries, the Pyu kingdoms of Burma" minted silver coins of a high purity and in three sizes which supplied the monetary needs of kingdoms in South Thailand (Dvaravati) and across the Gulf of Thailand in South Vietnam. Andre Wink writes that the "gold-bearing sands" of the Irrawaddy were of interest to the Indians as well as to the Chinese and to the Nanzhao kingdom located in the region of the present Chinese province Yunnan. He concludes that "the metallurgy of precious metal extraction and refinement was known in both the Pyu kingdom and the Thai kingdom of Nanchao (Yunnan) by the ninth century"." Conversely, in Central Javanese inscriptions there are many references to gold ("suvannas" in Sanskrit) , but the coins themselves have never been found." Gold, silver, and copper coins were apparently also issued by the Cola kingdom, gradually replacing the use of metal by weight in the eleventh century Robert S. Wicks, op. cit., 313 . In Burma gold seems to have been mined in the Nmai and Hka Mountains, and alluvial gold was dredged from the sands of the Irrawaddy River. Andre Wink , AIHind,307. 86 Andre Wink , Al-Hind, 307. 87 I am very grateful to Janice Stargardt who provided me with this information. 84

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without, however, leading to the complete suspension of the latter. Temple records show that besides nuggets of gold, gold coins were in use for the purchase of land or as gifts for brahmans and ascetics." Consequently, the data on the use of silver or gold coins in Southeast Asia suggest it is not possible to talk with convinction of a "mainland-island dichotomy"." When local Quanzhou merchants entered overseas trade they could use either local or Chinese specialities - such as the sophisticated manufactured goods of which ceramics and silk are examples, special agricultural products such as lychees, sugarcane , and wine or, they could take those metals which were accepted as equivalents of value abroad to exchange them for foreign commodities. If the traders did not exchange domestic for foreign commodities, the easiest option was to use the measure of value and prices dominating their local economy, bronze coins. Copper was increasingly used as an equivalent of value in East Asia, i.e. Korea and Japan. Referring to the Wenxian beikao, a treatise on laws and institutions enacted under successive Korean kings and compiled by court chroniclers, Ichihara states that evidently the Koreans did not learn to cast their own coins before the chongning era {1102-1106).90 In 996 regionall y minted iron coins are said to have been used for the first time." In 1101, a silver coin named "yinping" (silver jar or vase) and weighing one jin, was manufactured. Following Ichihara, in 1102 the oldest Korean coin of which specimens exist "was minted accord ing to the Andre Wink , Al-Hind, 288. Again I would like to refer to Andre Wink who bases his study on J. F. Richards, Precious Metals in the Late Medieval and Early Modern Worlds. Wink describes th at in the ninth and tenth century Western India or Gujarat had ceased to produce an indigenous coinage and was incorporated into the dinar dom ain of Islam. Thus, he continues, the Southeast Asian mainland ceased to use indigenous coins by the late tenth century, when Chinese gold began to dominate its markets. Only in the area of Vietnam during the early decades of the Ly dynasty (10101224), is the minting of cash known to have taken place. Andre Wink, Al-Hind, 294. But there is no convincing evidence that Chinese gold did in fact play such a dominant role in the Southeast Asian mainland markets . 90 M. Ichihara, "Coinage of Old Korea", Korean Branch of the RAS, Transactions IV (1), 45-74, 46. 9 1 M. Ichihara, op. cit., 48, with reference to chapter 159of the Wenxian beikao. 88 89

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method then introduced from China".92 He concludes that, nevertheless, based on the abounding statements in Korean and Chinese books "(r)ice and cloth remained as ever the medium of exchange and standard of value and no doubt barter was the chief means by which people traded with each other" ." In Japan the production of domestic coin had ceased in the tenth century, but from the middle of the twelfth century a steady growth in the agrarian economy and local commerce stimulated the demand for a general measure of value as a means for exchange. The local output of coins had increased by twelve times during the 250 years from 708 to 958. The government had imitated the monetary system of Tang China, and the Japanese rulers proclaimed that one newly minted coin was equal to 10 old ones. But as a consequence coin prices fell drastically, commodity prices rose, and the commodities could not be circulated satisfactorily. At the same time there were no uniform rules for the minting of coins, so that most of them were of different sizes and weights, and the coin system was in a state of chaos. In the late tenth century the production of domestic coins ceased and more and more Song coins gradually entered the country." In the years 1179-1180 Fujiwara Motohiro is supposed to have spoken about the circulation of Song coins. After the Minamoto had defeated the Taira and set up a military government at Kamakura in 1185, coins circulated more widely in japan." Kimiya Yasuhiko quotes from a legal regulation referring to the prohibition on the trade of this money commodity (qianhuo): (1179) In recent times money from the Chinese territory flows into the realm of this dynasty [i.e. that of the Fujiwara] and is deliberately traded and privately smelted into coins (qian) . Those [who do this] are severely punished. Even if they are not privately smelting, what they

91 Like Chinese cash the coin was made of copper, and had a circular shape with a square hole in the centre ; it was named" Haidong zhongbao". 93 M. Ichihara, op. cit., 54. 94 Chen Jie (transl.), Zhong Ri jiaotong shi. Original by Kimiya Yasuhiko . Taibei: Shangwu yinshuguan, no date, vol.2, 10-11. 95 Peng Xinwei, A Monetary History of China, 415.

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practise is for the same purpose as the private smelting of coins. Could one not go a step further and stop such things!" Thus, the private smelting down of Song coins to have them minted as local coins had apparently become very familiar in Japan by 1179. Obviously, there was also a group of merchants who were specialized in importing copper coins from China in order to supply newly emerged money-lenders with capital." An edict of 1193 officially proclaimed a prohibition on the business with Song coins ." In Southeast Asia, copper was generally accepted as an equivalent of value, although it rarely functioned as a regional tender." In Vietnam bronze coins have already been minted in 970; they were incised with the character ding, relating to the name of the Vietnamese Dinh dynasty, and resembled Chinese coins in style and construction. Copper coins were also minted under the following Ly dynasty. Being a common material for casting Buddhist images and ritual vessels, it seems plausible that the main use of copper in those regions was to serve religious purposes. Still by the thirteenth and fourteenth century, Wicks considers the use of copper cash as an official means of exchange and circulation in Vietnam 100 and Majapahit Java lOI to be notable exceptions. First treated as a commodity like any other good, Chinese bronze coins were eventually used as a local means of circulation in Java. 102 An enormous demand Chen Jie, Zhong Ri jiatongshi, vol.2, 10. Peng Xinwei, A Monetary History, 415. 98 Chen Jie, Zhong Ri jiaotongshi, vol.2, 10. 99 Robert S. Wicks, Money, Markets, and Trade, 310, 302 and 55-6t. 100 For the use of Chinese cash in Vietnam during the Ly (1010-1224) and the Tran dynasty (1225-1400) d . also John K. Whitmore, "Vietnam and the monetary flow of eastern Asia, thirteenth to eighteenth centuries", J. F. Richards (ed.), Precious Metals in the Later Medieval and Early Modern Worlds, 363-393, esp. 363367. 101 He notes that "Majapahit Java adopted an imported base-metal coinage from China at the end of the thirteenth century, making it possible for a single money object to function in virtually all sectors of the economy." Robert S. Wicks, op. cit., 30t. Chinese copper cash was, however, treated as an ordinary commodity like any other trading article, when it first entered Java. Op. cit., 16. 102 Robert S. Wicks, Money, Markets, and Trade, 16. Peng Xinwei, op. cit., 414. 96

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for Song bronze coins in Java is reflected in the Zhufan zhi of Zhao Rugua (1170-1231): There is a vast store of pepper inthis foreign country and the merchant ships, in view of the profit they derive from that trade, are in the habit of smuggling (out of China) copper cash for the purpose of barter.P' The drain of bronze cash is an indisputable fact and certainly continued to run unabated, although one may still debate its dimensions. Reponing on the great quantities of Chinese money exported abroad, the sources certainly often tend to exaggerate. Referring to the drainage of bronze cash, the official Bao Hui, for example, in a petition to prohibit export abroad, tells us: The money of Fujian converges and flows out [of China] on the foreign ships at Quan[zhou]. The money of Guangdong comes together and flows out on the foreign ships at Guang[zhou]. [But] the money of the two provinces can, unlike the water of the sea, be exhausted.104

It is generally accepted that the export of Song bronze coins was stimulated by the increasing monetization of Asian economies that produced none or few of their own coins and consequently impo ned them from China. lOS This is certainly true for a country such as Japan 106 and to some extent also for other countries and regions in East and Southeast Asia. Nevertheless, one should be careful in drawing too rash a conclusion about a monetization of Asian societies. The Northern Song coins, which still possessed a relatively high copper content, may have been melted down and used for the manufacture of religious images, ornaments, utensils, mirrors etc. Even if they were not circulating as local means of circulation in the Hirth. W. W. Rockhill, Chau [u-ku«, 78. Bizhou gaolfie, 1:19b. 105 Richard von Glahn, Fountain ofFortune, 53. 106 Cf. Kozo Yamamura and Tetsuo Kamiki, "Silver Mines and Sung Coins - A Monetary History of Medieval and Modern Japan in International Perspective", J. F. Richards (ed.), Precious Metals in the Later Medieval and Early Modern Worlds, 329-362. 103 Fr. 104

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foreign countries, they were still relatively valuable, and were therefore accepted as general equivalents of value in the supraregional trade and could therefore be used as a means of payment. Song and Tang bronze coins have been excavated at places such as Malaya'?", Java l08 , and also at localities as far away as India'?", and Mogadishu on the Somali coast of Africa, Mozambique, Zanzibar'", and the Middle. East. Probably, the first Chinese bronze coins which were traded along the African coast were brought there by Arab merchants in exchange for slaves and ivory."! From mid-Song times onwards Chinese merchants may have accompanied the Arab traders or even sailed there independently in order to trade. Edward Schafer believes that possibly even the "Tang coins found on Zanzibar and on the Somaliland coast were brought there by Chinese merchants in men" .112 Hundreds of Song coins have been excavated at Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa in Sri Lanka. 113 107 In 1827 numerous Song coins were excavated in the vicinity of Singapore. Cf. Crawford, A Descriptive Dictionary of theIndianIslands, according to Peng Xinwei, A Monetary History of China, 414. Footnote 20. 108 Dr Karl Ritter von Scherzen excavated 35 Chinese copper coins of 18 different types in Jakarta, Java. With two exceptions they were all Song coins. Peng Xinwei, A Monetary History of China, 414. Footnote 21. He quotes an essay by C. Schlegel, "Geographical Notes". T'oung Pao, series 1, vol.X. 109 C hinese

copper coins have been found on several occa sion s in Ma'bar (Madiirai),

South India. Peng Xinwei, op. cit., 414, footnote 23. Subbarayalu, Y., "Chinese Ceramics of Talminadu and Kerala Coasts", H . P. Ray and J.-F. Salles (ed.), Tradition and A rcbaeology. Early Maritime Contacts in the Indian Ocean. Proceedings of the

International Seminar Techno-A rchaeological Perspectives of Seafaring in the Indian Ocean 4th cent. B.C · 15thcent. A.D. New Delhi, February 28-March 4, 1994. New Delhi, 1996, 109-114, 110. 110 "Dr. S. W. Bushell says (North China Daily News , May 8, 1888): < < Sir John Kirk during his residence as Consul-General at Zanzibar, made a collection of ancient Chinese celadon porcelain ... Some of it was dug up, I believe from ruins, mixed with Chinese copper cash of the Sung dynasty ... > > ". Fr. Hirth, W. W. Rockhill, Chau ]u-kua, 127, note 4. In 1898, a German is said to have Song coins excavated at Mogadishu on the Somali coast of Africa. See Peng Xinwei, op. cit., 414, note 23. 111 Cf. also Fr . Hirth, W. W. Rockhill, Chau]u-kua, 126. 112 Schafer, Edward H., The Golden Peaches of Samarkand. A Study of T'ang Exotics. Berkeley , Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1963,47 . m Bopearachchi, 0., "Seafaring in the Indian Ocean: Archaeological Evidence from Sri Lanka", H . P. Ray and J.-F. Salles (ed.), Tradition and Archaeology, 59-78,

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Numerous Chinese coins have also been found in japan.!" In his contribution to this volume Richard Pearson refers to several dozen hordes of over 10,000 coins excavated in Japan. A very mixed coin assemblage including iron and copper coins, and early Tang, Five Kingdoms, and Song coins, has also been found in the Sinan shipwreck which is dated to the fourteenth century. liS Besides copper, lead, and tin of varying degrees of purity, Chinese merchants used gold and silver in maritime trade.l" but there is no convincing evidence that especially Chinese gold played a dominant role in Southeast Asian markets at that time. The precious metals, primarily silver, were in all probability used for larger foreign trade transactions.!" Chinese silver ingots are said to 73. The following coin types are recorded: Xianping yuanbao [xianping 998-1003], regular style - value 1 cash; Yuanfeng tongbao [yuanfeng 1078-1085], cursive style value 1 cash; Yuanyou tongbao [yuanyou 1086-1093], cursive style - value 2 cash; Sbengsong yuanbao [jianzhong jingguo 1101], seal script style - value 2 cash; Xining zhongbao [xining 1068-1077], regular style - value 10 cash; Chunxi yuanbao [chunxi 1174-1189], regular style - value 2 cash; Qingyuan tongbao [qingyuan 1195-1200], regular style - value 2 cash. Bopearachchi notes that it was only from the eleventh century onwards that China developed extensive commercial trade activities with Sri Lanka. The South Indian conquests of Sri Lanka which meant the end of Anuradhapura as the capital, caused a change in the trade centres. Ibid., 72. The archaeological evidence proves that Song coins also entered Anuradhapura after those events. 114 Peng Xinwei, op. cit., 415, refers to a hoard of coins found at the Seisoji Temple in Mito City in 1712, of which Song coins constituted more than 83%. There was also a hoard excavated in the Zenshoji Temple at the village of Kombura in 1902, of which Song coins constituted 89.6%, as well as a hoard excavated in Hitachikuni, Yimura, of which Song coins constituted 84%. us Jeremy Green, Zae Geun Kim, "The Shinan and Wando sites, Korea: further information ", The International Journal of Nautical A rchaeology and Underwater Explorations 18:1 (1989) 33-41. Carla M Zainie, "The Sinan Shipwreck and Early Muromachi Art Collections", 103-114. 116 55, 186:4558. 5HY, Zhiguan 44: 1. Jianyan yilai xinian yaolu, 69:1170 (shaoxing 3, or 1133): "It was also heard that Yizhou, Qinzhou, and Lianzhou were in touch with Jiaozhi by sea route. Those who had made a profit over the years by going there had traded gold (jin) and incense, and had had to use small 1-cash coins to do so. Orders were issued to these countries that, if they continued to permit the entry small coins, and did not [take measures against] their outflow [from China], great harm would ensue." 117 Shiba Yoshinobu quotes verses on an autumn medicine fair in Chengdu,

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have been found in the Middle East.!" When Chinese (Quanzhou?) merchants shipped gold and silver to Champa in exchange for agricultural products during the thirteenth century, 119 they explicitly used these precious metals as a means of payment. Foreigners, as a rule, did not accept Chinese paper money for payment, as it did not have an intrinsic value and they could not use it anywhere other than in China. Even foreign merchants who traded regularly with Chinese merchants would have shrunk from accepting it because of its steady depreciation. Merchants from larger countries, which had their own independent monetary systems , mostly a gold or silver standard, tried to exchange the bronze coins they had obtained for gold and silver, to take back home.l" unless the price of copper calculated in silver and gold was much higher in their home countries than in China.

Supra-regional Price Differences as the Stimulusfor Trade At the same time it is important to realize that the trade in copper coins as well as in precious metals represented itself in yet another form. Very often, copper cash was not used simply as a medium of exchange in maritime trade. Within the supra-regional trade varying values of gold, silver and copper, i.e, the locally varying time and energy needed for the production of these substances!", were of speaking of six thousand ounces of silver at least, or two thousand ounces of gold, which were carried by merchants on their ships. Shiba Yoshinobu , "Sung Foreign Trade : Its Scope and Organization", M. Rossabi (ed), China among Equals. The Middle Kingdom and its Neighbours, 10th to 14th Centuries. Berkeley, Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1983,89-115,109. 118 According to the Hongkong South China Morning Post, February 27, 1958, a Danish archaeological team found two pieces of Song silver at Bahrein, which were probably Song ingots. Peng Xinwei, op. cit., 414-415, and note 28. 119 Robert S. Wicks, Money, Markets, and Trade, 207. See also 210-219. 120 SHY, Fanyi 4:93b: "The state of Dashi has sent an emissary, Puyali, to bring tribute and return with gifts. For cash, he received 600 ingots of large silver, as well as gold and silver utensils and objects, and bolts of cloth. " 121 In this context, in Europe the original value of silver was for example, in spite of its relatively lower scarcity, higher than that of gold, as quantitatively the work which had to be expended to obtain and produce it became more intensive; whereas gold also occurred naturally in a "virgin" condition.

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particular interest to the merchants if the prices of the metals varied respectively. In this context, copper, silver, and gold did not function simply as a medium of exchange, as measures or equivalents of value mediating between two commodities; instead, the metals themselves became the objects of trade and profit as articles to be exchanged. The merchants sought to take advantage of regional and national price differences. The great demand for Chi nese bronze coins in countries overseas and higher prices of copper abroad served as a source of profit for the Quanzhou merchants. When merchants shipped large quantities of Chinese copper cash to Japan, it was normally the price difference of bronze cash between China and Japan which interested them. Care should be taken not impute to such money transactions a push by merchants to facilitate trade generally in their home countries. It is clear that merchants were interested in the ir own personal profit, regardless of possibly negative results on the local or "national" economic structure as a whole. The lower price of bronze cash in China running parallel to the demand for copper cash in Japan constituted the condition conducive to merchants to gain a profit by importing, or vice versa exporting, copper cash to Japan. The export of copper coins to the Jin regime has to be seen in the same context. According to a Song memorial of 1178 Jin traders offered to accept a string of cash for 600 or even less, even down to 100-200 coins, at a time when the official standard string in China consisted of 770 coins . Consequently, a lively business developed in exporting copper cash to Jin territories, mostly through clandestine channels.F' The revenue officer Bao Hui, whom I already mentioned above, observed that at least forty to fifty ships laden with no cargo save coin departed from Ningbo to Japan every year.!" Even if more ships bound for destinations in Japan, Korea, or Jin territories departed from Ningbo, located to the north of Quanzhou and making it more convenient for a journey to those countries, the apparently lucrative conditions and the leakage of copper cash through the Quanzhou port suggest that a not negligible amount of 122 123

Richard von Glahn, Fountain 0/Fortune, 52. Bizhougaoliie, 1:18a-b.

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coin bound for destinations in Northeast Asia also left China via Quanzhou. The price of silver in relation to that of gold was low in China compared to the sums it fetched in Japan and the Muslim world. Both Japan and Vietnam exported gold to China in return for copper coins . Silver came from Korea. And merchants from Southeast Asia brought both gold and silver to China.l" As mentioned in the introduction, Bao Hui provides evidence that foreign vessels brought cargoes of silver to Guangzhou and Quanzhou to exchange them for coins.!" In China, at the beginning of the Song dynasty, one ounce of silver was equivalent to some 700-1,000 cash, in 1236 it had more than tripled, the price in Quanzhou being about 3,460 ca~h.126 Prices, of course, varied regionally, and official and market prices diverged also. Nevertheless, this implies a considerable rise in the local price of silver, a question I shall refer to again in the next section. At the same time the price of silver in China apparently remained lower than in many places and countries overseas. When reselling the coins they had purchased for silver in Quanzhou on their domestic markets, foreign merchants could make huge profits, often by exchanging the coins for silver to repeat the same transaction in reverse. On the other hand, Arab, Quanzhou and possibly also Indian (Tamil) merchants could earn a fortune by re-exporting the silver first taken to China to countries in the Muslim world or to Japan and, then, exchanging it for gold. I agree with Richard von Glahn that it is likely that large quantities of silver were re-exported abroad through Guangzhou and Quanzhou. Further evidence to substantiate this assumption might be the fact that as early as 1015 the rise of the silver price was blamed on the haemorrhaging of silver to merchants from the south seas and the steppe.l" It also seems that locally mined silver was exported 124 Kato Shigeshi, T6 56 jidai ni okeru kingin no kenkyu. Tokyo: Toyo bunko, 1943. Vol.2, 552-561. 125 Bizhou gaoliie, 1:20b. I2b Peng Xinwei, A Monetary History of China. See table on 427. 127 Li Dao (1115-1184), Xu zizhi tongjian changbian, 85:19b (hereafter XCS). See

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overseas. A treatise on local silver-mining by Liao Gang (1070-1143) reports that the profit from silver mining drains off to private silver merchants and corrupt local officials. As the local population was obliged to pay taxes in the form of silver, such wealthy households speculated on the predicament of the regular households to meet their tax obligations, purchased great quantities of the locally mined silver, and "arbitrarily" raised the prices, when the people had to pay their taxes. 128 Despite the major importance of silver for domestic trade , as indicated by such descriptions, the simple fact that wealthy "silver households" (yinhu) and big silver shops (yinpu) emerged and accumulated vast amounts of silver,129 at least suggests that there were people in Fujian who, theoretically, were able to export locally mined silver, and who would probably do so, if the silver price offered abroad was even higher. Simultaneously the high price of gold in China in relation to that commanded by silver attracted imports of gold from abroad. Japan, Vietnam, and Southeast Asia import ed gold to China.:" Kato Shigeshi states that Japanese merchants exported gold to China, including Quanzhou, especially after the reign period baoyou (1253 1258). At the same time, Fuzhou and Quanzhou merchants also imported gold from japan.l" Although we have no extant records on the quantities of gold exported from Japan, the trade balance between Song China and Japan was basically settled in gold. I agree with Kozo Yamamura and Tetsuo Kamiki who argue that due to also Richard von Glahn, Fountain of Fortune, 54. 128 Liao Gang (1070-1143), Gaofeng wenji, 1:21b. 129 As was the case with other metals which were locally mined, the maximum output figures were reached during the reign periods xining (1068-1077) and yuan/eng (1078-1085) . For the yuan/eng·period Chen Yande has computed an annual production of ca. 350,000 jin silver. The figure is based on the figure of an annual tax income in the form of silver of 68,000 jin during this time period and an implied tax rate of 20%. Chen Yande, "Songdai Fujian kuangyeye", Fujian luntan 2 (1983) 67-74, 73. Despite all the well-known problems of drawing a conclusion about the actual quantity of production from a figure stating the height of tax payments, this figure may give at least a rough idea on the dimension of the local output of silver. 130 Kata Shigeshi, op. cit., 546-561. 131 Kata Shigeshi, op. cit., 554-560.

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the growing and monetizing Japanese economy of the thirteenth century the "diverging value of copper coins in China and Japan was the principal factor accounting for the sustained outflow of gold from Japan to China and the observed huge influx of Chinese copper coins to Japan." 132 It is evident that the fact that there was no uniform average market' price of metals opened up new methods of business calculations for the merchants. They could make a great profit by utilizing such "international" price differences. This was the normal pattern of this kind of trade. The specific policy of the Song government concerning its coin and paper currenr;:y finally stimulated the export of coin and bullion abroad. The Chinese government knew very well that metal coins and bullion were not only a "national" or "international" means of circulation, but represented wealth. In the course of the Song dynasty the government was increasingly pushed to face up to this economic fact via foreign trade. SONG GOVERNMENT REFERENCES TO THE METALS TRADE

The Importance ofMetals for the State The Song government, was interested in metals for various reasons. First of all, base metals, primarily iron and lead, were important in the production and construction of certain commodities the government needed to have for the maintenance of its economy and political power, such as weapons, ships, agricultural implements, and tools. This aspect, again, refers to the practical use value of metals. We learn from the Sanshan zhi: In the third year of the reign period qingli (1043) the transport commissioner ifayun 5hz) Yang requested that a strict ban be placed on Fujian preventingprivate trade on the seas with the exception of that in farm tools and cooking pots manufactured by commoners. The Transport Commission (Yun 5Z) of Liangzhe memorialized that iron had never been produced in the districts of its province, but had been IJ2

Kozo Yamamura and Tetsuo Kamiki , "Silver Mines and Sung Co ins", 343.

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brought by sea from districts such as Quan[zhou] and Fu[zhou) . What was sold annually yielded a not inconsiderable profit from the taxes on trade. By taking taxes in commutation or as a percentage of the commodities the authorities were also able to pay for the manufacture of weapons. They requested that the Transport Commission of Fujian be told to proclaim that rich (you wu lz) guest merchants (keren)133 be allowed to trade [in iron products]; they should still be obliged to look for guarantors, would be furnished with long distance certificates (changyin) , and should only sell their goods in the province of Liang[zhe], the local authorities being responsible for supplying them with the official certificates (gongju) .134

Secondly, copper, iron, lead, and tin were used for coinage, for the production of a nation-wide valid means ofcirculation. When issuing coins the government guaranteed a basic requirement of trade - to create a uniform measure of values and a standard of prices - in its society (which was no longer basically dependent on a production for self-sufficiency, but relied to a greater extent on trade, i.e. on the production of commodities to be exchanged, hence, of exchange values). With the issue of coins, the government sought to profit from an economy in which individuals produced for markets; instead of simply siphoning off the surplus product in kind, the state wanted to have more coins at its disposal in order to satisfy its own needs, to be able to purchase everything it required. Thus, it was not the genuine intention of the government to facilitate private exchange, but an indirect result of its purposes. 135 Particularly when demanding or allowing tax payments in the form of cash, the aim of the state was to increase its income in the form of copper cash, as the authorities had noticed that trade had 133 This refers to merchants coming from districts and provinces other than Liangzhe. 134 Chunxi Sanshan zbi, 41:4a."Gongju" was also the name of another form of paper money circulating in Huainandong since about 1160. 1J5 In this context, Richard von Glahn, drawing on a study by John Hicks (Critical Essay in Monetary History. Oxford: Claredon Press, 1967), writes, "(i)t seems likely that political authorities first issued coin not simply to facilitate private exchange, but, rather, to provide themselves with a convenient means of extracting and mobilizing revenue."

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already reached such dimensions that a great proportion of commodities exchanged were measured in prices, and sold and purchased with money. In this respect, the state made use of the economic function of its money, copper coins, to serve as a measure and equivalent of value and as a standard of prices, in which all the other commodities could express their exchange value, and was consequently able to purchase all the commodities it required. The wish to increase its income by taxation in the form of copper cash also implies that the state had to stimulate an economy in which people could earn money by selling their products on the market. To satisfy such expanded trade relations, the government had to provide its economy with increasing quantities of money. A policy of allowing the people to pay taxes in cash, and of increasing mining production and the output of specie was intensively propagated by Wang Anshi (1021-1086) in his "New Policies". According to Yang Lien-sheng, the Song government produced more coins than had any other dynasty in Chinese history.?" During the Northern Song the government had already greatly augmented the output of coin. In 996, Song mints cast 800,000 strings of copper coins, and by 1007 the output already reached 1.83 million strings - compared to a maximum output of 327,000 strings under the Tang dynasty.!" In 1021, a stable quota of 1.05 million strings annually had been fixed. Nevertheless, during the eleventh century the output rarely dropped below 4,000 metric tons. In 1080, 5.06 million strings of copper coins, and 890,000 strings of iron coins were rninted.l" But as Peng Xinwei has already elaborated, the quantities of coins minted cannot represent the actual supply of currency during that period. Some coins did not circulate at all after they were minted. Instead the phenomenon of a monetary contraction was produced. 139 The growing demand for coins within trade had resulted from the

D6 137

Yang Lien-sheng, Money andCredit in China, 32 Yang Lien-sheng, Money and Credit in China, 32. Richard von Glahn ,

Fountain a/Fortune, 49. D8

Hino Kaizaburo, "H oku So jidai ni okeru dotetsusen no chuzogaku ni tsuite ",

Shigaku zasshi 46:1 (1935) 46·105, 48-63. D9 Peng Xinwei, A Monetary History a/China, 393.

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increased number of transactions which had to be paid in the form of cash (including tax payments) and from an expanded quantity of commodities. This was the sort of situation to give rise to merchants' complaints. They could only realize much lower prices on the markets because the prices of an increased amount of commodities had then to be realized with only the same quantity of specie. A larger amount of commodities was confronted with the same, or even with a smaller quantity of coins, as insufficient quantities were issued and great amounts were exported abroad or otherwise withdrawn from the circulation. Eventually, it came to a pass when the state could also no longer obtain that many coins from its merchants and households by means of taxation. A quotation from the Xu zizhi tongjian changbian (XBC) is instructive in this context: According to one of the legends of our country the money which was coined by all the Directorates (Jian) entered the royal palace (wangfu) , every penny of it; the surplus over and above the annual expenditure were sent to the State Finance Commission (San 5Z) and then distributed within the empire. Really, since Taizu has pacifiedJiangnan, Jiang, Chi, Rao, and Jian, and has established furnaces for the melting of metals, up to some million strings are coined annually, and the income of hundreds of years is accumulated, surely they will rust in the imperial treasuries; it is enough to [satisfy the needs] of the people. However, for years onward public and private, superior and inferior, they all suffer from a shortage of money, the hundreds of commodities cannot circu-late, the ten thousands of merchants [stand there] with their hands tied. Furthermore, because of the laws of the Green Sprouts and the Avoidance of Labour Service, the farmers all [had to] convert their grain and cloth and deliver cash [to the taxation authorities]; but coins are difficult to obtain, and grain and cloth are becoming increasingly cheap. The people are distressed and speak of a coin famine iqianhuang). The prefectural treasuries are all empty, and the households have no savings left. I do not know where the money coined annually is now?140

140

xes, 269:6593.

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The text later also refers to the export of coins through the ports of Guangnan, Fujian, Zhejiang, and Shandong. In the same sense, the shortage of money is normally traced back to three factors: 1. The "Avoidance of Labour Service Cash" (mianyi qian) caused great amounts of money to flow back into the state treasuries, that is the withdrawal of money from the circulation sphere via taxation. 2. The outflow of copper coins to foreign countries, which was already going on in the eleventh century, eventually emerged as a major problem for the government. 3. The practice of privately melting coins down to make utensils was encouraged by the differing copper content of different coins, by steadily varying exchange ratios between copper and iron coins, and by the devaluation of copper coins. Changes in the production price of copper also had their influence on such practices. If it is true that such great quantities of cash were withhold in the imperial treasuries, this constituted another reason for "money famine" under expanded trade relations. In this sense the "money famine" (qianhuang) was a result of expanded trade relations which ' were encouraged by the governmenr'", but at the same time the requirements of which were not fulfilled. Thirdly, the government was interested in certain metals which could function as a treasure, because they served as a general equi valent and measure of value. Such a treasure - if required - could be used politically (tribute, official gifts and so forth) and economically (financing of wars, and other additional expenses such as the redemption of paper money). Within the Song economy, copper served as the generally accepted measure of value and of prices. Copper coins represented the "national" form or measure of wealth in Song China. Under such circumstances it is not surprising that the government constantly sought to accumulate and keep a reservoir of coins. Ideally a great stock of copper coins enabled it to 141 See, for example, also the explanations in Paul Smith, "State Power and Economic Activism during the New Policies, 1068·1085: The Tea and Horse Trade and the "Green Sprouts" Loan Policy", Robert P. Hymes, Conrad Schirokauer (eds.), Ordering the World: Approaches to State and Society in Sung Dynasty China. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993,76·127.

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purchase at any time any commodity it demanded from its society, including the possibility to wage costly wars. In supra-regional trade, although copper coins were also used, it was nevertheless the tendency for precious metals to serve as a generally accepted measure and equivalent of value. A great stock of precious metals guaranteed the ideal means to acquire everything required also from abroad. It constituted the basis for satisfying any desire or necessity that might occur, from the personal luxuries desired by the imperial family to emergency situations and other eventualities. The accumulation of precious metals became increasingly important for the Song government with the indemnities it had to pay to the Jin court, reaching, for example, an amount of 250,000 liang of silver annually afterthe peace treaty of 1141.142 THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE CENTRAL AND LOCAL MONETARY POLICY OF THE GOVERNMENT AND THE RELATIVE DECLINE OF QUANZHOU'S MARITIME TRADE

As So Kee Long has already noted, it is generally accepted that a regulation prohibiting the use of copper coins for overseas trade had been enforced during the early Northern Song dynasty (under the emperor Taizu in 970, i.e. kaibao 3), but was eventually abolished in 1074 under Wang Anshi (1021-1086).143 Reference has already been made to a 1045 proposal to introduce extra iron coins for business transactions with foreigners, following a traditional concept that confronting the foreign merchants with a base currency not deemed worth of being taken across the border!", could resolve the problem of the outflow of valuable currency, a proposal which did not meet with the emperor's approval.!" Despite various organizational and SeeRichard von Glahn, Fountain ofFortune, 52. So Kee Long, "Financial Crisis & Local Economy" , 134. IH It is interesting to note that the Roman emperor, Nero (r. 54-68), had already responded to this problem by debasing the gold content of the Roman gold coins. Andre Wink, A/Hind, 298. m The transport commissioner of Fujian, Gao Yijian, who had made this suggestion, was dismissed shortl y afterwards. See So Kee Long, "Financial Crisis & Local Economy", 133-134. li2

Ii)

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administrative problems about how to control and organize maritime trade at Quanzhou'", in the eleventh century the merchants' interest in extending their trade activities and to make more profit still ran parallel to the state 's goal of increasing its revenue. At the same time bronze coins continued to be shipped overseas. Nevertheless, for the time period from the mid-eleventh to the midtwelfth century, we have, as a rule, no indication that Quanzhou suffered from a shortage of coins which would eventually have affected its terms of trade and led to an economic decline. Apparently Quanzhou merchants could still earn large quantities of coins. As So Kee Long explained elsewhere, the reason is that, "by reselling the valuable exotic goods which Ch'iian-chou merchants obtained overseas, they could often earn back a-lot more copper coins from elsewhere in China. Another important factor is that, although there was foreign participation, the trade was mainly conducted by the locals. The profits the merchants made were thus largely concentrated or reinvested in the local economy. This led to a sufficient inflow of currency from other regions to southern Fukien."147 In Quanzhou commerce continued to grow. However, even the introduction of paper money should not have constituted a major problem or caused a reduction of trade activities. After all, the local merchants could use that part of their profits which they received in the form of paper money in all their domestic business transactions. They could, for example, use the paper notes to purchase the local commodities they intended to sell overseas. Because paper money fulfilled its monetary functions in domestic trade and, in addition, coins were still in circulation parallel with paper notes, and the merchants could also use other supra-regionally accepted means of payment, such as silk, or even revert to the simple commodity exchange, the introduction of paper money did not lead to an economic crisis - not even in a city integrated into foreign trade. As before the merchants could still re-invest the whole of their profit into maritime trade as long as they were able to exchange 146 In 1091 (yuanyou 6), for example, emperor Zhezong tried to re-enforce the prohibition on the export of copper coins. 147 So Kee Long, "Financial Crisis & Local Economy", 134.

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their paper notes in the domestic economy for commodities demanded abroad without any loss. As the domestic trade was exactly no longer tied to copper coins, the local business transactions were consequently independent of a specific inflow of cash from other regions. But then, in the mid-twelfth century, the official policy concerning the metals trade gradually began to change. Numerous prohibitions were introduced to stop the outflow of copper. After 1133, for example, ships leaving Fujian and Guangdong were inspected to see whether or not they carried coin on board .!" In 1171 new regulations were issued concerning the prohibition on the export of copper coins. In 1199, Korean and Japanese merchants were explicitly forbidden to trade in copper cash.!" Probably, these prohibitions and regulations did not have any great effect, especially because smuggling was often supported by the local authorities and officials: In the beginning, strict prohibitions on copper coins were proclaimed between the Huai region and the sea, but [people from] Min and Guang for the most part did not observe them. A merchant of Quanzhou loaded more than 100,000 strings of copper cash into a small boat by night , and went out to sea. The boat was heavily laden, and the wind strong; eventually it sank into the sea. Although the [local] officials knew about that, they turned a blind eye to it. ISO In the ninth year of [the reign period] chunxi (1182) an edict blamed officials from Guang, Quan, Ming , and Xiu for the leakage of copper coins. In the first year of [the reign period] jiading (1208-1224) the [authorities] of the three provinces said: recently, foreign ships have not been permitted to leave the harbours with a Mar itime Trade Office pri vately. At the end of [the reign period] shaoxing, the officials said: From 148 Peng Xinwei, op. cit., 415: "In shaoxing 13 [1133] of Southern Song, orders were issued to strictly examine the shipping from Guangdong and Fujian to make sure no copper coins were being carried." According to Robert S. Wicks, Money, Markets, and Trade, 25, these prohibitions started in 1147. Unfortunately, neither provideshis sources. 149 Peng Xinwei, op. cit., 415-416. ISO]ianyanyilai xinian yaolu, 150:2422 (shaoxing 13, 1143).

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the two Maritime Trade Offices of Guang and Quan, and the two money offices (Quan SI) in the West and South, ships have been sent out for trade, secretlycarrying metal coins.lSI Such examples also indicate that the trade in copper cash must have been so attractive that many local officials probably also tried to earn large profits. They might have assisted the merchants and received bribes or shares of the profit. As private persons they probably even invested directly in such trading activities. We have examples that even superintendents of maritime trade were dismissed from office because of corruption, imposing excessive taxation, illegal, private engagement in maritime trade and similar abuses of their positions: In 1168 Pan Guanying was demoted in rank because of reporting that the ivory passing through the Quanzhou port was of inferior quality and thus unusable.P' In 1203 Cao Ge W;:lS dismissed for falsifying the quality of frankincense .!" In 1209 Huang Minde was removed from office because he made excessive dernands .!" In 1214 even a clan member, Zhao Buxi, was dismissed from his function as superintendent of maritime trade. ISS As Wong Hon-chiu has demonstrated, the budget of the Song government showed deficits even during Northern Song tirnes.!" In 1085, for example, the deficit reached 1.82 million strings of copper cash and 60,000 liang of silver. This means that even at a time when government expenditure was not yet very high, the budget from time to time showed deficits, although the amount of these deficits appears to be almost negligible compared to those in our modern societies. This is why it is extremely important to keep in mind that SS, 180:4396-4397. 1S2 SHY, Zhiguan 72:45a-b, 46a. m SHY, Zhiguan 74:14b-15a. The Fujian shibo tiju si zhi by Gao Qi (Ming), 16b, as well as the Qianlong Quanzhou fuzhi, 26:23b, write the character "cao": in the Songhuiyao the character is difficult to decipher, but may be interpreted as "zeng", See also Hugh Clark, Community, Trade, and Networks, 172-174, who writes Zeng lSI

Ge, not Cao Ge (173) . 154 SHY, Zhiguan 74:19a. ISS SHY, Zhiguan 75:2a. iss Wong Hon-chiu, Government Expenditures in Northern Sung China (960-1127). Ann Arbor: University Microfilms International, 1983,205,207,212.

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a solid indebtedness to finance state projects, as It IS normal in modern market economies, under the economic circumstances prevailing in medieval Song China already led to different consequences in much smaller dimensions. In the long term debts and credit were not a profitable means of business for the Song government. Its increasing indebtedness, on the contrary, gave rise to a fiscal crisis, at least in certain sectors of the economy. "Fiscal crisis" meant that over a longer time period the government's "income" was lower than its expenditure. In the long term it could not spend more financial means than it collected and/or possessed. The resumption of war between the Song and the Jin in 1160 caused a new fiscal crisis for the government. Fiscal crisis not seldom compelled the government to increase taxes, but they also constituted the starting-point for a quite different, particular financial measure: in order to reduce expenditure and at the same time to increase wealth in its abstract form as money in its treasuries, the government eventually issued worthless paper money instead of valuable copper coins. It was in 1160 exactly when the government issued official paper notes, the so-called Huiz i as a central feature of its monetary system, to be circulated within specific regions of the ernpire.!" These paper notes were finally also introduced into the eastern parts of China, including Fujian. They could be used in most tax and exchange transactions, and virtually became legal tender.F" So Kee Long noted that the introduction of the Huizi paper notes in Fujian had negative consequences for the local Quanzhou overseas merchants.P" Hypothetically he assumed that half of all business transactions in domestic trade had to be conducted using paper money. For the Quanzhou merchants this meant that half of the profit they made by re-selling their exotic goods to other regions of China would be converted into paper money. 157 Robert Hartwell, "Foreign Trade , Monetary Policy and Chinese 'Mercantilism'», Collected Studies on Sung History Dedicated to Professor James T. C. Liu in Celebration cfbi: Seventieth Birthday, 453-488, 463. 158 Peng Xinwei, op. cit., 375. 159 50 Kee Long, "Financial Crisis & Local Economy», 135.

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Chinese paper money, as a rule, neither circulated nor was accepted in foreign, overseas markets. The consequence, as So Kee Long sees it, was that coin drainage overseas was greater than the inflow of coin. But this imbalance actually should not have constituted a problem, because the local merchants could use the paper money in all their domestic business transactions, just as they had used coins before . It is true that as long as the price of the paper notes was officially and privately maintained at a stable level - which was the case until the late twelfth century - the effects on the local overseas trade were not yet felt very drast ically; 160 but when the paper notes decreased immensely in "value" from the turn of the century, i.e. 1200, the effects on the local trade were more serious, as because of the gradual depreciation of the paper notes, that part of the profit of Quanzhou merchants which had been converted into paper money, consequently underwent a steady devaluation. So Kee Long does, however, not provide an explanation for the increasing drainage of bronze cash. As expounded before, the depreciation of the Huizi was the logical consequence of sheer over-supply, the government having issued such quantities that the degree to which the Huizi as tokens of value should represent a substitute of valuable coins within the circulation was out of all proportion. Furthermore, despite an increased output of copper coins in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the state had since the early twelfth century already resorted to various forms of debasing its coins to meet its expenses. 161 The increasing issue of - and consequently rapidly depreciating - paper currency in conjunction with the debased copper cash confronted the merchants with permanently rising prices. The copper coins were devalued as the ruling measure of value, and consequently the standard of prices expressed in copper coin changed. The merchants had to give more coins to obtain the same commodity values. And the paper money was depreciated to the extent its quantity rose above the real value which the notes should represent. This led to a

160 161

So Kee Long , op. cit., 135. Richard von Glahn, Fountain ofFortune, 50.

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general rise of prices. l'" Rising prices could in fact, but do not necessarily have to , constitute a principal problem for merchants. In domestic trade they would try to "transmit" the higher prices to the people as their customers - who normally had no alternative but to accept higher prices. But if the latter were not or no longer able to pay for the high prices, the merchants would be unable to sell their products and consequently suffer losses. Within foreign trade high prices could also emerge as a problem, when foreign merchants and customers were no longer willing to accept the high prices of Song merchants. Foreign traders had to calculate if they were still able to sell their products profitably on their home markets, when being obliged to pay for the higher prices in Quanzhou. They had to calculate if their profit margin was still high enough or if they could and had to purchase their products cheaper from different places and traders in China. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find indications in the sources explicitly referring to foreign merchants complaining about rising prices in China in general or in Quanzhou in particular. The reasons for the relative economic decline of Quanzhou in the thirteenth century are certainly complex. As John Chaffee has convincingly suggested, the "clan's presence in Quanzhou functioned as a minor but significant accelerator in good times by bringing money and increasing consumption, and a drag in bad times by burdening already overburdened government offices." 163 Furthermore, we do also have to take the situation of external 162 The rice price, for example, climbed from 229 copper cash in the latter half of the tenth century to 5,905 cash in the first half of the thirteenth centu ry, two figures which can roughly serve to show the dimensions of price inflation. No sudden rise in the rice prices occurred before the first half of the twelfth century. See Peng Xinwei, op.cit.; 420. On p. 425 he provides an example of the depreciation of the paper notes. When the Mongols occupied the south of Chin a in 1276, they converted the old paper notes still circulating into their Zbongtong paper notes. Although the old notes have not been described in history, Peng Xinwei is of the opinion that they must have been Jia Sidao's ready cash Communicating Medium (issued in jingding 5, 1264). Fifty strings of the old notes were then converted into one string of Zhongtong notes worth half an ounce of silver, which means that one hundred strings of the old notes were only worth one ounce of silver. 163 Cf. John Chaffee, The Impact of theSong Imperial Clan, th is volume.

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markets into consideration. Because of the Mongol invasion of Korea, the trade of Quanzhou merchants with Korea began to decline at the end of the twelfth century. Or, changes in the power structure and the political economy of countries in Southeast Asia, such as Champa and Srivijaya, may also have affected the development of maritime trade in Quanzhou. Champa, a major trading partner of Quanzhou, was subjugated by the Angkor Kingdom in the early thirteenth century, and although the rulers of Champa succeeded in freeing themselves from the direct control of the Khmers after the 1220s, the region was still involved in conflicts and experienced a certain decline. At about the same time Srivijaya gradually lost its role as a central entrepot in Southeast Asia (Sumatra) and to some extent Java began to take over its place. The negative impact of the commercialization of the agricultural sector in Quanzhou on the development of the local economy has already been evaluated by So Kee Long. 164 In addition, also a decrease in the demand of Arab merchants for Chinese silks might have been of some, albeit minor significance. Because, after the Arabs had developed their own silk industry, their demand for Chinese silks possibly decreased. But unfortunately relevant data on Quanzhou are too few to elucidate this question further. As So Kee Long I want to argue that besides possible negative influences exerted by external markets on the development of the Quanzhou trade and besides the factors which are generally provided as an explanation, such as piracy, policy of high taxation, and corruption - which in my opinion were only of minor importance the official monetary policy of the government, from devaluing its bronze coins to the introduction of Huizi paper notes, constituted a major aspect in the explanation of this decline. 1. To the extent to which copper coins had been detached from the original denominated coin weight (1 qian=4 g) and the market price 164 It is important to note that the increasing agricultural specialization in commercial crops was a consequence of Quanzhou's growing integration into (maritime) trade, but this issue will not be further elucidated here. So Kee Long, "Financial Crisis & Local Economy" , 128-133.

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of the pure metal rose above the coin price, there was an increasing tendency to withdraw coins from circulation. The intrinsic value of copper was now much higher than the value of a copper coin denominated of the same weight. This situation aggravated the tendency to withdraw copper from circulation, to melt down copper coins in order to obtain the intrinsic value of copper, either to store its value or to sell the copper, whether in the form of bullion, ritual vessels, or other utensils, for its market price, preferably to countries where the market price of copper was higher than in China. Certainly, we have to understand the following quotations in this context: After Wang Anshi (1021-1086) was made responsible for the government's policies, the restrictions on copper were gradually suspended. Villainous people daily melted down coins to make tools out of them. When the customs stations on the borders and the overseas vessels were no longer checked, the outflow of coins [needed] for the use of the country grew worse every day. 165 Also, since the prohibitions concerning copper have been abolished, the melting down and destruction [of coins] has become worse than ever since. When the [people] melt down ten coins (qian), they get one liang of pure copper, and manufactured as utensils, they make a fivefold profit.l'"

Although these examples do not specifically refer to Quanzhou and Fujian, they can express the general tendency at that time, resulting from a devaluation of the national standard of prices, which also had its effects on the activities of Quanzhou merchants and, thus, overseas trade. By the thirteenth century the outflow of copper coins seems to have become increasingly severe: This [the fact that they trade with Chinese copper coins] is why among the local merchants who trade overseas there is nobody who is not very wealthy. In Jiang, Huai, Min, and Zhe [such people] are abound. There 165

Wenxian tongkao, 9:12a.

166

xeB, 269:6594.

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are also many [merchants] who falsely pretend [to be an official] stationed at a post to take care of the transportation of supplies for the army. Although they say that they have only various miscellaneous goods, in reality they [intend] to sail away[with cash] in very big, deep, and broad-beamed ships, where one ship can load several ten thousand strings of coins. Each time, with a quantity of one string foreign commodities for an equivalent of one hundred strings can be exchanged; and with a quantity of hundred strings, foreign commodities to an equivalent of thousand strings can be exchanged. This is a common phenornenon .v'" 2. Since the second half of the twelfth century the government sought to attract ever incr.easing quantities of wealth in the form of bronze coins and silver from its local economy, by means of taxation, but, above all, by steadily issuing increasing quantities of paper notes. This policy still enforced the tendency of merchants to try to withdraw their real values from the circulation sphere. At the beginning of the reign period qiandao (1163-1173) the government, for example, increased the tax on silver in Fujian to 30%, 20% being the rule, in order to attract more real wealth.l" Robert Hartwell noted that "(a)fter the establishment in 1160 of hu izi paper notes as a central feature of the monetary system, gold and silver were added to the list of contraband items , laws limiting trade became increasingly severe, and anti-foreign-commerce sentiment was chronic." 169 In my opinion, however, it is inadequate to speak of a general and "chronic" anti-foreign-commerce sentiment. Various higher ranking officials did indeed adopt a more negative attitude towards maritime trade . But the fact that after the second decade of the thirteenth century the imperial court, firstly, widened the power base of the superintendents in giving them concurrent positions as local prefects (zhizhou) 170, and, secondly, selected an increasing 167

Bizhou gaolfie, 1:20a.

Zhao Yanwei (?-after 1206), Yunlu manchao, 2:49. CS]C-ed., fasc. 297-298. Robert M. Hartwell, "Foreign Trade, Monetary Policy and Chinese 'Mercantilism'", 463. 170 Angela Schottenhammer, "The Song Superintendency of Maritime Trade in 168 169

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number of imperial clan members as superintendents, 171 suggests that the court still regarded maritime trade as a source of income, as a source to be tapped, which implies a certain positive attitude towards maritime trade. The local official Zhen Dexiu, for example, even advocated a decrease in the high taxation rates in order to promote foreign trade. Or, as we may see from the Zhongwai lishi nianbiao (d. Appendix 1), the taxes on overseas vessels in the coastal prefectures were abolished in 1212. In this context, the official limitations and restrictions of maritime trade activities should be understood as a reaction of the government to developments caused by its own monetary policy and meant to prevent further harm for its economy. Instead of speaking of a general trend from a positive to a negative attitude towards maritime trade, I would rather depict a shift from an official, more or less centralized organization of maritime trade serving not simply court interests but the functioning of the state as a complete, supra-ordinate entity, to an administration which was more dominated by court, i.e. imperial clan, interests . In any case, I would not speak of a general or chronic anti-foreign-commerce attitude. Although during Song times precious metals were never substituted for bronze cash as a general medium of exchange, as money, we should pay attention to an item concerning the use of silver in Fujian, which is highly relevant to my argument. From Liao Gang 's treatise on the local silver-mining in Fujian we learn that, down to the households of the fifth category, apparently every household had to pay a proportion of its taxes commuted into silver in the first third of the twelfth century.l" But it is unclear whether this policy was maintained until the end of the dynasty. Fujian had to pay 270,000 liang (10.8 t) of silver annually to the central government. With the introduction of taxes to be paid in silver the government triggered off the merchants' speculation on the silver price Quanzhou and the State Finance Administration: Central Control or Local Autonomy?" . Paper presented at the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University, 30 March 1998 (unpublished manuscript). 171 SeeJohn Chaffee, The Impact of theSong Imperial Clan, this volume. 172 Gaofeng wenji, 1:21a-23a.

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(expressed in copper cash), and thus decisively changed the calculation basis of its local economy. The government, now, by taxation intended to attract silver, wh ich had formerly only existed as an ideational measure of value, in its concrete form being used for large business transactions only. Silver was consequently introduced into all levels of the economy. First, the government had to ensure that silver really was produced in greater amounts. Second, the silver had to have entered the regular circulation sphere, so that the ordinary household could purchase it from merchants or silver-producing households to be able to pay its taxes in silver. Third, this opened the door for speculations on the silver price. Speculating on a growing demand for silver, merchants purchased large quantities of this metal, thus withdrawing it from the circulation, and hoarded it. This forced up the silver price. Liao Gang's treatise describes the way merchants, very often in co-operation with local officials, made use of the people's predicament about obtaining silver for tax payments, and selling it for high prices. When the government wanted to purchase more silver from the merchants, they also sold it for high prices. Consequently, the government had to pay ever more bronze coins for one liang of silver, and condemned this situation as another example of the enrichment of trade at the expense of the state . For the government, then, this situation theoretically provided another positive reason to free itself from real payment in copper cash, and to "serve" trade with fixed-term promises of payment, such as exchange and paper notes. In 1264, for example, new silver account notes (Yinguan) were issued, apparently in all places which had not yet been conquered by the Mongols, one of these account notes being equivalent to three Huizi. This policy was advocated and implemented by Jia Sidao (1213-1275). Depreciating paper notes and their exchange for new ones could only increase the tendency among the merchants to hoard silver, speculate on raising prices, or ship it abroad. When the silver price in some areas and countries overseas was still respectively higher than in Quanzhou and at the same time foreign merchants cheaply offered own commodities in exchange for bronze coins, the hoarding and drainage of bronze coins, and not least of silver were both intensified.

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3. The consequent strategy of the government of no longer adequately redeeming its paper notes only stepped up the efforts of merchants to withdraw coins and real values from the circulation sphere and resulted in a steady depreciation of the paper notes. As Liu Kezhuang (1187-1269) noted in his biographical record of Zhen Dexiu's (1178-1235) career (xingzhuang), the local authorities in Min (Fujian) even obliged the people to hoard certain quantities of paper money (chu or quan) in order to stabilize its price . Zhen Dexiu is said to have complained that households of all echelons of society suffered from serious financial losses, as the authorities drew upon their money; they taxed also rich families and took possession of the boats of merchants; when four coins were in circulation, they confiscated property of a value of millions of coins. As these measures did not only step up the efforts of the people to withhold their valuable coins from the circulation sphere, but also caused a steady depreciation of the paper notes, Zhen Dexiu consequently advocated to reduce their quantity and articulated his objections against the policy to force the people to hoard paper money. "As for the so-called family possessions (jiachan), when 1000 coins (qian) are complete, [a family has to purchase and] hoard 50 paper notes (quan). These are the new instructions in Min ."173 This policy, he argued, had already brought about the effect that still more households were ruined, because they had, for example, to sell their land in order to meet the new official obligations. Wielding all these measures and polities the Song government in a national fiscal emergency situation eventually deprived the mer chants of a stable means of payment, both for domestic and for foreign trade. When the merchants were permanently provided with depreciating paper notes - whenever they used cash in business transactions, their final profits were also partly or completely converted into paper notes and, thus, devalued - they tried to keep their cash, or bullion, out of the circulation sphere and started to lay in treasuries. But hoarding treasuries, not investing their wealth to make more of it, runs counter to the principles of trade, for the 17) Liu Kezhuang, Houcun xiansheng daquan ji, 168:16a. SBCK-ed. , fasc. 1290-1337 (Biograph ical Record of Zhen Dexiu's Career, xingzhuang).

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withdrawal of real values from circulation renders trade impossible. This meant that the merchants were obliged to find other ways and means to retain and increase their wealth and profits. This situation constituted a principal dilemma in those regions where Huizi were in .circulation. Conversely, an overseas trading port such as contemporary Quanzhou may be regarded as the kaleidoscope of such a situation. When at the same time the merchants' copper cash and silver'", representing general equivalents of value also in foreign countries, were in great demand among foreign merchants, it was only a small step to the idea of investing their treasuries in foreign trade. The domestic currency, and the precious metals were, thus, not simply used as "international" means of payment, but as objects of trade. In this way domestic traders also became potential foreign traders, acting in co-operation with overseas merchants. The huge quantities of cash, ingots, or bullion, exported abroad would also suggest this. These were the economic aspects. The consequent political restriction of this trade put only the dot on the "i". The Song government originally had referred to positively and even stimulated expanded trade relations, because these were regarded as a means by which to increase state revenue. Eventually, the effectiveness of the economic principles of trade, which developed particular economic weight within foreign trade, and its own specific reference to these principles, resulted in the political resolution partly to limit trade activities. I want to argue that this development, in economic terms, constituted a major reason for the decline of the maritime trade of thirteenth century Quanzhou. The decline of Quanzhou's economy is described by Zhen Dexiu (1178-1235) as follows : ... Although Quanzhou has been a place of prosperity ever since, it has gradually lost its position. Taxes have become so heavy that the amount of imports is in a permanent decline. Floods and droughts alternate with one another and cause bad harvests. The expenses of the 174 There are too few references to the role gold played in the late Song overseas trade at Quanzhou. Obviously it was not hoarded or exported in such great quantities.

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imperial family living in our district are twice as high as in the past. Consequently, our district is losing its [former] wealth. No silver is found any longer in the mountains. Nevertheless, Quanzhou has to pay an annual contribution [even] in favor of other districts ...175 Ye Shi (1150-1223) cites two essential aspects which had negative results on the financial situation of Quanzhou: the high expenses required by the Southern Office of Imperial Clan Affairs (Nanwai zongzheng 5t), and the fact that Quanzhou year after year had to pay more than 15,600 liang of silver as a tribute to the court for the four prefectures Xuan, Xin, Jianchang, and Shaowu, which provided Quanzhou with supplies of clothes, tabby silks (juan), and chousilk. 176 Telling though these were not the true reasons for Quanzhou's decline and financial problems. CONCLUSION

In the beginning the early Song government had obviously been satisfied by the numerous foreign commodities the merchants imported into China, either as consumer articles for the imperial court or as commodities to be resold on domestic markets. In the knowledge that they normally (under politically stable conditions) had an almost unlimited, at least for contemporary conditions, budget from taxation, state monopolies and the like at their disposal, the Song rulers agreed to tax part and purchase large quantities of what the merchants had imported from abroad. This satisfied their own demand for foreign commodities and they could try to increase their income by reselling these goods on the domestic markets. The ability to pay for these commodities and the drainage of real wealth, whether in the form of bronze cash, precious metals, or sophisticated manufactured goods was not yet a problem. Simultaneously, the Song government intended to profit to a greater extent than before from the commercialization of its economy, a fact which gradually led to a more positive attitude towards trade. In this 175 176

Xishan xiansheng Zhen wenzhong gong wenji, 17:19a-b. Ye Shi (1150-1223), Shuixin wenji, 15:18b-19a. SBCK-ed., fase. 1232-1239.

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context, it was the demand of the Song state itself which had, at least, expanded the trade, both the internal circulation and the maritime trade. Indubitably, maritime trade equipped the court and the social elites of China with a plethora of "exotic" goods , but equally it provided the government with commodities to be resold to the people and, thus, with an income in the form of money to be used for state purposes. But the merchants shipped everything overseas which could be sold or exchanged profitably, regardless of possible negative consequences for the development of the local economy. That the government eventually prohibited the export and exchange of copper and precious metals for foreign commodities, may show the range of problems with which the Song rulers were confronted, in political, but primarily in economic terms. These problems also found their expression politically and economically in the relative decline of the overseas trade city Quanzhou, at least in as far as in Quanzhou's maritime trade contrasts between the private interests of merchants - including whoever acted as merchant - and of the Song government as the supraordinate authority ruling China concerning wealth in its abstract form became perceptible. The reason for the development described in this article has to be sought in the fact that the extension of both domestic and foreign trade, required the necessity to "pay tribute to", i.e. to sho w respect to its economic rules. This is what the Song government, especially during its later historical stage, was forced to take notice of and to acknowledge - as a financial problem, for' which a flourishing maritime trading city such as Quanzhou constituted the focus. In this context, the development of maritime trade in Quanzhou has to be seen against the background that the later Song government was in the throes of a financial crisis. For the Song government financial problems primarily meant paying for political (tribute to foreign countries), military, and economic obligations without depleting its own treasuries. It is sound economic sense that the profit attracted from the economy should be higher than the expenses . The relationship between income and expenditure always referred to the problem of to what extent the state could withdraw the financial

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means to cover its own expenses and requirements from its economy. From its merchants, the Song government had learned how the increase of wealth could be successful by renouncing direct payment and relying on future business success. The government "instinctively" noticed that money, i.e. bronze (copper) cash, as a means of circulation could be subst ituted by worthless tokens of value, by paper notes. But the Song rulers eventually did not simply use these "paper credit notes" as a domestic means of circulation or as fixedterm exchange notes with a guaranteed redemption after a certain time period, but as a means to resolve the fiscal problems of the state. 177 In other words, as a means to attract more wealth in the form of bronze coins and precious metals and to issue paper notes instead. In addition to bronze coins, they used paper notes as a measure of value, means of circulation, and standard of prices, but above all as a means of payment. Consequently, the Huizi did not simply serve as a (more comfortable) circulation medium substituting bronze coins , but as a means to raise credit, although the Song government, in contrast to merchants, did not issue them on the basis of already successfully accomplished business activities and in the expectation of future, successful business transactions. The government used the Huizi as a means ofpayment based upon credit, but in the long run without making real payments, without exchanging real values (commodities, services, salaries etc.) for real values. In contrast to intrinsically valuable bronze coins, which are not devalued, when produced in greater amounts!", tokens of value (paper notes) depreciate, when produced in ever increasing quantities, because they are not real values, do not incorporate intrinsic value, but only represent them."? Confronted with continuously depreciating paper notes, the merchants tried to get rid of them and to convert them into valuable coins or commodities. Consequently, See also Lu ]iuyuan, Xiangshan ji, 15:9b-10b. SBCK-ed., fasc. 1159-1168. This means that the intrinsic value of metallic coins is not reduced , when they are produced in greater quantities - provided that the conditions of production did not change. 179 Cf. my explanation in the section on the introduction of state tokens of value. 177

178

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the tokens of value used as a means of circulation within trade collided with another monetary function, the means ofpayment to purchase commodities. Commodities possess value which is supposed to be realized in their prices. The lack of convertibility of the face value of paper notes with equivalents of intrinsic value deprived the local merchants of a means of payment stable in value. Instead, valuable money was required for purchase and payment."? Under these circumstances to preserve the monetary form of his wealth, every merchant was "forced" to convert his paper money into copper cash, or precious metals, in order to establish a store. This development unleashed particular consequences with the inclusion of domestic merchants in foreign trade. The immense quantities of copper coins which were exported during the Southern Song dynasty suggest that these were not just stocks of money required to pay for the next cargo of commodities, but characterized a development from storing money to hoarding treasures. This was impossible without withdrawing money from circulation, thus interrupting the exchange of commodities, a tendency which seems to run counter to the principles of trade. But, once the national copper currency was in heavy demand among foreign merchants, the Chinese merchants learned that the foreigntrade value of their domestic currency was not only higher than its internal trade value, but that copper coins could be invested more effectively in foreign trade. Consequently, copper cash became an object of trade. Shipping copper coins, i.e. real values, abroad and exchanging them for foreign commodities, every Quanzhou merchant was, of course, confronted with the same problem of reconverting these commodities to stable values after every business transaction, a problem which became even more acute with official restrictions imposed on overseas trade and the exportation of cash and with the steady depreciation of the paper notes and the copper cash used in the domestic circulation. But the merchants tried to cope with that as well as they could and to make the best of it for themselves, being well aware of the fact that the exportation of 180 This situation very clearly shows the divergence of money as a means of circulation and money as a means of payment.

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domestic copper cash was a source of great profit to them. To a loyal Song official the continued exportation of Chinese money must have appeared an unfair, thus illegal, enrichment of trade at the expense of the state, which required powerful countermeasures. The national currency in the form of bronze coins and the precious metals especially became an ever popular object of trade and were exported. The extension of the overseas trade at Quanzhou was thus equivalent to a permanent drainage of material wealth. Of course, Quanzhou merchants imported foreign commodities in exchange, but after some time these did drop out of the local and domestic circulation, and were moreover supposed to be reconverted into copper cash which, not seldom, was eventually also exported. In this respect, the Song state had in fact become poorer in terms of wealth in the form of copper cash and precious metals."! A first reaction of the government was, consequently, the prohibition of the trade in cash, a political measure which did, however, not lead to the desired result - if only because it did not do away with the causes of the financial crisis and with the attractive and profitable exportation of cash abroad. Tax incre ases were also not the appropriate measures to take, as in that way trade relations were contracted as a consequence of which trade could no longer serve as a profitable source of income. As a last solution to solve its financial problems the government consequently just resorted to the emission of further quantities of paper notes. But to be paid only with tokens of value which were not or only seldom redeemed was something the merchants as the agents of trade could not endure over a longer time period. Thus, although not intentionally, by its financial political measures the Song government enforced and accelerated the fiscal crisis and the corresponding relative economic decline of Quanzhou in the thirteenth century. The effects of the Song government's finan cial policy had taken place on the basis of the economic principles of foreign trade. They were not just bound to or a result of the increasing requirements and expenses of the state, although the latter 181 This statement should not be confused with a partial negative attitude towards foreign trade , but simply as a scholarly statement.

164

ANGELA SCHOTTENHAMMER

provided, of course, the reason for the government's specific financial policy. The cause of the development described above was not simply the fact that the government eventually no longer maintained the Huizi paper notes at a stable level and no longer redeemed them; compared to the original purpose of the introduction of these paper notes - to concentrate wealth in the form of copper cash and precious metals in its own hands - this was only a consequent step. But the extension of trade required the necessity to respect its economic rules - at least if trade was supposed to function as a positive condition for state purposes. Consequently, the cause of the further development has already to be sought in the intention of the government to use paper money to access the material wealth of its society in the form of cash, precious metals, commodities, and services, although it could not or did not want to afford these. This means that the Song government intended to profit from trade, but at the same time to become independent of its economic rules. In order to concentrate the desired wealth in the state coffers without actually making the trade activities of the merchants impossible, the government eventually paid them with debts instead of equivalents of value incorporating an intrinsic value. The historical upswing followed by the relative decline of the overseas trade of Quanzhou under the Song, is therefore not without a certain irony. Initially, the Song government had enjoyed great benefit from expanded trade relations. Trade had provided it with more wealth in the form of consumer articles and money. Once legally validated, trade developed its own economic momentum and "reacted" correspondingly, when confronted with "inappropriate" measures . In this respect, i.e. concerning the economic laws and principles of trade, its "control" lay so to speak beyond the sovereign power of the state, which could only "solve" the problem by partially suppressing trade activities again.!" And whereas private 182 The government, quite logically, never approved of the "flourishing" of this trade just for its own ends, but always saw it in relationship to its own political, military, and economic projects. Compared to its purpose of att racting as much wealth from its society as possible, especially in financially difficult situations, the local maritime trade could never flourish enough .

THE ROLE OF METALS

165

merchants continued to accumulate big fortunes, the Song government was eventually confronied with the illusion of making use of the domestic and maritime trade as a source of revenue irrespective of the economic principles ofan extended trade and commodity circulation. In this crisis situation the Song government concentrated its efforts on its essential interests. Eventually, it interfered directly in maritime trade introducing political regulations and instructions concerning the export of metals, primarily copper and precious metals, to show its dissatisfaction with the results of this trade including the consequences it had on the nationwide accumulation of wealth to the advantage of the state. In addition, more members of the imperial clan family were appointed official administrators of maritime trade. This development suggests that during the financial crisis of that time imperial clan interests were placed above the original rationale of state; a rationale of state which was based on the idea that eventually only the endeavour to care about the functioning of state and society as a supra-ordinate entity administered by an educated scholar-officialdom and not undermined by partial clan interests could guarantee the political and economic continuity of theempire. In this respect, the content of the rationale of state was altered. The government tried to undo the negative results of foreign trade, but could only limit and not eliminate them. The reasons for the relative economic decline of Quanzhou in the thirteenth century are certainly complex. I tried to show that besides factors such as piracy, high-taxation, corruption, rising prices, and possible negative influences exerted by external markets, the official monetary policy of the Song government, from the devaluing of its bronze coins to the introduction of Huizi paper notes, constituted a major aspect in the explanation of this decline. Eventually, the former flourishing overseas trade of Quanzhou and its hinterland was reduced and Quanzhou became a town whose commercial success depended on the shrewdness of its merchants in coping with the commercial restrictions and trade barriers. When the Mongols eventually occupied the south in 1276, they introduced their Zhongtong notes (Zhongtong chao, according to the

166

ANGELA SCHOTTENHAMMER

reign period Zhongtong, i.e. 1260-1263) to redeem the old paper notes of the Song. Fifty strings of old paper money were exchanged for one string of Zhongtong notes . This policy was part of the reforms already enacted by Kublai Khan in 1260, which were designed to impose a unified monetary system both in China and throughout the Mongol empire . With the introduction of this new paper currency the Mongols aimed at drawing gold, silver, and bronze coins into government coffers by replacing metallic money with paper notes.!" In this respect, the monetary policy of the Yuan did not differ very much from that of the Song, but right from the beginning there was one decisive difference: metals officially never functioned parallel to paper money as a means of circulation. Instead, the Mongols banned the use of metallic money in trade, and their paper notes were made fully convertible with silver.

183 Richard von Glahn, Fountain of Fortune, 57. See especially pp. 56-70 for further details on the Yuan monetary system.

THE ROLE OF METALS

167

ApPENDIX 1 (TABLE 1)

Laws and Regulations Concerning the Issue of Huizi, Prohibitions on the Secret Melting Down of Copper Utensils, the Exportation of Copper Coins, and the Taxation of Foreign Trade Since about 1160 (according to the Zhongwai lishi nianbiao)184 - 09/1156 The Song reinforce the prohibition on the private melting of gold - 07/1158 The Song confiscate bronze utensils of the people in order to melt them down to mint coins - 10/1160 The Song issue Huizi - 08/1163 Trade vessels of the merchant association of Dugang of the Song offer Korea peacocks and precious objects, and, following a confidential imperial decree of the emperor, they add gold and silver presents - 01/1164 Reinforcement of the prohibition on the private melting of metals - 06/1166 The Song abolish th e Shibo si of Liangzhe - 0111167 Reformation of the Huizi-system - 12/1169 The bronze coins of Lianghuai are exchanged for iron coins and Huizi - 11/1170 Strict ban on the transportation of money across the borders - 12/1170 In Jiang prefecture (Linjiangjun and Fuzhou) the Song establish foundries for minting iron money - 02/1171 Edict ordering that Buddhist monasteries and Daoist temples will from now on no longer be exempted from taxes - 05/1172 Imperial decree saying that the laws concerning paper money will be applied in all districts of Fujian - 11/1172 Sale of state-owned land to the people in Jiang, Zhe, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi and Hunan 184 Chr istian Cochini , Anna Seidel, Chronique de fa Dynastie des Sung (960-1279). Extraite et traduite du Chung.wai li-shih nien-piao. Materiaux pour le Manuel de l 'Histoire des Sung (Sung Project). Universitat Miinchen, printed with the financial assistance of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, 1968.

168

ANGELA SCHOTTENHAMMER

- 01/1173 Abolition of the laws concerning salt and paper money in Fujian - 03/1173 Prohibition on the sale of money and silk to the Jin territories - 0111180 Collection of the bronze coins of Jingxi from the local population and issue of iron coins and Huizi instead - 09/1182 Foreign vessels are prohibited from engaging in gold and silver trade - 09/1183 In the inner prefectures around the capital (neijun) the Song prohibit the circulation of iron money - 07/1186 Imperial decree stipulating the use of half cash and half Huizi in business transactions in the districts and townships - 07/1191 Iron coins in Lianghuai are exchanged for Huizi - 0111192 Iron coins of Huaidong are collected and exchanged for monk certificates - 02/1192 Reiteration of the prohibition to cross the Huai with cash and silver - 03/1196 The Song reduce the number of harmonious markets (heshz) and invalidate the equivalence of silk with money in all provinces for three years - 06/1197 Severe reinforcement of the prohibition on secretly melting down copper objects - 03/1199 In Sichuan laws to annul (the locally circulating) paper money (Qianyin) are put in force - 07/1199 Korean and Japanese merchants are prohibited to exchange their merchandise for copper cash - 04/1203 Copper cash of Linghai is exchanged for Jiaozi - 07/1203 In Tong'an and other localities the Song temporarily abolish the Directorate of Coinage - 09/1203 Foundries are prohibited to melt down private money in order to cast bronze objects - 01/1206 Foundries are again strictly advised not to melt down money in order to cast bronzes - 08/1209 Initiation of the circulation of iron money in six prefectures along the Yangzi . 04/1211 Interdiction on the payments of taxes in the form of salt

THE ROLE OF METALS

169

and alcool in Liangzhe and Fujian - 06/1212 Prohibition on the transportation of copper cash across the Yangzi - 09/1212 The taxes on overseas vessels in the coastal prefectures are abolished - 12/1228 In Lianghuai private taxes on vessels carrying rice are interdicted - 06/1234 Prohibition on melting down copper cash in order to cast utensils and on exporting them overseas - 03/1235 In order to stop the depreciation of the Huizi and the consequent steady rise of prices, the Song accredit monk certificates and nomination orders (to become official) (chigao) to be used in the completion of business transactions - 10/1249 Strict prohibition on the using of cash for the making of utensils - 02/1250 Imperial decree on the strict control of the coastal prefectures to prevent copper cash being secretly transported; interdiction on the counterfeiting of Huizi - 08/1258 Prohibition on the exportation of copper cash overseas; inspection of Japanese vessels - 02/1261 Reinforcement of the interdiction of the counterfeiting of Huizi - 09/1264 Issue of silver account notes (Yinguan) , one Yinguan being equivalent to three Huizi (apparently issued in all places which had not yet been conquered by the Mongols)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

*

Anonymous, ]ingkou qijiu zhuan 0 1li ~ f{!J . Shoushange congshu :;j= Lli M ~ £ed., fase. 42-43. Aristotle, The Nichomachean Ethics. Translated with Commentary and Glossary by Hippocrates G. Apostle. Dordreeht, Boston: D. Reidel Publishing, 1975. Synthese Historical Library. Texts in theHistory ofLogic and Philosophy. Vol. 13. Aristoteles, Nikomachische Ethik. Ubersetzt und kornmentiert von Franz Dirlmeier. Darmstadt: Wissensehaftliehe Buehgesellsehaft, 1979. -, Politik. Buch 1. Ubersetzt und erlautert von Echart Schiitrumpf. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1991.

170

ANGELA SCHOTTENHAMMER

Bao Hui Et9< (1182-1268), Bizhou gaoliie fJlrF,j} ~~Ol~. Siku quanshu zhenben sanji-ed, fasc.246. Bopearachchi, 0 ., "Seafaring in the Indian Ocean: Archaeological Evidence from Sri Lank a", H.P . Ray and J.-F. Salles (ed.), Tradition and Archaeology. Early Maritime Contacts in the Indian Ocean. Proceedings of the International Sem inar Techno-A rchaeological Perspectiv es ofSeafearing in the Indian Ocean 4w cent. B.C. . 15w cent. A .D. N ew Delhi, Febru ary 28 - March 4 1994. New Delhi, 1996, 59-78. Bronson, Bennett, "Patt erns in th e Early Southeast Asian Metals T rade", 1. Glover, P. Schitta et al. (ed.), Early Metallurgy, Trade and Urban Centres in Thailand and Southeast A sia. Bangkok: White Lotus Co ., 1992, 63-114. Ch en Jie ~51Hf [transl.), long R i jiaotong shi ~ B ,)(Jffi ~ . Taibei: Shangwu -g ~ ~. Wanyou wenk u yinshuguan, no date. Orig inal by Kimiya Yasuhiko huiyao 7ff, 1'f)(1$ ~ -ed, . Chen Yande 1!.lIHiH~ , "Songdai Fujian kuangyeye {~ rIB ~ lifq is ~ " , Fujian luntan 2 (1983) 67-74. Cochini, Christian, Seidel, Ann a, Cbronique de la Dyn astie des Sung (960-1279). Extraite et traduite du Chung-w ai Ii-shih nien-piao. Materiaux pour le Manu el de l'Histoire des Sung (Sung Pro ject). Universitat Miinchen, printed with the financial assistance of the German Research Council (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft), 1968. Gao Qi mJ 11& (Ming), Fujian shibo tiju si zhi ru; ~ $ ffla f~ $ BJ ~ . Cop y of the libr ary of the Harvard-Yenching Institute. No date. Glahn, Richard von, Fountain ofFortune. Money and Monetary Policy in China, 10001700. Berkeley, Los Angeles: University of Californi a Press, 1996. Gol as, Peter, "The Mining Policy of the Sung Government", Kinugawa Tsuyoshi (ed.), Collected Studi es on Sung H istory Dedicated to Professor Jam es T. C. Liu in Celebration ofhis Seventieth Birthday. Kyoto: D oshOsha, 1989, 417. Green , Jerem y, Zae Geun Kim, "The Shinan and Wando sites, Korea: further information", The Int ernational Journal of Nautical A rchaeology and Underwater Explorations 18:1 (1989) 33-41. H artwell , Robert, "Foreign Trade, Mon etary Policy and Ch inese 'Mercantilisrn'", Kinugawa Tsuyoshi (ed.), Collected Studies on Sung H istory Dedicated to Professor Jam es T. C. Liu in Celebratio n ofhis Seventieth Birthday, Kyot o: Deshosha, 1989, 453-488. He Q iaoyuan fiiJ ~ ij (1558-1632), Min shu M~ . Fuzhou: Fujian renmin chubanshe, 1994. Hino Kaizaburo B my 1m .::::. a~, "H oku So jidai ni okeru dotetsusen no chUzogaku ni tsuite ~ t *~ 1m I: i> It .Q ~jtIX~~(7) ~S¥ j§i$l I:~,.t -c ", Shigaku zasshi ~ !'~! ¥Ht 46:1 (1935) 46-105. H irth, Fr . And W.W. Rockhill , Chau [u -hua: His Work on the Chinese and Arab Trade in the twelfth and thirteenth Century . Amsterdam: Oriental Press, 1966. Huang Ren W' f=, Guo Gengwu ~~~iFt (ed.), (Qianlong) Quanzho ufuzhi ~Hi ~ HI Jff ~ . 1984-ed. of the research group for the compilation of Quanzhou records. Ichihara, M. "Coinage of Old Korea", Korean Branch of the RAS, Transactions 4:1,

*

*

*

171

THE ROLE OF METALS 45-74.

&*

Kato Shigeshi /10 ~ ~, To S6 jidai ni okeru kingin no kenkyu ~WJ I:;}> It .Q ~ ~~O) !if f1'i: . Tokyo: Toyo bunko, 1943. Vol. 2, 552. Kozo Yamamura and Tetsuo Kamiki, "Silver Mines and Sung Coins - A Monetary History of Medieval and Modern Japan in International Perspective", J.F . Richards (ed.), Precious Metals in the Later Medieval and Early Modern Worlds, 329-362.

Li Xinchuan * 'L.'f.\fl: (1166-1243),jianyan yilai xinian yaolu }t ~.l-:UI~ ~~!J~. Zhonghua shuju-ed. Liang Kejia ~ 5l. (1128-1187), (Chunxz) Sanshanzhi ~~ ~ L1J it-. Siku quanshued. Liao Gang ~Il1lU (1070-1143), Gaofeng wenji f,!ljilit

.Z

~

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o

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I Ix

6 63 5 II

3239

9 42

I 2

194 III

48

" 1 160

N N N

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172 man... 498 45 122

2 7~

Swni....

SakishiroaIslands""· " Nan.... Uemura Birosutu

10

7 490 2 034 1 649

195

Shilfemamon

47 Ix

990

OtinawaiJland Gooko KabS. Midden K... ER> 2 KablEn:: 1 3.542 T7

• no. of vessels

Total

Bowl Dish Plate Deen Bowl Jar Cup Bottle Wine PresentationJar PrCKntation Jar Lid Narrow Necked Jar JadeStrin Donie Liddedwntaincr IncenseBurner Pourin Vessel Ewer Small Box Manar Flower Va" Lid Handle Unidentified

Suichu Ooau Suribach.l Mei inR Pula

Pukurormno Koro

Yuhuchunpm

TIUbo

Wan San Ban Haehi Hai Hei Shukai Tsubo Put.

n=284

Inafuku

100 %

1% 0% 1%

8S% 7% 6%

Itokaz.u 0=380 2

ROUTe 8. Functional Tvoesof Celadon Vessels from 14 Rvukvl. Sites

11% 100%

0%

0%

0%

0% 0% 1% 0%

26% 100%

0%

0%

0% 1% 0%

43% 12% 17%

6S% 13% 9%

Urasoo 0=1 575

AllaRon 0=1,632

4S% 100%

0%

0%

29% 1%

4% 100%

1%

0%

1%

22% 12%

69% 100% 100 %

1%

1% 0% 4%

3%

1%

17%

4%

1%

13%

3%

100%

S2%

0%

2%

6% 14%

100%

0%

0% 0%

0%

0%

14% 14%

100%

39% 13%

100%

1%

3% 100 %

14 %

0% 100 %

1%

1%

I S% 2%

100%

1%

1% 1%

10% 3%

Goeku KatJ Ene 2 Kats Ene 1 KatJ S Midden Stnaerrarron Sumiva Birosuku INariva U....... Keitasaki 0=151· 10=63 0..201 ne 608 n=1528 389 0=7 490 0=31· 0=194 n=156 81% 83% 2S% 48% 99% 82% 23% 581fo 23% S9% 71%

N N VJ

C/l

o

Z

~ t""' >-

>-i

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o

Z

>-

~

(J

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' RnwlA. nt'lt shams

16cbocnturv

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14th Pin t Half ISm cenlUrV

13th14thcmtvria

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14.0lhu IS. Unidentified

12. P1lrin. Ib'ai. ht rim 13. lncurved rim

9. Loma IYne lotus _ tal 10. &te:rior mcirclinllline II. LiDeClIt narrow peta..llotua

8.1'bUnda'nattcm bmd

4. U~ flnw.. " " S. Ri] ~ $ .&~ j} UJ", Zhongguo gu taoci yanjiuhui 1:jJ~ i511® ~ Jiff ~ ~ (ed.), Zhongguo gu waixiao taoci yanjiu t:p ~ .~ j} UJ II® ~ /iff ~. Beijing: Zijincheng chubanshe, 1988, 61-65. Zhuang Weiji JlI~~ , "Yuanmo waizu panluan yu Quanzhougang de shuailuo Ji::*j } 1i~15. ~Llj~ HI B~ R fir", Quanzhou wenshi 4 (1980) 19-26.

*

CHINESE GLOSSARY Anxi~~

Dongxi *~

Baolin si Jft*~

Douwenshan

Baoqing Chongshou si

Dushui wu mI#tfJi

$~m*~~

4 i£L1J

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Beizang si ~t~~

fang :1:15

iJiA*F' Chengtian si !II( *. '¥

Fashixiang $;E;R~

Chongfu si *tlii~

Fengyun xueyu shitan

Chaotian men

Chongyang *~

litiH Cizhou liti1H Cizao

Dashuwei *~jm.x

Fengshan si il L1J~ @1~~~gili!i

Fuhoushan

Fujian bingma dujianting "-Z4!- E: a; *J1.G!1- Ifii

TW:a::.. . " /";t;J §

Dehua i'!!ft

Gongyuan

Dongmen

guan ffiI

*F'

Dongyue miao *$JWj

IMf&L1J nnfj,C.

ffitll1C

Guancha tuiguan ting

232

RICHARD PEARSON, U MIN, AND U GUO

Mingzhou B~ 1+1

U~t1£-ge

Guangxi ao si

X/f::t¥

Muzong yuan Of *~

f¥j'!i:

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Nan'an

Honglai ~~7fR

Nanpu f¥j!l

Houzhu ~&m

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hu fi

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Penghu i~~ Putian

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] ingdezhen ~t~ i.i

Renfeng

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Shangshuifenwu p:fjffl)1-.ffi

] iulong JL@

shaoding mJE (1208-1224)

jiu Muzong yu an WO~*~Jt

Shengyou si ~:tit:t¥

aHI Kaiyu an si 1ffl:lG:t¥

Shibo tiju si

Li Chong

Sifa canjun ti ng E] $ ~!l! e

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Linzhang ~ if-

Sihu canjun ting E]F~!l!ft

Liu Conxiao fiif:t~

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Longquan @~

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Ming jiaohui B~ ~ ~

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PORT, CITY, AND HINTERLANDS

233

Tong'an IPJ~

yuhu chunping :=El:!:lf:mL

Tonghuai 5m$

Zengzhushan ~t1LlJ

Tongjin 5m?~

Zhangzhou ?tHI

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RICHARD PEARSON, U MIN, AND U GUO

234

JAPANESE GLOSSARY

,t. m~

Ahagon JlOT,)t{tt

Keitazaki

ban ~

koro

Birosuku c' 0 A 7

Korokan ~IDln­

Chuzan

tP ~

Dazaifu :k.

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w-1i'

kushigakimon .m~:t. KyushU :IL~i

Eleven Faced Kanzeon +-diift~-t muk& renbenmon ~~f!.Jt:t. Fukuoka #7~

mumon chokko ~:t.t1 0

fukurumono ~41J

mumon gaihan ~:t.*Ji.

futa A

mumon rinka ~:t.ft!1i1t.

genmontai

1iI:t...

Naha JJ)l~

Goeku ~*

naiwanko J*J.rfe.

gosu 1;--1-

Nakjin ~ft1=-

hachi #

Nariya

hai {,r-

raimontai

hei #Ii.

ramashiki renben 7

Hokkaido ;It.~it

Ryukyu lJ,t.~

Inafuku lil1#7

Sakai

inka ~r 1t.

Sakieda Akasaki ~;ft~~

Iriomote

Sakishima

tl§ ~

Ishigaki .:6 ~~ Itokazu $

Ii:

kakkamon

t11t.:t.

Kamakura

ilk

sara

0

!&..£

t;:t... 7

t\. f!.Jt

Jff.

it!J

.1IIl

senkaku sai renbenmon ~~J ~3i.Jt :t.

Shigemamon ,to ,t. ~

r,

Kanzeonji ft~-t-t

shinogi renbenmon ~f! .Jt:t.

Katsuren ~it

Shinzatomura

lIT .fAt

PORT, CITY, AND HINTERLANDS

shukai tsubo ~~ ~f: Sinori

;~i/ij-~

Sogenji

*" 7C.-t

suichu JJ t:l

c:::

o

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N

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~

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t:l

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()

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Lcp akshr e

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304

JOHN GUY

Legend: Seas Bay of Bengal Indian Ocean Coasts Coromandel Coast Malabar Coast

Regions Deccan Sri Lanka States Tamilnadu Kerala Rivers Vellar Kaveri Places Madras Kalahasti Kanchipuram Mamallapuram (Mahabalipuram) Chidambaram Kumbakonam Nagapattinam Thanjavur Tiruccirappalli (Trichinopoly) Tiruvenkatu Pudukkothai Madurai Quilon

TAMIL MERCHANT GUILDS AND THE QUANZHOU TRADE

305

Quanzhou s

CHI A Guangzhou •

• Macao

"LiTCH

INDIA

SOUTH

GUJARAT

ClllNA

• Sural

RAl'OF

THAILAND

II/:'NGAL

. A)'u n haya

• Kanchipurnm

Cahrut s

Angko r -

SEA

':-.

~

. 110; An

?' 3:

ISH ~n ' S

• :--:ag:lpaUinam

OF KRA

Atjeh ,

MALAYSIA • Kedah

Baros »

BORSF.Q

J'u INDIAN OCEAN

''4I'~ •Snvuaya

I DONESIA JAVA

Map 2: Southeast Asia

306

JOHN GUY

Legend: Seas South China Sea Indian Ocean Gulf of Thailand Bay of Bengal

Countries Thailand Burma Malaysia Indonesia Cambodia Vietnam China

Regions Sumatra Kedah Borneo Java Places Guangzhou Quanzhou Pagan Ishmus of Kra Takuapa Nakorn Sri Thammarat (Nakhon Si Thammarat) Krabi Srivijaya Baros

Figure 1. Tamil inscription with Chinese gloss. found in Quan zh ou, Muse um of Anthropology, Xiam en University, Xiam en .

Figure 3. North verandah of the main hall, Kaiyuan temple, with two stone carved pillars recovered from a Hindu temple.

Figure 4. Vishnu, found in Quanzhou.

Figure 5. Kali seated on the prostrate figure of Siva; in situ Xinji Pavilion,Jinjiang County, Fujian, where she is worshipped as guanyin.

Figure 6. Siva as Nataraja, Lord of the Dance; relief sculpture recovered from Quanzhou (but now lost).

Figure 10. Elephant worshipping a linga; relief sculpture in situ Svetaranyesvaraswami temple, Tiruvenkatu, Thanjavur District, South India, c. 9th century.

Figure 11. Con tem porary mural painting above en tran ce to sanc tua ry, Svetaranyesvaraswami temple, Tiruvenkatu, Thanjavur Distri ct , South India, c. 20th ce ntury.

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BmUOGRAPHY Abraham, M., Two Medieval Merchant Guilds ofSouth India. New Delhi: Manohar, 1988. Ahmad, S.M., Arabic Accounts of India and China,. Simla, Indian Institute of Advanced Study, 1989. Ibn Battuta, Travels in Asia and Africa 1325-1354, transl. by H . A. R. Gibbs . London : Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1929. Bronson, Bennett, "Glass and beads at Khuan Lukpad, Southern Thailand", I. And E. Glover (eds.), Southeast Asian Archaeology 1986. Oxford, BAR International Series 561, 1990,213-29. Coomaraswamy, A., "Hindu Sculptures at Zayton" Ostasiatische Zeitscbrift, 9 (1933) 5-11. Ecke, G. and P. Demieville, The Twin Pagodas ofZayton. A Study in Later Buddhist Sculpture in China. Cambridge, Mass.:, Harvard University Press, 1935. Giles, F.H., "Notes and Queries. Remarks on the Land Routes across the Malay Peninsula" ,journal ofthe Siam Society 27 (1935) 79-84. Guy, John, "The Lost Temples of Nagapattinam and Quanzhou", Silk Road Art and Archaeology 3 (1993-4) 292-310. Hirth, Fr. and W.W. Rockhill, Chau [u-kaa; his work on the Chinese and Arab trade in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. St. Petersburg, Imperial Academy of Sciences, 1911. Hultzsch, E., Madras Epigraphy Report 1891-92. Madras, Government Printer, 1892. - , "A Vaishnava inscription at Pagan", Epigraphica Indica 7 (1903) . Karashima, N ., "Indian Commercial Activities in Ancient and Medieval Southeast Asia"; paper presented to the Eighth International Conference on Tamil Studies, Thanjavur, 1995. Latham, R. (transl.), The Travels ofMarco Polo. Harmondsworth, Penquin, 1958. Legge, James, A Record ofBuddhist Kingdoms . Oxford: Clarendon Press,'1886. Lo Hsiang-lin, "Islam in Canton in the Sung Period. Some Fragmentary Records", F.S. Drake (ed.), Symposium on Historical Archaeological And Linguistic Studies in Southeast Asia. Hongkong: Hongkong University Press, 1967, 176-9. Lo Jung-Pang, "Chinese Shipping and East-West Trade from the 10th to the 14th Century", M. MoUat (ed.), Societes et Compagnies de Commerce en Orient et dans I 'Ocean Indien. Paris, SEVPEN, 1970, 167-76. Majumdar, R.C., Ancient Indian Colonies in the Far East. Vol. II Suranadvipa. Part I . Political History. Dacca, 1937. Nilikanta Sastri, K.A., Foreign Notices of South India. From Megasthrenes to Ma Huan. Madras: University of Madras, 1937. - , "Takuapa and its Tamil Inscription", journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 22:1 (1949) 25-30. Quaritch Wales, H.G., The Malay Peninsula in Hindu Times. London, Bernard Quaritch,1976. Ray, Haraprasad, "Indian Settlements in Medieval China: A Preliminary Study ", The Indian journal ofAsian Studies 1:1 (1989) 68-82. - , "The South East Asian Connection in Sino-Indian Trade", R. Scott and J. Guy (eds.), South East Asia and China: Art, Interaction and Commerce . University of

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London, Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art Colloquies on Art and Archaeology in Asia No. 17, 1995,41-54. Rockhill, W.W., "Notes on the Relations and Trade of China with the Eastern Archipelago and the Coasts of the Indian Ocean during the 14th Century", T'oung Pao 16:2 (1914). Salmon, Claudine arid Lombard, Denys, "Un vaisseau du XIIIemes. retrouve avec sa cargaison dans la rade de 'Zaitun'", Archipel18 (1979) 57-68. Shanmugan, P., "An Early Tamil Brahmi Inscription from Thailand", Journal ofthe EpigraphicalSociety ofIndia , Mysore, 22 (1996) 100-104. Shuhaimi, N .H. and O.M. Yatim, Antiquities of Bujang Valley. Kuala Lumpur: Museum Association of Malaysia, 1990. So Kee Long, "The Urban Morphology of Ch'iian-chou during the Sung Dynasty", Proceedings of International Symposium on Sung H istory, Taibei: Chinese Culture University, 1988,83-108. Spencer, G.W., The Politics of Expansion. The Chola Conquest of Sri Lanka and Sri Vijaya . Madras: New Era Publications, 1983. Stargardt, Janice, "Southern Thai Waterways: Archaeological Evidence on Agriculture, Shipping and Trade in the Srivijayan Period ", Man 8:1 (1973). Subramaniam , T.N., "Tamil Colony in Medieval China", R. N agaswamy (ed.), South Indian Studies. Madras: Society for Archaeological, Historical and Epigraphical Research, 1978, 1- 52. Tibbetts, G.R., A Study of the Arabic Texts Containing Material on Southeast A sia. London, Royal Asiatic Society, 1979. Wheatley, Paul, "Geographical Notes on Some Commodities Involved in the Sung Maritime Trade", Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 32:.2, no. 186 (1959) 1-140. Wang Gungwu, "The Nanhai Trade . A Study of the Early History of Chinese Trade in the South China Sea", Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 31:2 (1958). Whitcomb, D.S. and ],H. Johnson, Quseir al-Qadim 1980 Report. Malibu and Cairo: American Research Center in Egypt Inc., 1982. Wolters, O.W., Early Indonesian Commerce. Ithaca: Cornell Univers ity Press, 1967. Wu Wenliang, Quanzhou zongliao sbilo. Beijing: Academy Publishing House, 1956.

BEHIND THE SHADOWS: ARCHAEOLOGICAL DATA ON TWO-WAY SEA-TRADE BETWEEN QUANZHOU AND SATINGPRA, SOUTH THAILAND, 10TH-14TH CENTURY

JANICE STARGARDT SHADOWY ACTORS IN SONG MARITIME TRADE STUDIES

This paper presents some of the most detailed in situ evidence presently available of a long sequence of maritime trading activities in an early Southeast Asian society - the satingpra site groups in South Thailand. It sets the high value incense-for-ceramics trade with Song China in the longer perspective of Satingpra's pre-existing trade and cultural contacts with other parts of the Southeast Asian region. Major cultural changes are traced under the impact of regional and interregional trade . The Satingpra sites were active in transpeninsular and circumpeninsular trade, forming - from the Chinese perspective - a gateway to the Straits of Malacca and the Indian Ocean. While many shadows cover the faces of China's other trading partners on the Western limits of the South China Sea, this site group offers for the first time a long sequence of exceptionally high quality and high density trade objects of the Song-Yuan period, to which some values and volumes can be attached, and which permit scientific contacts with other areas to be traced . The data below provide , therefore, some response to the need for just such Southeast Asian evidence, as strongly emphasised by Janet AbuLughod in her pioneering essay on the world's economic system of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Though some of the conclusions about the Straits of Malacca and associated sites are obviously challenged by these data, her essay provides brilliant insights and I share her general conclusion that the later world

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economic system of the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries cannot be adequately understood without a firm grasp of its predecessor.I Existing work on Song economic history has established some major research areas that form the starting point of this paper: the enormous expansion of affluence and the development of markets for luxury and staple products in China particularly under the Southern Song; the boost given to that economy by trade in exotic products, notably incenses and spices either originating in Southeast Asia or supplied by Southeast Asian entrepot trade ; the Chinese ports actively involved in the southern trade, but also redistributing the southern products towards other areas of China, Korea and Japan; and the shipping routes between China and Southeast Asia during the Song-Yuan period, still only defined in a preliminary way. Explicit or implicit in these researches, but more shadowy in outline than puppets of the great shadow theatres of Southeast Asia, are the southern kingdoms named in Song-Yuan texts as major suppliers, entrepots and actors in long-distance maritime trade'. I See Janet Abu-Lughod, Before European Hegemony: The World System in A.D. 1250. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989. 2 Cf. Fr. Hirth, W. W. Rockhill., Chau [u-kua, his Work on the Chinese and Arab Trade in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries entitled Chufan.chi. St. Petersburg : Imperial Academy of Sciences, 1911,and also a more recent edition Feng Chengjun (edited and annotated), Zhao Rugua, Zhufan zhi jiaozhu . Taibei: Shangwu yinshuguan, 1970; Zhu Yun, Pingzhou ketan . SKQSZB edition, n.d.; Zhao Yanwei, Yunlu manchao. SKQSZB edition n.d.; Song huiyao jigao. Taibei: Shijie shuju, 1963; Zhou Qufei, Lingwai daida. SKQSZB edition, n.d. and the German trans . by Alrnut Netolitzky, Das Ling-toai tai -ta von Chou Cb'ii-fei: Eine Landeskunde Sudcbinas aus dem 12. Jahrhundert. Wiesbaden: Miinchener Ostasiatische Studien 21, 1977. For a sample of controversies over locations, but also an impressive example of what patient and scrupulous examination of textual sources can extract from them, d. Paul Wheatley, The Golden Khersonese; studies in the historical geography of the Malay Peninsula before 1500. Kuala Lumpur: University of Malaya Press, 1961, 10-103 esp. 32-3 for the range of views on the location of Ch'ih-r 'u (discussed below in the text), which Wheatley first placed near the Kelantan coast but later regarded as Satingpra- Wheatley, P., Nagara and Commandery; Origins of the Southeast Asian Urban Traditions. Chicago: Uni versity of Chicago, Dept. Geography Research Papers 207-8, 1977, 251-2; see also the equally valuable and scrupulous work of Wolters listed in footnote 3, but esp. his major recent reappraisal of Srivijayan studies in O. W. Wolters, "Restudying some Chinese Writings on Srivijaya", Indonesia 42 Oct . (1986) 1-41 and his previous articles

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Controversy still surrounds the correct identification and' location of many of them. When equally eminent scholars locate a site named in Chinese texts in places as distant from each other as Central Thailand and Sumatra, then clearly there are inherent problems in the nature of the textual sources. As many historians explicitly recognize, some of these will only be resolved by archaeological or additional epigraphical evidence found in situ. While the textual sources alone do not bring the southern participants in the Nanhai trade out of the shadows and delineate them sharply in a physical context, we owe much to those texts for incomparable vignettes of southern societies. They are also generally, and sometimes remarkably, reliable in their lists of economic products, and to a lesser extent in their information on the places of origin of those products. There is a well-known Chinese normative bias towards repeating information over long periods of time without recourse to external verification, which exacerbated the effects of copyists' errors and other distortions. Nevertheless, Chinese and other texts bearing on ancient Asian economic history have still much to offer, and the erudition and patience of the scholars creating the secondary literature based on such evidence relating to the southern kingdoms deserve great respect. This paper will discuss the shadows surrounding only one set of sites, albeit ones that Chinese texts name as the main Southeast Asian actors, or very great actors, in the Nanhai trade. It will, firstly, describe where there is reasonable clarity and where the shadows fall across the face of Srivijaya - believed to be Foqi or Shilifoqi in Tang texts and Sanfoqi in Song texts. I shall not enter the controversies of historical literature on these subjects, but hope to offer to historians a small but solidly based body of in situ material evidence relevant to them. I shall present archaeological evidence from the Satingpra group of sites in South Thailand that provide a clear record of deep involvement in maritime trade with South China, mentioned there; So Kee Long, Economic Developments in South Fukien, 946·1276. Canberra: Ph .D. Thesis, A.N .U., 1982, Chaps. IV and V; Hugh R. Clark, Community, Trade and Networks; Southern Fujian Province from the Third to the Thirteenth Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991,Chaps. 5 and 7.

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including - let it be said at once - objects that left China both via Guangzhou and Quanzhou. The Satingpra data in turn reflect some light on the commercial and cultural activities of sites in Sumatra, where the main centre or centres of Sanfoqi must have been. Though originally part of the chain of early urban sites around the Gulf of Thailand from the sixth to the ninth century belonging to Mon-Khrner culture, Satingpra port-city underwent an abrupt cultural, and politico-economic change in the early ninth century. From the ninth to the thirteenth century archaeological finds at Satingpra reveal strong Indonesian connections; from the ninth to the tenth century the new-style of artefacts corresponds closely to those from Central Java, while the eleventh - twelfth centuries saw direct contacts with Muara Jambi and Kota Cina in Sumatra. Satingpra only became heavily involved in the China trade after that socio-economic change, from the mid-tenth century onwards. The excavation data from Satingpra also allow a preliminary comparison between the density and typology of the Song-Yuan Chinese ceramic trade to Satingpra and to the old port at Fukuoka, the most famous point of entry into the Japanese market. Although such comparisons are at an early stage, they provide rare and objective bases for developing an understanding of the volumes and values involved in the Southeast and Northeast Asian trades respectively. I shall also show what insights the Satingpra data provide on the impact of the Nanhai trade on a Southeast Asian kingdom, in precipitating major changes in its wealth, culture, and religion, and consider briefly how general such changes were among other Southern participants in this trade. In particular, the long sequence of Satingpra ceramic data is valuable in that it reveals a community increasingly specialized in the entrepot trade in Chinese ceramics to the point where they far outnumbered the debris from local ceramics. Below, this process is documented and dated. Our coring programme in the beds of the Satingpra canals revealed that the interests of the transshipment trade westwards across the Isthmus were given priority in the course of the thirteenth century over the needs of local agriculture and irrigation.

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This paper, thus, attempts to delineate one southern partner in the Nanhai trade in detail in order to throw new light on that trade, and to take the initial steps to show the profound changes taking place in the South under the impact of that trade. This is a first response to the stimulating studies of socio-economic change - even revolution (d. Hugh Clark this volume) - in Southern Fujian under the impact of the Nanhai trade . Though the limitations inherent in archaeological evidence prevent us from following case-studies of the socio-economic transformation of individuals or families in the way Hugh Clark demonstrates in his contribution, the data do provide firm evidence of dramatic cultural and economic changes among the elite on the Isthmus of the Malay Peninsula in this period. The ceramic data provided below identify by chemical testing and trace elements the exact kilns of origin of the Chinese ceramics excavated at Satingpra, their dates, relative volume, and their likely route from the kiln to the Chinese port or ports involved in their export to Southeast Asia and parts of the Indian Ocean - the Nanhai region. Because of the widespread ancient practice of copying, inside and outside China, of technically and commercially successful ceramic types, these are essential research procedures. Among others, the export ceramic industry in the immediate hinterland of Quanzhou was based on just such copying. It is, thus, crucially important to be certain of the origins and dates of the ceramics in order to know what kind of trade one is dealing with. The ceramic data excavated at Satingpra throw a strong light from the Nanhai region back onto specific unrecorded aspects of the organization of the ceramic industry and associated trade inside as well as outside China. To give only one example, they demonstrate that Longquan high-grade ceramics, which had an elaborate manufacturing technology and a long journey inside China to the export port were able to survive the competition of cheap copies made in the vicinity of Quanzhou, which had minimal transport costs to the port. Such evidence is explored below to illuminate not only aspects of the organization of the manufacture and trade of ceramics in China from Longquan to

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the port or ports, but also aspects of the market for which they were destined as part of the ceramics-for-incense trade. Though Srivijaya/Sanfoqi is often mentioned in secondary literatureas if it were a well-delineated historical actor in Asian maritime trade of the tenth to the thirteenth century, research up to the present, in spite of the application of immense erudition and effort, has not succeeded in finding the evidence to transform its shadowy existence into historical clarity. The in situ evidence can be briefly reviewed: a collection of seven late seventh century inscriptions from Southeast Sumatra, found in and near Palembang and on Bangka Island, were written in Old Malay in some of which the Sanskrit name Sri Vijaya (Lord of Victories, or Victorious Lord) occurs. Initially thought to be the name of a king , it was later understood to be that of a kingdom'. It is important, in this context, J Among a vast primary and secondary literature, see esp. G . Coedes and L. Damais , Sriwijaya: History, Religion, and Language of an Early Malay Polity: Collected Studies by G. Coedes and L.CDamais from 1918·68. Kuala Lumpur: Monograph of the Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 1992, 20; K. Nilakanta Sastri, History of Srivijaya. Madras: Sir William Meyer Lectures 1946-7, 1949; P. Wheatley, The Golden Kbersonese; O . W. Wolters, Early Indonesian Commerce, A Study of the Origins of Srivijaya. Ithaca : Cornell U .P. 1967; P. Wheatley, "Satyanrta in Suvarnadv ipa; from reciprocity to redistribution in ancient Southeast Asia", J. Sabloff and C. Lamberg-Karlovsky (eds.), Ancient Civilization and Trade. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1975, 227-83 - see also Appendix by Jan Wisseman Christie on "References to Merchants and Markets in Early Indonesian Epigraphy"; Bennett Bronson, Jan Wisseman Christie, "Palembang as Srivijaya: the lateness of early cities in southern Southeast Asia", Asian Perspectives 14:2 (1978) 220-39; G. R. Tibbetts, A Study of the A rabic Tetxs Containing Material on South-EastAsia . Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1979; Kenneth Hall (ed.), Maritime Trade and State Development in Early Southeast Asia. Honolulu: Hawaii Uuniversitz Press, 1985; E. McKinnon, "Early polities in southern Sumatra: some preliminary observations based on archaeological evidence" , Indonesia 40 (1985) 136; the major re-appraisal by Wolters, "Restudying Chinese writings"; Bambang Budi Utorno, "Karanganyar as a Srivijayan Site: new evidence for the stud y of settlement patterns of the Srivijayan period", Bangkok: SPAFA Report on Archaeological and Environmental Studies on Sriv ijaya, 1985, 273-89; Pierre Manguin, "Palembang and Sriwijaya: an early Malay harbour-city reconsidered", Journal ofthe Malaysian Branch ofthe Royal Asiat ic Society (fMBRAS) 66: 1 (1993) 2346; Hermann Kulke , "Kadatuan Srivijaya . empire or kraton of Srivijaya?", BEFEO

80: 1 (1993) 161-80.

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note that one of those Srivijayan inscriptions (Telaga Batu inscription from Palembang c. 686 AD) mentions naval captains and merchants. Wolters has examined the notes of the Chinese Buddhist pilgrim Yijing (l-ching) who traveled the Southeast Sumatran coast in 670 - 693 AD. Wolters makes a convincing case for the location of a major port downstream from Palembang near the mouth of the Musi River. A fragmentary stone statue of a huge standing Buddha c. 360 ern high with pleated robe was long ago found at the foot of Bukit Seguntang near Palembang. Originally thought to date from the Amaravati period of c. the second to the third century, statues of this style have been reassessed repeatedly and are currently dated from the seventh to the eighth/early ninth century". The presence of an image of such scale implies the former existence of a great temple at the find-site of which only scattered bricks were found. A fixed relation of scale pertained between images and their shrines, and both imply a great accumulation of wealth in the Palembang area in the seventh to the eighth/early ninth century. Thus, there is a diverse body of mutually supporting in situ material evidence pointing to the existence of a prosperous kingdom called Srivijaya in the Palembang area of Southeast Sumatra from the late seventh century to the early ninth century, which was involved in maritime trade and mayor may not have been organized along the lines that Hermann Kulke has proposed. The principal problem is that the Chinese texts mentioned in Note 2 agree that Sanfoqi was a major centre in the China Nanhaitrade in the Song-Yuan period, but until now no habitation or trading site with a high concentration of Chinese trade objects, such as ceramics of the Song period, has been found in the Palembang area. Chinese green-glazed stoneware ceramics of the Yue-type with

to

• Nik Hassan Shuhairni, "The Bukit Seguntang Buddha: A reconsideration of its date", jMBRAS Lll, 2 (1979) 33-40; d. R. Brown, "A note on the recently discovered Ganesa image from Palembang, Sumatra", Indonesia 43 (1987) 95-100, Figs. 1, 2; and P. Scheurleer, M. Klokke, Ancient Indonesian Bronzes, a catalogue of the Exhibition in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1988, 53-4, PI. 1, 2; E. McKinnon, "A Note on the discovery of spur-marked Yueh-type sherds at Bukit Seguntang Palembang" ,jMBRAS 52 (1979) 41-6; P. Manguin , "Palembang and Sriwijaya: an early Malay harbour city rediscovered", JMBRAS 66:1 (1993) 23-46.

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spur marks on their inner surface have been found scattered widely from the foot of Bukit Seguntang to Palembang . It is impossible to check their identification from photographs - and ancient Chinese copies of Yue wares were numerous - but McKinnon has discovered many sites and has done much to pioneer ceramic studies in Sumatra. His published notes on the typology of these wares and associated finds suggest to me that these sherds do indeed belong to maritime trade with China of the mid-tenth to mid-eleventh century. Their low density and wide surface scatter, on the other hand, do not conform with a major trading site, but rather with a cluster of small traders or end-users. Manguin's excavations at several sites in and near Palembang in 1990 and 1991 yielded ceramic results that he described as "overwhelming". Yet the few objective data available are not persuasive: he reports finding a total of 48,000 sherds dating from a period of 1,000 years, from the eighth/ninth to the nineteenth century. Among them were c. 10,000 imported sherds, i.e. twenty-two per cent. The total number of Chinese sherds among the imported group is not given. It is only noted that "a good third [of them] belong to Srivijayan times" . At the most, therefore, they may total some 2,000-3,000 sherds. Sherd counts from the Satingpra excavations in South Thailand have yielded over 50,000 sherds of Chinese ceramics belonging to the period from the tenth to the early fourteenth century alone, c. 40,000 of which were concentrated inside the royal inner city, the citadel of Satingpra, as against c. 2,000 at Palembang. During the peak of Satingpra mercantile activity from the mid-twelfth to the third quarter of the thirteenth century, Chinese ceramics of high quality and value outnumbered local ceramics (see Table 1 below). This can be seen as proof of a society specialized in long-distance trade . The two examples of Satingpra and Palembang also show why objective criteria are needed as a basis for trade studies, and why the case for Palembang as Sanfoqi from the tenth/eleventh century onwards has still to be made.. The crux of the Srivijayan problem is, therefore, broached: where was Sanfoqi in the period when the China trade reached its peak, i.e. from the tenth to the thirteenth century? Though the

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Palembang area was evidently still involved either directly or indirectly in a degree of maritime trade, convincing in situ evidence that the trade with China was centred there has still not been found . The contending views of the specialists about the correct locality of place-names mentioned in textual sources external to the area - Chinese, Arab, Tamil and Bihari - are well-known. As recently as 1997, a Japanese scholar has questioned the validity of Coedes' seminal hypothesis that Foqi, Shilifoqi and Sanfoqi are the same place", There is, on the other hand, impressive archaeological and epigraphical evidence that Muara Jambi, Northwest of Palembang on the Sumatran East coast plain, was a major city from at least the eleventh century with great brick temples and navigable rivers including the Malayu River, an arm of the Batang Hari estuary. Wolters, who has contributed so significantly for over thirty years to Srivijayan historical studies, has argued several times in persuasive detail (most recently in his major re-appraisal of Srivijayan studies in 1986) that Srivijaya had moved to Jambi by the eleventh century. My own field survey at MuaraJambi in 1982 identified sherds resulting from a ceramic trade with Satingpra as well as with China. This sherd evidence dates from the eleventh to the twelfth centuries and includes distinctive fine white-bodied kendis (flaquons) made in the Kok Moh kiln of the Satingpra group (Pl. 16). They were found in the sacred deposit under the main image in the biggest temple of Muara Jambi, Chandi Gumpung, and also in the bed of the sacred pond in front of that temple, while both white and red monochrome kendis from Kok Moh were excavated, together with Chinese ceramics of the type traded at Satingpra, at a river-bank site in Muara jambi" (PIs. 16, 17). The ritual context of the temple and 5 Fukami Sumio "Sanfoqi reexamined", paper presented at the Second EuroJapanese Seminar on Trade and Navigation in Southeast Asia. Tokyo : Institute of Asian Cultures, Sophia University, 1997. & Janice Stargardt, "The place of the Satingpra ceramic sequence in Asian maritime trade, 8th-14th century", SPAFA Final Report of the Workshop on Ceramics in Eastand Southeast Asia. Kuching and Bangkok: 1981. Appendix 9, 16;J. Stargardt, "The Satingpra civilization and its relevance to Srivijayan studies", SPAFA FinalReport of the... Workshop on A rchaeological and Environmental Studies on Srivijaya. Jakarta: Appendix 4b 1982; J. Stargardt, "Kendi production at Kok

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pond finds at Muara ]ambi confirms the evidence presented below from Satingpra itself that there were strong cultural and religious affinities as well as trade relations between the Isthmus and Sumatra at this time. Another site with Chinese ceramic sherds further downstream from Muara ]ambi has been identified by Mclxinnon/. I have not seen a full study of the ceramics excavated either in Muara ]ambi or Muara Kumpeh Hilir, so I cannot evaluate their density, typology or chronology. Only when such objective data are available, will it be possible to assess the duration, character, and level of Muara ]ambi's participation in the Nanhai trade of which ceramics provide the most durable evidence. Meanwhile, the fact remains that whether recorded in texts as Malayu/Srivijaya/Sanfoqi or something else, Muara ]ambi is by far the largest known settlement built of durable materials on the Sumatran East Coast plain of c. eleventh to fourteenth century date. Furthermore, its estuarine environment suggests that transshipment trade, not agricultural surpluses, provided the basis of its wealth. Field surveys of mine in 1979 to Kota Cina also revealed sherds of Kok Moh kendis in an horizon dated by radiocarbon to the eleventh century. They occurred together with Chinese ceramics of the type being traded to Satingpra at that time (Fig. 5). This paper does not attempt to dispel the shadows covering the true location of Sanfoqi. It has registered the most intransigent Moh, Songkhla Province, and Srivijayan trade in the eleventh century ", SPAFA Final Report of the ... Workshop on A rchaeological and Environmental Studies of Srivijaya. Bangkok: 1983, Appendix 5b, esp. 187; field survey of Muara ]ambi, courtesy of Dra Satyawati Suleiman Qate Emerita Director) and Dra Soejatmi Satari (then Head of Classical Division) of the National Research Centre of Archaeology, Indonesia; further data on Muara Jambi, courtesy of Professor Dr Mundarjito, Director, Humanities Research Centre, University of Indonesia; survey of Kota Cina and radiocarbon dating, courtesy of Professor Dr Hasan Ambhary, Emeritus Director of National Research Centre of Archaeology, Indonesia; see also, Boechari, "Ritual Deposits of Candi Gumpung (Muara ]ambi)" , SPAFA Final Report on A rchaeological and Environmental Studies of Srivijaya, Bangkok: 1985, 237-8. 7 E. McKinnon, "A brief note on Muara Kumpeh Hilir: an early port site on the Batang Har i?" SPAFA Digest 3: 2 (1982) 37-40; McKinnon, "Early polities", 26 and Map IV.

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problems, and seeks to establish some modest but secure additions to our knowledge of where significant trade and cultural contacts were occurring between points on the Sumatran coast and the Isthmus from the tenth century onwards. The datable and identifiable connections are between Satingpra and Muara Jambi and Kota Cina in the eleventh/twelfth century, but not Palembang. To summarize this section, although many shadows still surround Srivijaya/Sanfoqi from the tenth century onwards - including the date of its decline, eleventh/twelfth or fourteenth century? - the greatest weight of probability suggests that it was centred in Sumatra, with important expansions of influence on the Isthmus of the Malay Peninsula. The changing fortunes and activities of Palembang, Muara Jambi, Baros and Kota Cina among other Sumatran sites, and of Kedah, Satingpra, Nakhorn Sri Thammarat, Suratthani, and Chaiya among others on the Isthmus in that period, have to be set in that still shadowy context, parts of which emerge more clearly as a result of the Satingpra data. In spite of the shadows mentioned, data from the Satingpra sites certainly do provide the evidence that, during the Song-early Yuan period, enormous values were passing along the Sumatran and Javanese coasts as well as across the Isthmus of the Malay Peninsula within a complex trade network. This network embraced a higher volume and value of traffic than ever before, and also embraced more substantial parts of West, South, Southeast and Northeast Asia within that network than ever before. These phenomena were of global importance in the economic history of the mediseval world, as Abu-Lughod has recognized; in particular, they led to the formation of the first economic regions in Southeast and Northeast Asia. Undoubtedly Song China's economy and sea trade were the main forces driving those processes, and its long-distance sea ports were the focal points where the factors shaping the two economic. Regions interacted. A study of Quanzhou and its trade has, however, to keep in mind the other ports engaged in the southern trade under the Song, lest Mingzhou (Ningbo), Wenzhou, and Guangzhou become other shadowy actors. The numerous trade artefacts found in and near Guangzhou from the third century AD onwards

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and now displayed in the Guangzhou City Museum are impressive reminders of its continuous involvement in long-distance trade with the Nanhai region and areas further West. In her chapter called "Strait and Narrow", Abu-Lughod was puzzled by the absence of archaeological evidence in the Straits of Malacca of long-term civilizations and trade participation in "the World System" . In this paper, I present data on long sequences of civilization on the Isthmus and Straits, and attach some approximate values to the South's contribution to the Southeast Asian trade system. I thus argue for a more active role in the world trade system of the thirteenth century on the part of the Straits and isthmian ports than Abu-Lughod perceived on the basis of the evidence at her disposal in the 1980s. TEXTS AND ARCHAEOLOGY AT SATINGPRA

The Satingpra Kingdom probably appeared in the lists of Southeast Asian trading kingdoms given in the Song-Yuan texts scanned by so many authors. It has variously been identified with Shaliting mentioned in the Song huiyao list of countries trading with China 998-1003, with Ch 'ai-li-t'ing mentioned in the Zhufan zhi8 list of countries to the North of Java, with Ji-Io-t'ing 9 , or with Po-lo-an mentioned in the Lingwai daida and the Zhufan zhi as having better incense than Sanfoqi'", One author considers it was all of these 11• Yet another suggests that it was the Lingyassuchia of the Zhufan zhi12• In fact, Satingpra may appear under several names in these texts (including Tan -rna-ling), as did other sites and areas. Such Fr . H irth , W. W. Rockhill, Chu-fan-cbi, 80. Ibid. , 62, 65-6. 10 Lingwai daida (SKQSZB ed.) 2:13a-b, translated and cited by So Kee Long,

8 9

"Quanzhou merchants and the pattern of trade in Southeast Asia", Paper presented at the Conference on Quanzhou and its Hinterland, Leiden: liAS, 1997, 10-11; Cbu[an-chi, 62, 65, 69. 11 B. Colless, "Satingpra in Sung Dynasty Records", Archipel37 (1989) 31-42. 12 H . G. Wales, Quaritch, The Malay Peninsula in Hindu Times. London: Bernard Quaritch, 1976,62-70, 141; d . the pioneering study of Langkasuka in P. Wheatley ,

TheGolden Kbersonese, 252-67.

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confusion has several historical roots. One is the difficulty already discussed of deriving a precise location from the descriptions preserved in the Chinese texts. Another is the tendancy for names to be repeated in later texts and assimilated to other sites. A less recognized but important source of confusion is the fact that every royal city in Southeast Asia had and has several names: a long Sanskrit name that often incorporates references to earlier capitals, a short version, a vernacular name, and just "city" (Angkor, the Khmer transposed form of the Sanskrit nagara - city - is the best known example of this, but there are many others). The true names of the city known to the West as Bangkok preserve all these features. Satingpra was no exception. Its long Sanskrit name has not survived. Its short Sanskrit name was Singhapura (Lion City), which survives in the name of the adjoining district, Singha Nakorn (Singha Nagara), and in the name of the modern city nearby and the province to which it belongs, both romanized as Songkhla. That is the Thai pronunciation of the name still written in Thai as Singhora, a contraction of Singhapura 13. Its short vernacular name was Satingpra, from the Men-Khmer words Sting/Steng/Stang/ Stung meaning river (and sometimes canal) and Sanskrit pura town/city . (It is romanized by some authors as Sathingphra to indicate a soft "t" and a soft "p"). There is no river anywhere near Satingpra, but the first shipping canal dug in the late fifth/early sixth century was the central artery in its urban format as well as in its economic fortunes (see Fig. 3). The old Thai long vernacular name is Chao Phraya Krung Sating Paranasee", which means Great Lord Canal City Paranasee [Varanasi = Benares]. This illustrates how Chinese envoys and traders to Southeast Asian kingdoms may 1J Author's field data; P. Wheatley, Nagara and Commandery, 251-2 argues that the Satingpra site-complex was Ch'ih-tu, whose capital was Seng-chih [Singha], also called Shih-tzi (Shizi), Lion City; see also Wheatley, The Golden Kbersonese, 26-36 for a fuller translation of the passage quoted selectively in my text from the Chinese records on Ch'ih-tu, and his discussion of the variant texts. In 1961 Wheatley placed Ch 'ih-tu in North-East Malaysia, i.e. c. 150 km South of Satingpra. Wheatley's 1961 translation is used here, with a brief list of the contents of passagesomitted from my text in square brackets . H S. Wavell, The Naga King 'sDaughter. London: Allen & Unwin, 1964, 203.

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indeed have been told different names for the same place, depending on the social status of the informant, and the occasion on which he or she spoke. But in spite of these and other inherent limitations, Chinese texts can also yield highly accurate and precious data on Southeast Asian kingdoms, the physical appearance of courts, settlements, local customs and trade commodities. I turn to a passage from an earlier era (608 AD, c. seventy years before the Srivijayan inscriptions) for one of the most authentically detailed descriptions of a Southeast Asian court preserved in a Chinese text. It also shows how a Sui dynasty text recorded unfamiliar - even repugnant - features with great reliability. The passage is from the Cb'ib-t'u Kuo-cbi (Chitu guojz). Its accuracy has a more than local relevance in a volume where the reliability of such texts is a central question. The kingdom of Ch'ih-t'u, another part of Fu-nan, is situated in the South Seas. By sea one reaches it in more than a hundred days. The colour of the soil is mostly red, whence is derived the name [of the country]. ... The country is several thousand Ii in extent . ... [The father of the king was Buddhist). He [the king] resides in the city of Seng-chih [Singha], which has triple gates more than a hundred paces apart. On each gate are paintings of spirits in flight, bodhisattvas and other immortals, and they are hung with golden flowers and light bells. Several tens of women either make music or hold up golden flowers and ornaments. Four men, dressed in the manner of chin-hang giants [door guardians] on the sides of Buddhist pagodas, stand at the gate. ... All the buildings in the royal palace consist of multiple pavilions with the doors on the northern side. The king sits on a three-tiered couch, facing north and dressed in rosecoloured cloth, with a chaplet of gold flowers and necklaces of varied jewels. Four damsels attend on his right hand and on his left, and more than a hundred soldiers mount guard. To the rear of the king's couch there is a wooden shrine inlaid with gold, silver and five perfumed woods, and behind the shrine there is suspended a golden light. Beside the couch two metal mirrors are set up, before which are placed metal pitchers, each with a golden incense burner before it. In front of all these is a recumbent golden ox before which hangs a jewelled canopy, with precious fans on either side. Several hundred brahmans sit in rows

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facing each other on the eastern and western sides. [marriage and funerary customs, climate, crops , appointment to the mission of the Sui Emperor Yang-ti [reign p. 605-617),5,000 kinds of imperial gifts to the King of Ch'ih-t'u, exit through Guangzhou, sailing route, arrival in Ch 'ih-t'u). The king sent his son, the Na -ya-chia [Nayaka = Skt. title 'leader'], to welcome Ch'ang-Chiin [the Chinese ambassador of the Sui court 608 AD) with appropriate ceremony. First he sent men to present a golden tray containing fragrant flowers, mirrors and golden forceps; two containers for aromatic oil; eight vases of scented water; and four lengths of white folded cloth for the envoys to bathe with. On the same day at the hour of Wei, the Na-ya-chia again sent two elephants, bearing canopies of peacock feathers, to welcome the ambassadors , and a gilt-flowered, golden tray containing a decree. A hundred men and women sounded conches and drums and two Brahmans conducted the envoys to the royal palace. Ch'ang-Chiin presented his credentials in the council-chamber. ... Ch'ang-Chiin and his suite returned to their dwellings, and Brahmans were sent there to offer them food. Large leaves, ten feet square, were used as platters. The Brahmans then addressed Ch'ang-Chiin, saying: "We are now citizens of the Great Central States; no longer do we belong to the state of Ch'ih-t'u ...." [ceremonial court feast and presentation of gifts to ambassador) . Subsequently the Na-ya-chia was sent to accompany Ch'ang-Chiin to offer up local products as tribute [to the Sui court), to present gold, a crown ornamented with hibiscus design and Barus camphor, to take a gold cast of a to-lo leaf on which was an inscription in relief, and to seal it in a golden casket. Brahmans were ordered to take fragrant flowers and, playing upon conch -shells and drums, to act as an escort . ... [much shorter sailing route on return journey in company of the Nayaka). In the spring of the sixth year (of Ta-yeh) Ch'ang-Ch'un, together with the Na-ya-chia, visited the Emperor in Hung-nung, who bestowed on Ch'ang-Ch'iin and his suite 200 articles, and conferred upon them all the official rank of Ping-i-wei (officer of justice). The Na-ya-chia and his entourage were given official ranks and rewards, each in his degree." (Paul Wheateley, The Golden Khersonese, 26-30, quotes the Xin Tang shu, 58:19)

Most parts of this account have the fresh detail of an eye-witness account. Few lapse into the normative phraseology of repetitive notes

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on the "southern barbarians." Archaeological evidence from the Satingpra excavations provide striking correlations with the textual details: the royal inner city or citadel was first fortified in the late fifth/early sixth century, i.e. a century before Ch'ang-Chiin's (Chang Jun) mission to Ch'ih-t'u (Chitu) . Its walls at that time were built of large bricks with many rice grain inclusions similar to the bricks of other Mon sites at Kubua, Ratburi and Petchburi in the North of the Isthmus, and Nakorn Pathorn and Uthong in Central Thailand (also thought to be parts of the 'Funan' of Chinese texts). The earliest statue from Satingpra is an early sixth century stone figure of the Hindu god Vishnu wearing a cylindrical crown", Its affinities with a still earlier statue from Oc-eo, a site across the Gulf of Thailand from Satingpra, are extremely close. This area is certainly thought to have entered Chinese texts as Funari". Though there is no evidence that Funan was ever a state controlling the sites and areas mentioned above, (and the image of statehood projected onto Southeast Asia by Chinese observers sometimes acts as a distorting lens), the Chinese were right to see them as a sphere of great cultural affinity of which Satingpra was part. It is probably not coincidental that as Oc-eo and its shipping canals declined in the fifth/sixth century, the Satingpra community began building a city with a shipping canal as its central East-West axis (Fig. 3). Navigable canals are rare in Southeast Asia, and it is tempting to see a transfer of technology, and possibly of people, across the Gulf of Thailand at this time. By the early seventh century at the latest, Satingpra was trading across the Gulf of Thailand with sites located along the middle Mekong and Bassac Rivers - the "Chen-la" (Zhenla) in Sui and Tang texts (and later applied to Angkor!) and importing painted and slipped pots from that area (see PI. 2 below). Also in the early seventh century a major stone Buddha image was imported to Satingpra that was almost certainly made on the other side of the Gulf of Thailand". 15 S.

O'Connor, Hindu Gods a/Peninsular Siam. Ascona: Artibus Asiae 1972,42,

d. Figs. 18 & 4.

Pelliot, "Le Feu-nan", BEFEO 3:3 (1903) 148·330. Piriya Krairiksh, A rt in Peninsular Thailand Prior to the Fourteenth Century

16 P. 17

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The text quoted, if it does indeed refer to Satingpra, was thus correct in placing it in the general cultural context of "Funan" at this stage of its history, and in noting both Hindu and Buddhist elements in its culture. The earth of the Satingpra Peninsula is still red and its highest mountain, visible far out to sea, is still called Red Mountain. The walls of the royal inner city at Satingpra have been extensively excavated by the present writer" . They indeed had three gates on each side approximately 80 m (c. a hundred paces) apart and, in addition to the painted decorations noted in the text (which have not survived), they were adorned with ornamental finials of terra cotta, which have survived. The palace buildings had brick foundations, surmounted by wooden structures. Excavations showed them clustered in the northern area of the citadel (Fig.3). The ruined foundations did not reveal where the main doors were, but an orientation to the North would not be unusual in a Hindu or Buddhist court as it is the most auspicious direction after the East. For buildings on the Southeast coast of Thailand, this also enabled them to benefit from the North-East monsoon - the main winds felt locally. To a Chinese observer, however, for whom the North was an extemely inauspicious and dangerous direction, it must have been astonishing but was correctly recorded. The several references to food served on large leaf "platters" are also supported by both archaeological and anthropological evidence . The presence of numerous other artefacts in gold (and gold fragments are still frequently found in the Satingpra citadel) makes it clear that this had nothing to do with affordability or local availability - a useful warning to employ these favourite explanatory tools with caution. The leaf platters have to do with an enduring cultural preference for "living" materials, which are carefully made into simple or even very elaborate artefacts, used only once, and then abandoned (this AD. Bangkok, Fine Arts Dept ., n.d.(1980?) Pi. 19 and notes ; see ibid., PIs. 41, 42, 45,49, for the appearance of Central Javanese religious art at Satingpa in the ninth century. 18 J. Stargardt, Satingpra 1, theEnvironmental and Economic A rchaeology of South Thailand. Oxford and Singapore: British Archaeological Reports (BAR) and ISEAS, 1983, Chap. I, Figs. 19 . 22.

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tradition imbues most areas of life in Southeast Asia to the present, and can be seen at all levels, from modest artefacts such as carved fruit, and split bamboo decorations, up to grand works of ephemeral art such as the temple offerings of Bali, and the royal cremation towers of Thailand) . This cultural preference was also to determine at a later date the morphology of Chinese ceramics imported into Satingpra, and to Southeast Asia in general, a point pursued below. The important place of flowers, feathers and cloth in court ceremonials noted in the text springs from the same cultural preferences, as does the use of wood for the elaborate installations of the court hall, and all habitations from temporary field hut to multi-storeyed or many-pavilioned palaces. The detailed depiction of king, courtiers, priests, guards and musicians, court ritual furniture, and ceremonial caparisons of the elephants all carry the stamp of first-hand observation and - if we may apply numerous later accounts back to this period - are highly accurate. To take a single example, the gilded image of the recumbent ox facing the throne and royal shrine clearly meant nothing to the Chinese observer though it was described in detail. It was, of course, Nandi the vehicle of the god Siva, and through its position, kneeling facing the king, symbolically projected onto him the powers of Siva. It is also significant to note here that this court obviously possessed established, elaborate ceremonial practices for the reception and dispatch of diplomatic visits, a fact with great implications for the level of development of Southeast Asian elite society at the beginning of the seventh century. Did the historical context of Chang-chiin's mission in the early seventh century amount to trade? From the text, he was one of a number of persons who responded to the Emperor Yangdi's call for men to "open up communications with distant lands". This encompassing term might have meant an imperial initiative of the Sui (589-617) to encourage trade. If so, they did not retain power long enough to consolidate it. The picture recorded in this text is of an exchange of ceremonial court-to-court visits, paired with equally ceremonial exchanges of precious gifts. Items from these gifts may well have been sold at great advantage to individuals, but the limited

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character of the exchanges limits the trade. This too is supported by the archaeological evidence . By the early seventh century, Satingpra was actively involved in regional maritime trade with other sites on the West and East coasts of the Isthmus and on the other side of the Gulf of Thailand, but there is no evidence of inter-regional trade with China until a much later time, mid-tenth to early fourteenth century. Throughout the subsequent period of Satingpra's China trade, however, by far the greatest concentration of Chinese ceramic sherds was found in the southern and western half of the Satingpra citadel, inside the gates giving onto the great Central Canal and the western moat leading out of it (Fig. 3). Thus the archaeological evidence shows that, as far as Satingpra was concerned, trade remained largely court-controlled during this later period as well. This point is of great importance in understanding how trade functioned at Satingpra, and the nature and level of its links with Sumatran sites in that period. We shall see below that the Satingpra court-culture and its closest external affinities had changed profoundly from the situation depicted in the above text by the time of its involvement in maritime trade with China. From the text, Ch'ih-t'u in the early seventh century was a Funan-type (i.e. Men-Khmer-type) culture, where both Hindu and Buddhist religions were patronized by the king, and where hundreds of Hindu brahmans had a special role at the court, As already mentioned, major Hindu and Buddhist statues (probably royal foundations) belong to the archaeological record at Satingpra from the beginning of its urban history in the fifth-sixth century. Profound cultural changes took place at Satingpra between the ninth and eleventh centuries, signalled by the abrupt appearance first, of Central javanese-type religious an, and then by South Sumatran-type an. The characteristics of these objects may be taken as support for the idea that a branch of the Sailendra kings moved to South Sumatra, but it may also be time for someone to take a close look at the neglected subject of the maritime trade and cultural expansion of Central Javanese kingdoms themselves in the eighthtenth century. Neither subject can be explored here. Both Hinduism and Buddhism continued to be practised in the Satingpra

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court and its dependant sites during this phase of its history, but in new forms. The final point to be noted here is that the person whose observations of the Ch'ih-t'u (Chitu) court form the basis of the text quoted above was a Buddhist, who recognized the iconography of Bodhisattvas and dvarapalas (door guardians = chin-kang giants). Much has been written about the association between merchants and the spread of Buddhism across the Indian Ocean, the role of the early Chinese Buddhist pilgrims en route to India as incidental recorders of sailing conditions and Southeast Asian kingdoms on their routes. It would take us too far away from our primary focus to review that literature here, but I would like to draw attention to the importance of later Buddhism - as well as Islam - in the Nanhai trade under the Song, which is great enough to deserve a more exhaustive study than any presently available.

THE SATINGPRA ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE From the mid-tenth century, for c. 330 years, the rising density of the Chinese ceramics found in Satingpra sites record an uninterrupted and increasingly specialized role in the China trade, followed by a declining one over a further 50 - 70 years on which there are no in situ written records. This trade started in the late Five Kingdoms period (906-960), embraced the whole of the Song and lingered on at a reduced level into the early Yuan. The high quality of the Chinese ceramics involved implies that these sites supplied local or entrepot goods of at least equal value to the Nanhai trade. Our environmental surveys in the forests and plains of the Satingpra area include the study of fossil pollens of the economic plants of the past as well as sampling and collections of the present species to show what the local contributions to this trade were. Thus, in Satingpra we have a rare thing in Southeast Asia: well-defined archaeological sites with a significant body of material evidence of two-way maritime trade over a very extended period.

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The location and extent of the Satingpra sites are described below and in Figs. 1, 2, 4. Sample data by layer and period, typical of the whole trade area of the Satingpra citadel, are given in Table 1 on the changing levels and types of ceramic imports from China. Tables 3 and 4 take a first step in making objective comparisons between the density of Chinese ceramics found at the Satingpra citadel site and the old port in Fukuoka, Kyushu, Japan. They thus provide an entirely new, though still preliminary comparative insight into how the Satingpra port in the Nanhai trade looks in comparison with the major trading site in the North-East network. The plant commodities - especially precious incenses - that the Satingpra partner was able to supply from its local resources to the Chinese market are set out in Table 2. Fewer data are available about the other entrepot goods flowing to and from Satingpra from other points in Southeast Asia, since many would have been highly perishable organic materials, and both they and durable ones usually left the sites. If, however, we consider the distances between the sites marked on Fig. 5 as containing sherds of the ceramics made at the Kok Moh kiln, Satingpra, found together with the Satingpra typology and the chronology of Chinese ceramics, then it becomes clear that Satingpra was active in a very big regional network of trade, acting as a centre of collection and re-export into the still greater inter-regional trade network to South China to the Northeast, and across to Sumatra and the Indian Ocean to the West. Fig. 5 depends on the evidence provided by the highly distinctive Kok Moh kendis. But these were only made and circulated in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, whereas the peak of Satingpra's involvement in the trade in Chinese ceramics was not reached until the mid-twelfth to the mid-thirteenth century. Thus Fig. 5 should be regarded as an understatement of the trade network in which Satingpra operated. Among the chain of small states on the Isthmus of the Malay Peninsula involved to some extent in trade, by the eleventh century or perhaps earlier, only the Satingpra sites had constructed navigable canals to the South China Sea which, with their westward links to the great lakes and natural rivers, provided almost continuous

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shipping across the Isthmus to East Sumatra and the Indian Ocean (Figs. 1 & 4). Satingpra was also active in trade down the East coast of the peninsula to sites in West Malaysia and East Java - for example Pulau Tioman and Gresik. The existence of water routes across most of the Isthmus must have greatly enhanced Satingpra's trade position in relation to neighbouring isthmian kingdoms that relied on the slower and more arduous land routes. These routes were inserted into the geological fault lines marked on Fig. 2. The archaeological evidence therefore shows that the Satingpra Kingdom was a major actor in ancient trade on three levels: trans-isthmian, regional and inter-regional sea trade. The Satingpra archaeological!environmental surveys and excavations have, since 1970, been concentrated on the Southeast Coast of Thailand in the four historic Provinces of Songkhla [Singhora], Nakhorn Sri Thammarat [Nagara Sri Dharmaraja], Panalung and Pattani, and to a lesser degree on the Southwest Coast of Thailand in the Trang and Krabi Provinces (Fig. 1, with inset Fig. 2). The parts of that research relevant to the Nanhai trade are as follows : 1). The discovery and selective excavation of two ancient port settlements involved continuously but to a varying degree in regional trade from the sixth century, and in inter-regional trade with South China from c. the mid-tenth to early fourteenth century (Fig. 1, Satingpra citadel and Kok Tong). They reveal evidence of trade in Chinese ceramics using both Guangzhou and Quanzhou as ports of exit into this part of the Nanhai trade (see PIs. 14, 15 and their captions below). The core territory of Satingpra and its nine dependant sites covered 840 krrr'; with its domination of the great lakes of the Isthmus and the canal-river routes to the West coast , the area it controlled increased to c. 3,500 krn': 2). the discovery, excavation, coring, and mapping, of an ancient canal network, c. 160 linear km of which consisted of canals of navigable dimensions. At its maximum extent, it included two arteries reaching two-thirds of the way across the Isthmus where they neared the headwaters of short navigable rivers reaching the West coast (Figs.1, 4 below) . A segment of the canal system was experimentally reconstructed and operated by my research group in

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1981-3 and the system on the Satingpra Peninsula has now been reconstructed in its entirety by the Irrigation Department of Thailand, on the basis of my research data and maps; 3). the excavation, identification and dating of carefully selected sample groups of over 50,000 sherds of Chinese ceramics of the late Five Dynasties, the Northern Song (960-1126), Southern Song (1127-1279), and early Yuan (1279-1325) . These sherds were found in many sites of the Satingpra complex, but the highest concentration (c. 40,000 = c. 80%) was found inside the citadel of the major port and capital, Satingpra, in the southern and western areas while the palace buildings were in the northern area of the citadel (PIs. 3 - 15, Figs. 1,3 and Table 1); 4). the excavation of the waste-heap of the former Kok Moh kiln (active eleventh-fourteenth cent.), where unglazed but high-quality and very recognizable local kendis with fine monochrome white, red, buff, grey and, only rarely, black pottery bodies were made in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. These kendis entered regional trade, being exported over a wide area of Southeast Asia along with quantities of re-exported Chinese ceramics of the type and date found in Satingpra in the eleventh - twelfth century (pIs. 16, 17, Fig. 5);

5). surveys of the ancient environment of South Thailand continue in the Satingpra area, between latitudes 6 8 ON. They are plotting major changes in the ancient coastline, and have created inventories of economic plants and their qualities in the past and present especially the exceptional resources available in the local varieties of incenses, medicinal plants, and the plants used in ship-building, rigging and -caulking, and packing trade goods (Table 2). These natural tropical products were the main southern contribution to the Nanhai trade in the Song and Yuan periods. The local Satingpra incenses included types such as gharu (or aloes) wood that commanded very high prices on the Chinese market, as well as those such as lakawood that sold for medium prices, but in huge volumes. In addition, a number of the Satingpra incenses had medicinal properties. 0

_

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Like most sites on the Satingpra Peninsula, the ancient capital has therefore been continuously inhabited for between 1,400 and 1,000 years up to the present. We have been obliged to be selective in our excavations at the ancient citadel of Satingpra, parts of the outer city, and also at nine dependant sites that were industrial (iron- and tin-smelting and ceramic-making), commercial and ritual centres (Fig. 1). A controlled sample of the ancient canals, tanks and lakes have been cored below the water table for both stratigraphic and palynological studies. The ancient agriculture and irrigation of this area has also received close attention 19. Archaeological data will always be fragmentary. To try to compensate, a wide range of evidence has been sought and studied on the environmental, economic and cultural archaeology of South Thailand. They permit cross-checking between categories of evidence: for example, dating and comparing activity levels in foreign trade with those in local industries, comparing levels of maintenance in the navigation canals with those in the strictly irrigation canals (thereby gaining insights into the competing demands of ancient trade and agriculture), finding and studying ancient monumental remains, their religious dedication, signs of religious and more general cultural changes, and their external affinities elsewhere in South or Southeast Asia. This archaeological research is providing the framework for a history of the ancient environment, aspects of the economic and cultural history of Satingpra society , sixth to fourteenth century, and with it, of a section of the Isthmus of the Malay Peninsula and parts of Sumatra, which could not have been constructed on the basis of the surviving in situ written sources".

19 J. Stargardt, "Earth, Rice, Water; three essays in "Reading the Landscape" as document of the ancient history of Satingpra, South Thailand", R. Grove et al. (eds.), Nature and the Orient; the Environmental History of South and South East Asia. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1998, 127- 183. 20 It is a remarkable fact that only two short Sanskrit prayer inscriptions have been found at Satingpra. Both are engraved on the back of small bronze votive statues of Javanese style that were probably imported.

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SATINGPRA: CROSSROADS OF OCEANS AND CULTURES

Satingpra developed on a highly strategic stretch of land between the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean, and was involved to a varying degree for about a millenium in maritime trade across both. The earliest trade objects - PI. 1, fragments of Roman glass of c. fourth century AD - occurred in a pre-urban stratum excavated inside the citadel area. They resulted from Satingpra's indirect and intermittent involvement in trade across the Indian Ocean at that time. They probably say more about Satingpra's early contacts with regional trade sites on the West coast of the Isthmus in Trang and Krabi Provinces, than about its own direct contacts with interregional trade across the Indian Ocean at that time. But only a little over a century later, Satingpra's involvement in regional trade became much more profound: its rulers patronized Hinduism and Buddhism, were importing major images of the god Vishnu wearing a tall cylindrical crown as well as the Buddha already mentioned, and were embarked on an 800-year history' of urban civilization. The first phase lasted some 300 years and manifested the Mon cultural origins of the Satingpra kingdom, not only in the elite level of royal statues, shrines, brick types in the fortifications and palace foundations, but also at a more fundamental level in its field and grain types, irrigation and navigation canals. From the eighth/early ninth to the eleventh century, after serious damage to its fortifications in 835 ± 50, new religiouscultural influences from Central Java - both Buddhist and Hindu abruptly appeared at the Satingpra sites. These transformed the religious iconography, the brick types and sizes used in the new Satingpra monuments and in the rebuilding of the citadel fortifications . Significantly, no changes occurred in field patterns, rice types or canal works at this time". The royal inner city or citadel at Satingpra underwent a major physical, religious and, we may infer, politico-economic reorganization at this time. At its centre, and dating from this time, lie the buried ruins of a large brick temple, 21 Stargardt, Satingpra I, 24·37, 110-4, 116-24, 176-8; see the reference in footnote 17 for illustrations of the new style of religious art.

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orientated to the West, with two small shrines flanking its western end. The ruins of the main temple cover an area 40 x 20 m; each small shrine covers c. 8 x 8 m. To its east are the remains of a square sacred pond (Fig. 3). As this part of the citadel is covered by the local soccer pitch, it could not be excavated. These data have been established by magnetic and differential resistivity surveys of underground features. The general features of this monumental group are similar to those of Chandi Gumpung at Muara Jambi, including the sacred pond. Statues of the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara/Padmapani in Central Javanese style became numerous at Satingpra in this period. Avalokitesvara was often accorded special veneration by Mahayana Buddhist travellers and traders, and his cult was associated with ancient ports in Sri Lanka. As the West is his direction, perhaps the orientation of the temple - and with it, the significant re-orientation of the citadel - was part of this cult. Though Hindu statues also belong to this period the great images of Vishnu were no longer present. Instead Ganesa, Siva and Agastya appear, also in Javanese styles. A Hindu ceremony was carried out at one of the western gates of the citadel, involving the sacrifice and cremation of a young elephant and the burial of its cremated remains in a small brick-lined tomb. This apparently marked the refoundation of the fortifications of the citadel in c. 885 ± 50 AD (radiocarbon dates on both the burnt city gate and elephant burial, Cambridge Radiocarbon Laboratory) . It certainly reflects a major ceremonial re-orientation of the site from the North to the West. But what lay to the West? One possible answer is the trans-isthmian trade routes leading to Sumatra and the Indian Ocean . This may not be the whole answer, but it is certainly one worthy of careful reflection. Though the mass of Chinese ceramic debris that began to arrive at Satingpra c. 70 years later proves that trade to the East and North was great, the profound ritual!political reorientation of the citadel suggests that this trade was being conducted under new conditions, in which the elite inhabiting the citadel of Satingpra were no longer the same actors as they had been from the sixth to the ninth centuries. Similar abrupt changes in religion and iconography

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certainly occurred at other sites in Southeast Thailand at this time: Nakhorn Sri Thammarat, Suratthani and Chaiya, among others, but from them we do not yet have evidence from habitation sites or citadels to provide insights comparable with those from Satingpra, into what these changes meant in the re-organization of society". The fact that the trade debris were concentrated inside the citadel at Satingpra is very significant. As Fig. 3 shows , the citadel at Satingpra was very heavily fortified by walls and moats, with strong walls of fired brick along both sides of the Central Canal and guard towers at intervals . The Chinese ceramics found inside the citadel contain substantially complete specimens only in the palace area. In the southern and western areas of the citadel, sherd debris give the impression that this was a place where cargos were checked and sorted under close supervision. Any broken specimens were abandoned here and also thrown into the Central Canal and onto its banks. Though some imported ceramics were consumed by the Satingpra court and by great monastic foundations such as Wat Satingpra and Wat Chedi Ngam, the trade area of the citadel is characterized by entrepot activities, and in particular by the very high density of Chinese sherd deposits already mentioned. The Satingpra site complex lies in the zone where the great EastWest and North-South movements of people, trade and ideas intersect; where the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean are separated only by the Isthmus - c. 40 km of land at this point, plus the great lakes. This Isthmus the Satingpra sites endeavoured to control, intially by land routes, and they sought to exploit the resources of the upland forest as well as those of the two great oceans. At first they did so on their own behalf, but from the ninth century onwards, they did so as part of a wider network of power, which may have been based first in Central Java and later certainly

22

For changes in the iconography of these sites, see M. C. Diskul, Subhadradis,

The Art ofSrivijaya. Oxford: Oxford University Pre ss (for UNESCO) 1980, pis. 1933; d. also Krairiksh, Art in Peninsular Thailand, Pis 43-5; see Stargardt, Satingpra I, Fig. 13 for the correlation between find-sites of Vishnu images and later "Srivijayan" style images in South Thailand.

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emanated from Sumatra, and in this context the trans-isthmian waterways were dug. Here, I turn briefly to the famous stone inscribed on two faces, known as the Ligor [Nakhorn Sri Thammarat] inscription". In fact, as Coedes makes clear in his last reading of the stone, its exact provenance is uncertain, but it came from somewhere in Southeast Thailand on the East coast strip between Chaiya and Satingpra. Nakhorn Sri Thammarat originated on the northern periphery of the Satingpra sites and was linked to them by an ancient navigable canal and through them to the great lakes (Figs. 1, 4). The great importance of this stone is that a long and complete inscription on its front face refers to the King of Srivijaya, and to the construction of three Buddhist shrines at his orders in 775 AD dedicated, respectively, to the Buddha, and the Bodhisattvas Padmapani (a form of Avalokitesvara) and Vajrapani. Further stupas and shrines were constructed by royal monks. The second face bears a short unfinished and undated inscription which refers to a king belonging to the Sailendra family. Without entering into the long-standing controversies about the date of the second face, and how it does or does not relate to the first, these two inscriptions at the very least provide valuable evidence from the vicinity of Satingpra, to document both Srivijayan and Sailendran royal activities on the Isthmus, for the former of which there is a date. That date falls within the span of the in situ evidence, summarized above, for the existence of a major kingdom named Srivijaya at Palembang. The evidence of conquest at Satingpra (damage to the citadel fortifications in 835) and the profound cultural, political, and economic re-orientation is c. 60 - 110 years later than the Ligor inscription, Face A. This could mean that Srivijayan expansion on the Isthmus was piecemeal, or that the Satingpra citadel was able to resist much longer than the place where this inscription was originally erected, 23 After the seven in situ inscriptions of Srivijaya, this is the next most important epigraphical source on that kingdom - see the Srivijaya bibliography in footnote 3 above and G. Coedes (ed. and trs.), Receuil des Inscriptions du Siam. 2eme partie, Inscriptions de Dvaravati, de (:rivijaya et de Lavo. Bangkok: Department of Fine Arts? n.d., 20, inscription XXllI , PIs. VIII, IX.

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or that Satingpra was conquered from Central Java. In spite of such residual areas of uncertainty, it can be concluded that from the ninth century onwards, in the Satingpra - Chaiya area of the Isthmus, the Mon-Khmer cultures and economies of mainland Southeast Asia interacted with the Malayo-Javanese economies and cultures of maritime Southeast Asia. That process visibly continues up to the present. Satingpra's sustained participation in trade with China for nearly four centuries has to be placed in this context. In expanding into a number of sites on the Isthmus from the eighth/ ninth century, the Sailendra of Central Java and Srivijaya/Sanfoqi of Southeast Sumatra were expanding into a series of flourishing cities and kingdoms in Southeast Thailand with established regional trade contacts and, in particular, mastery of navigation across the Gulf of Thailand, a large and difficult part of the South China Sea24• This Pre-Srivijayan development of the Isthmus has often been overlooked in Srivijayan studies, and for that reason has been attentively considered in this paper. Moreover, as Table 2 in the section below on economic plants and the China trade shows in detail, Srivijaya/Sanfoqi's ascendancy over the Satingpra complex gave it access to the resources of its strongest local rival in the exploitation of forest products, especially incenses, that were so important in the Chinese marker". From the perspective of Srivijaya/Sanfoqi, the sites on the Isthmus were both stepping stones and challenges on the route to China. The Lingwai daida, 2: 13. a, b, records that the traders from Western and Stargardt , "L'Isthme de la Peninsule", 11-12; Stargardt, Satingpra I, 13-5,20-37. Shiba Yoshinobu, "Sung Foreign Trade : its scope and organization ", Morris Rossabi (ed.), China among Equals. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983, 108, on Chinese preference for aloes [or gharu] wood in which the Satingpra area excelled; So Kee-long, "Developments in Southern Fukien under the rang and the Min", Journal 01 the American Oriental Society 115:3 (1995) 443-51; Clark, Community Trade and Networks 132-7, and Clark this volume . So Kee Long "Quanzhou Merchants", expresses reservations about the value of Srivijaya's local products in this trade and emphasizes the value of entrepot incense from western and southern Asia. But the Chinese texts he quotes give contradictory evidence about the volume and value of local Sanfoqi products, and the botanical data presented in Table 2, demonstrate that the Isthmus outdid Southeast Sumatra in a number of very valuable local economic plants. 24 2S

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Southern Asia en route to China could be compelled to call into Sanfoqi ports [and pay charges], if they did not do so voluntarily. This was not true of the traders to and from the ports on the East coast of the Isthmus. Their trade, lying to the East of Sanfoqi, could not be exploited in this way unless one had a measure of control over at least some of the isthmian ports themselves. As already noted, only the Satingpra site-complex, among the several isthmian sites involved in trade, invested in shipping canals integrated into the great lakes from the sixth century onwards (Fig. 1). Significantly, during the eleventh century and perhaps before, the Satingpra canal network was extended by two navigable EastWest canals feeding into the great lakes and almost meeting with short navigable rivers down to the West coast. They then commanded almost continuous water transport across the Isthmus (Fig. 4). From the Chinese perspective, the Satingpra ports and canals were a gateway to the Straits of Malacca and the Indian Ocean, which shortened the circumpeninsular route by c. 2000 km . Our stratigraphic coring in the beds of these two canals has shown that they and the Central Canal which led from the capital city to them, were kept open during the last quarter of the thirteenth century, at a time when other parts of the Satingpra canal network serving agriculture and local transport were being neglected". This is invaluable evidence of the preference then being given to keeping the long-distance entrepot trade from the South China Sea flowing westwards along the trans-isthmian canals, while the competing demands of internal transport, irrigation and agriculture were sacrificed. In regional trade of the eleventh and twelfth century (Fig. 5 below), the very distinctive Kok Moh white unglazed ceramics of the Satingpra complex figured prominently in places as far apart as Butuan (Philippines), Pulau Tioman (West Malaysia), Gresik (East Java), Kota Cina (Northeast Sumatra) and Muara Jambi (East Sumatra), as well as places within or on the periphery of the Satingpra complex on the Isthmus, such as Nakhorn Sri Thammarat, Pattalung, Trang, Paliang, and Satun . In the places marked on Fig. 26

Stargardt, Satingpra 1,176-82 ,209-21.

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5, moreover, the Satingpra-made ceramics occur with Chinese ceramics of the same typology and chronology as those found at Satingpra. The pattern emerging from all the above evidence suggests that Satingpra acted as an increasingly specialized entrepot, within the Srivijayan/Malayu/Sanfoqi network, re-exporting Chinese ceramics along with its own products. In the context of geographical distance and the loosely-structured Southeast Asian polities of the eleventh to the thirteenth centuries, it may be inappropriate to envisage tight hegemonic controls being imposed over Satingpra and the other isthmian sites from Srivijaya/Malayu/Sanfoqi somewhere along the East coast of Sumatra. Certainly, the archaeological evidence show that the rural population of Satingpra was little touched by that, to judge by the unchanged rice grain types, fields and irrigation systems . The weight of the changes fell on the social elite, who lived in and near the citadel, and on a number of great religious foundations, where the religious and ceremonial re-orientations already described were experienced daily. Their impact on the allegiances and the composition of the Satingpra elite, and consequently on their social and economic activities must have been profound. Thus, within the limitations inherent in the nature of archaeological evidence, it is nonetheless possible to outline in these broad terms major transformations in the Satingpra society and in its capital city from the ninth to the thirteenth centuries. What these changes also meant in terms of specialization in the ceramics entrepot trade from the mid-twelfth mid-thirteenth century will be treated in more detail below. The changes delineated began before Satingpra's participation in the China trade, and endured during its buoyant period until the third quarter of the thirteenth century. During the period of declining volume and value of trade from c. 1275 until c. 1320, Mon-style Buddha images re-appeared at Satingpra. They show that the original cultural base of the Satingpra society had never been effaced, though it had been eclipsed in the archaeological record for over three centuries. The power of states to the West in this final phase of Satingpra sufficed to give priority to keeping the transisthmian water routes open, but apparently no longer imposed itself

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on local religious practice. Though archaeological data do not permit the kind of individual and family studies that historical sources do, they do underpin the idea of significant social, economic, and political change at Satingpra just before, during, and in the closing phase of its participation in the Nanhai trade. THE CIllNA TRADE : KILNS AND DATES OF ClllNESE CERAMICS IN SATINGPRA, TENTH-FoURTEENTH CENTURY

Admirable as they are as art objects, Chinese ceramics are presented in this paper mainly as durable signposts to ancient trade between South China and South Thailand. To read the full message on those signposts, the ceramics had to be identified and dated as precisely as possible. The Chinese ceramics found in the Satingpra sites illuminate the trade and economic development in their place and time of manufacture as well as in the place and time of their deposition. Tracing their place and date of origin in China leads on to the likely route of exit from the kiln to the Chinese coast. One glimpses multiple stages of marketing along the way from the kilns to the coast, and gleans some insight into the organization of trade behind the assembling of the cargos at the great Chinese ports for their journey to the find-site in Satingpra. Below I will present evidence on the incense commodities flowing to China from the South. The Chinese ceramics trade with Satingpra began during the period of transition from the Five Dynasties (906-960) to the beginning of the Northern Song (960-1126) and continued without detectable break until the early Yuan (1279-1320). The peak of technical quality and quantity of Chinese ceramics traded at Satingpra was reached during the Southern Song period, from the late twelfth to shortly after the mid-thirteenth century. If, as Clark postulates in this volume, there was an economic crisis in Quanzhou's activities in the thirteenth century, it is not reflected in the density and quality of Chinese ceramics reaching the Satingpra coast for most of that century. That may mean that trade successfully rerouted itself inside China so as to leave by other ports . The evidence

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of container jars made close to both Guangzhou and Quanzhou show conclusively that China's ceramic trade to Satingpra exited from both these ports, and probably returned to them both, but other ports such as Ningbo may also have been involved. The rare datable container sherds show that ceramics left Guangzhou in the eleventh/twelfth century and Quanzhou in the thirteenth to early fourteenth centuries, but that does not mean that Quanzhou was not active in the earlier period or that Guangzhou became inactive in the later. The main Chinese production centres sending ceramics to the Satingpra coast, based on analytical sherd-counts of controlled stratigraphic samples (Table 1 below), were the Longquan kilns (Zhejiang Province), followed by the Jingdezhen kilns (Jiangxi Province), and the Dehua kilns (Fujian Province). These kiln groups were represented in the Satingpra finds by high quality wares of the grade used by high-ranking officials in China, and the Chinese ceramics specialists to whom I have shown them have all been astonished to learn that wares of this quality were part of external trade during the Song dynasty. In addition, there were numerous fragments of Chinese container jars. Among them were fortunately two containers datable to the eleventhltwelfth century, made near Guangzhou, at the Xicun kiln. Three others, datable to the thirteenth/fourteenth century, were made in Fujian near Quanzhou (Peter Lam, Senior Curator of the Art Museum, Chinese University of Hong Kong, personal communication, January 1997), specifically at the Jinjiang kiln-group (Ye Wencheng, Emeritus Professor, Dept. of Anthropology, Xiamen University, President of the Ceramics Society of China, personal communication April 1998). These specimens are discussed in further detail below and in the captions of PIs. 14, 15. The main ceramic types are illustrated in the plates, and their changing volume over time in the Satingpra citadel is summarized in Table 1 (data from stratified standard test areas [s.t.a.] typical of the trade area of the citadel). The main shapes of fine wares exported were medium-sized bowls (from the tenth - fourteenth century), joined by lidded boxes (from the eleventh to the fourteenth century), by small vases or

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ewers (from the twelfth to the fourteenth century), and by a few shallow bowls (from the thirteenth to the fourteenth century) . As pointed out earlier, the food culture of the Satingpra market, as well as other Southeast Asian markets which it supplied as entrepot, determined the morphology of the Chinese ceramics that it imported. Large bowls and flat dishes are conspicuously absent. Large food containers must have been made of wood or metal, while food was served and consumed on prepared leaves that were used only once. Only large scoops of cocoanut shells or horn spoons were used for serving food, while food was eaten using the thumb and first two fingers of the right hand in the Indian manner. Hot tea was not drunk. Tea, silk, and iron swords (made near the Longquan kilns) were probably traded through Satingpra to South and West Asia, but leave no clear traces in the archaeological record. Few small cups have been found, and they may have been small incense holders. In chronological order, the Chinese ceramics excavated in the Satingpra complex of sites to date are as follows:' 1. Ceramicsfrom the Ou kilns

Situated just west of the Wenzhou port, the Ou kilns exported palegreen stoneware bowls to Satingpra from the late Five Dynasties until the mid-Northern Song (PI. 3). Thereafter, this export ceased as the quality of the paste in the Ou ceramics declined. In their place, the Longquan kilns became the highest quality suppliers of green-glazed stonewares to the Satingpra coast. Until recently ceramics from the Ou kilns were classified as part of the famous Yue kiln group. The kilns have still not been fully investigated and only limited publications have appeared". Zhu Boqian's research since 1990 shows that, although closely related to the Yue ceramics in shape, glaze, and sometimes in decoration, Ou wares are not only geographically of separate origin from the Yue kiln group, they also 27 Zhu Boqian, "A Brief Introduction to Ou Wares", unpubl. [?] typescript trans. Dr Chiew Seen Kong, 1995, 5pp. Kindly presented by Professor Zhu ; I have studied the reserve collections of Ou wares in the depository of the Institute of Archaeology, Zhejiang Province by courtesy of Mr Ren Shilong, its Director.

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used a different clay type which fires to a whiter body. The Ou glazes are extremely pale green and some non-Yue shapes were made there . The full repertoire of the morphology of the Ou ceramics has not yet been established. The Ou sherds found in the Satingpra sites are of high quality and, with the products of the Yue kilns, were the finest green-glazed stonewares made in China at that time. Ou wares formed only c. 5% of the total body of ceramics present in the deepest of the standard test areas [s.t.a.] of 100 x 100 x 20cm inside the citadel at Satingpra. The results obtained from that area and depth are typical of the trade area of the citadel as a whole . Ou ceramics would have reached the China coast via the Ou River and the ancient port of Wenzhou. From there, they must have been taken in coastal ships probably to Guangzhou for inclusion in a long-distance cargo. Originally established in 714 under the Tang, the Maritime Trade Superintendancy was reestablished at Guangzhou in 971 AD by the Northern Song, immediately after the capitulation of the Later Han Kingdom in 970. TheSuperintendancy at Quanzhou, by contrast, took over a hundred years to be created". In the mid-tenth to the early eleventh century, the long-distance port for the Nanhai trade was somewhat more likely to have been Guangzhou, although foreign merchants were already living and presumably trading in Quanzhou at that time.

TechnicalAspects ofOu Wares found at Satingpra" Clay body, very smooth pale grey/whitish stoneware (av. crosssection c. 3mm, fired at c. 1120°C); glaze types - pale yellowishgreen, very clear (pI. 3).

28 So Kee Long, "Song Maritime Regulations and their Effect on the Maritime Trade in Quanzhou before the Year 1087", Xuecong: Journal of the Department of Chinese Studies, National University of Singapore 1 (1989) 255·66; Clark, Com-

munity, Trade, and Networks, 121-7.

29 The Identification of au wares was profided by Professor Zhu Boqian, Professor Li Jiazhi, Mr Li Gang and the author.

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Chemical Composition and Trace Elements in clay body, (in wt%, as established by the Shanghai Institute of Ceramic Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences[SICT, CAS]): . Si02 72.13 Al203 20.41 Fe203 1.33 Ti02 0.12 MnOO.012 CaO 0.03 MgO 0.13 K20 4.04 Na 20 0.20.

2. Longquan ceramics Longquan stone wares were exported to Satingpra from early Northern Song times, increasing in density of deposition in the course of the eleventh and twelfth centuries. They reached a peak in quality and number during the mid- to late Southern Song in the thirteenth century, and occurred only as surface finds during the Yuan Period (Table 1 below and PIs. 4 - 7). From the early Northern Song, high quality Longquan greenglazed deep bowls, ewers and shallow bowls found at Satingpra rose steadily in numerical importance. In early Northern Song, they formed 20% of the total number of sherds present in the standard test area [s.t.a.] in the Satingpra citadel, when all Chinese sherds equalled 40%. By late Northern Song/early Southern Song, they formed 30-35%, when all Chinese sherds equalled 60% of all sherds present . These statistics mean that by c. 1130, Satingpra was certainly specializing in the entrepot trade in Chinese ceramics at a high level (see Table 1 for the visual expression of these figures). By the early thirteenth century, this trend reached an impressive level: Longquan sherds alone account for 45% of all Chinese ceramics present and all Chinese sherds equalled 75% of the total number of sherds present . The Longquan ceramics found at Satingpra were among the most beautiful ceramics of their time - Pi. 4 is identical to the specimen displayed in the ceramics time-chart in the Shanghai Museum. These density figures from Table 1 below, show in a conconcrete and objective way how intensively Satingpra was engaged in a high-volume maritime trade with South China during the Southern Song period, and how dominant a place in that trade the high-value ceramics from the Longquan kilns occupied.

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Table I, SAT INGPRA CITADEL . SHERD COUNT BY STRATUM AND BY STANDARD TEST AREAS. 4T H - 13TH CENTURY

e

~

~ ~

-'=

LAYERS & DATES

0

12thC

IX

IIthC

VIlI

10thC

VII

~

" e

c

;j E

0

Vi

~

"

~ c,

0

X

~

-" O/l

(,J

c 'il OJ

~

es

~

0