Archaeology of Manila Galleon Seaports and Early Maritime Globalization

The Archaeology of Asia-Pacific Navigation 2 Chunming Wu Roberto Junco Sanchez Miao Liu Editors Archaeology of Manila Galleon Seaports and Early Maritime Globalization Editors Chunming Wu Roberto Junco Sanchez The Center for Maritime Archaeology SAS-INAH Xiamen University Instituto Nacional de Antropologíae Xiamen, China Historia Mexico City, Mexico Miao Liu Department of History Xiamen University Xiamen, China ISSN 2524-7468 ISSN 2524-7476 (electronic) The Archaeology of Asia-Pacific Navigation ISBN 978-981-32-9247-5 ISBN 978-981-32-9248-2 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9248-2 © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-01/04 Gateway East, Singapore 189721, Singapore Chapter 5 Chinese Porcelain in the Manila Galleon Trade Guanyu Wang Since the 16th century, Europeans started to explore the Asian sea with the financial and military support from both the royal families and nobles. Their efforts to trade with China drew the Ming Empire into the early Globalization. The beautiful artefacts with perfect craftsmanship made in Ming China soon became popular products around the world, among which, the Chinese porcelain was undoubtedly marked as the top brand. Europeans had participated actively into the stages of designing, producing, shipping and trading of Chinese porcelain wares, to ensure they make maximum profits from the business. Different interest groups and the various needs from markets prompted the diversification of the Chinese porcelain in circulation. This chapter aims to take the Manila Galleon trade of the late Ming period as a study case. By tracing the clues of specific types of Chinese export porcelain wares and their changing combinations in the ship cargos from time to time, the author will disscuss on the moving of their target markets and the dominant power behind. 5.1 Background Starting from the end of the 15th century, Europeans entered the Age of Discovery. Among the Europeans who were keen on expanding their Oceanic Empires, the Portuguese arrived at the China coast as the earliest. After that, the maritime trade between China and Portugal suffered a difficult time until the Portuguese occupied Macau in the year of 1553 and got the permission to trade at the Canton port from the Ming Court the year after. The maritime trade between China and Europe entered its golden age shortly afterwards. G. Wang (&) Art Museum, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, N. T., Hong Kong e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019 93 C. Wu et al. (eds.), Archaeology of Manila Galleon Seaports and Early Maritime Globalization, The Archaeology of Asia-Pacific Navigation 2, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9248-2_5 94 G. Wang Fig. 5.1 The international maritime trade routes of 16th and 17th centuries (Harrisson 1995) From the map we can see the three main maritime trade routes under the control of the Portuguese, Spanish and Dutch during the 16th and 17th centuries (Harrisson 1995). Due to the military and trade monopolies of the Portuguese along the Indian Ocean, the Spanish explored a new travel route sailing across the Pacific Ocean from the Philippines to Drake’s Bay and then to Acapulco. After that, they had to cross a land route to Veracruz and then sail all the way back to Europe (Fig. 5.1). Although the route was rougher and riskier for the Spanish sailors, the use of it further avoided the fierce competition with the Portuguese and Dutch in a later stage. 5.2 Jingdezhen (景德镇) and Zhangzhou (漳州): Main Origins of the Chinese Porcelain Cargos During the time when the Spanish came to the Southeast coast of Ming Empire, the main place of origin of the Chinese export porcelain wares was still Jingdezhen. Located in the inner land of Jiangxi province, China, Jingdezhen was famous for its export porcelain wares of high quality and fine decoration (Fig. 5.2). After being produced copying the orders from the merchants or agents, porcelain wares were packed carefully with woven straw or rough paper, settled in wood barrels or bamboo split packages. They were then transported by boats through the rivers to the Poyang Lake (鄱阳湖), and then move southwards along the Ganjiang River (赣江) to the Dayu (大余) County, a place named after the famous Dayu Mountain (大庾岭) located there. Upon arrival at the Dayu County, the porcelain packages 5 Chinese Porcelain in the Manila Galleon Trade 95 Fig. 5.2 The location of Jingdezhen (https://jowoffinden.wordpress.com/2014/12/30/porcelain- where-does-it-come-from/) Fig. 5.3 Painting showing the porcelain production and trading process (Left to Right: Packing, cross the lake, mountain pass), late 18th century (Collection of the Maritime Museum of Hong Kong) will be carried by the local porters to walk cross the Dayu Mountain, which sep- arated the two provinces of Jiangxi and Guangdong (Fig. 5.3). After the mountain pass, the porcelain wares would be loaded on board again at Nanxiong (南雄) and transported through the Zhen River (浈水), Beijiang River (北江) and the Pearl River to Guangzhou (Canton), where the foreign boats were sailing up to the river for trade. Many kiln sites in Jingdezhen have been systemically excavated by ceramic archaeologists during the recent decades. Among them, shards of export type porcelain wares were unearthed from the Guanyinge (观音阁) Kiln site, Zhushan (珠山, Pearl Hill) imperial Kiln site and Luomaqiao (落马桥) Kiln site located along the Chang River (昌江) (Fig. 5.4). Comparative pieces with these discoveries could be seen in some of the cargos belonged to the Spanish shipwrecks, indicating that 96 G. Wang Fig. 5.4 The location of kiln sites in Jingdezhen (JDZCAI et al. 2017) during the early stage of their arrival on the China coast, the Spanish were also very active in the trade of Jingdezhen porcelain wares near Canton (Fig. 5.5). But soon, the story turned to a new page. Unlike the Portuguese who are conducting trades with Chinese merchants based on Macau, a port near Guangzhou, the Spanish were based at the Philippines, which was more closely connected to the ports along the Fujian province. When the Longqing (隆庆) Emperor succeeded the Jiajing (嘉靖) Emperor in 1567, he made the decision to open the seaport Yuegang (月港, literately “Moon Barbour”)of Zhangzhou, Fujian province, to private trades, allowing the Chinese merchants active in Quanzhou (泉州) and Zhangzhou to conduct trade with foreign merchants (Japanese merchants were still excluded) near Yuegang. This was a great oppor- tunity for the Spanish who were active around Zhangzhou to attend the maritime trades there. Furthermore, in the year of 1574, when the Ming Navy commanded by the Fujian Military Headquarter fought against a branch of Chinese pirates who had fled to Luzon at the northern part of the Philippines. They invited the Spanish to conduct joint operations against the pirates and won the war. So the next year, when the Spanish requested for official permission from the Ming court to trade with Chinese merchants and start missionary work in China, their requests were approved shortly afterwards (Gu et al. 1630). The Spanish merchants then became much more active in maritime trade along the Fujian coasts. 5 Chinese Porcelain in the Manila Galleon Trade 97 Fig. 5.5 Shards of Jingdezhen wares from the Guanyinge Kiln site, Zhushan (pearl hill) Imperial Kiln site and Luomaqiao Kiln site (JDZCAI) 98 G. Wang Soon after Zhangzhou opened Yuegang to private trades, its local production of Chinese Blue and White porcelain wares raised dramatically. According to field investigations and archaeological works done in the previous decades, there are more than 50 kiln sites located in the area of the Zhangzhou City and the sur- rounded counties. In some of the sites, kilns and remains from the ancient firing activities distributed widely within the archaeological area, indicating that pros- perous productions had been conducted everywhere. Most of the porcelain wares produced here were for exportation only, they were rarely seen in the domestic market. Comparative pieces with the Zhangzhou wares found in Spanish shipwrecks could mainly be seen in the kiln sites concentrated at Nansheng (南胜) and Wuzhai (五寨) located in Pinghe (平和) county closely to Zhangzhou, indicating that this was the production centre of Zhangzhou export porcelain wares during the late 16th to early 17th centuries, which is also the first peak of the trade of Chinese porcelain wares by the Manila Galleons (Figs.

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