Transnational Exchange of Metallic Commodities During the Era of The

The Newsletter No. 86 Summer 2020 China Connections Regional Editor 47 Things on the move Fan ZHANG The Region Fig.1 (above): Shangchuan Island, Blue-and-white porcelain on Shangchuan Island: with the chapel attached to St. Francis Xavier’ Chinese-Portuguese trade during the Ming dynasty tomb on the left side. Courtesy of Guangdong Provincial Research Institute of Cultural XIAO Dashun Relics and Archaeology. Fig. 2 (left): Porcelain sherd decorated with Christ Cross, excavated from Shangchuan Island, n 2016, the Guangdong Provincial Research Ming Nian Zao 大明年製 [Produced during Guangdong Province. Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology the years of the Great Ming] and Jia Jing Courtesy of Guangdong Provincial Research Iconducted a series of archaeological Nian Zhi 嘉靖年製 [Made during the Jiajing Institute of Cultural Relics excavations and surveys on Shangchuan reign], helping to date these remains to the and Archaeology. Island. The island (fig. 1), measuring 156.7 16th century. Most sherds are decorated square kilometers, is one of the largest islands with traditional Chinese patterns, such as in the Pearl River Delta. It lies on the southern flowers, clouds, and phoenix. Intriguingly, one side of Guanghai Bay, about 9 kilometers piece of blue-and-white porcelain is painted off the south coast of Guangdong Province. with the Order of Christ Cross (fig. 2), the Shangchuan Island is rich in natural harbors emblem of the historical Portuguese Order of and has served as an important navigation Christ, thus testifying to the Portuguese and travels in Asia, arrived at Shangchuan Island Xavier’s mission.1 The current chapel was mark for the maritime route since the Song Catholic presence on the island. The discovery in 1552, but died soon later in the same year. sponsored by Bishop Guillemin between 1867 dynasty. Cultural remains on the island can suggests that Shangchuan Island served as After St. Francis Xavier's visit, Shanghchuan and 1869. Another Catholic Church in the be traced as far back as the pre-Qin period. a transitional trading post for the Chinese- island not only acted as a Chinese-Portuguese Sunday Village south of St. Francis Xavier’s Our excavation carried out in 2016 was Portuguese trade before the Portuguese trading stronghold, but also became a bridge chapel and a hilltop commercial monument centered on Dazhou Bay; it unearthed a large took Macao as their major settlement in for the religious and cultural exchanges. The showcase the later wave of Catholic presence. number of blue-and-white porcelain pieces, 1557. After controlling the Malacca Strait, large quantity of recovered blue-and-white the majority of which are export porcelain the Portuguese sailed through Southeast Asia porcelain, and the Christ Cross found on the XIAO Dashun, is an archaeologist at the related to Portuguese trading activities along to China with the help of the monsoon wind, sherds, is an embodiment of the trading and Guangdong Provincial Research Institute China’s southeastern coast during the Ming seeking to establish connections with the religious network connecting the East and of Cultural Relics and Archaeology [email protected] dynasty (1368-1644 CE). Ming court. The Portuguese delegation paid the West. In 1639, the Jesuits in Macau built their first official visit to China in 1517, followed a tomb for the saint to mark the original burial These pottery sherds are fragments of by increasing trading and construction site after the body was taken to Goa, the then Notes bowls or plates. Features of the glaze and the activities along the coast. capital of Portuguese India. From 1701 to 1864, paste, as well as the production technique, The blue-and-white porcelains were Catholic activities on Shangchuan Island were 1 Davies, S. 2016. ‘Achille-Antoine indicate these ceramics are products of retrieved from a site near a chapel attached to largely restricted or even banned, and priests Hermitte’s Surviving Building’, Jingdezhen. Some of the sherds are inscribed St. Francis Xavier’s cemetery. St. Francis Xavier, were expelled. After 1864, French Catholicism Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society with Chinese characters, including Da a Catholic missionary known for his extensive arrived on the island and continued St. Francis Hong Kong Branch 56:92-110. Transnational exchange of metallic commodities items that were recorded as ballasts in the Company’s journals and logs. Laboratory during the Era of the Canton Trade tests show that the composition of these tutenag items is comparatively pure zinc. Fig. 1: A pair of candlesticks in the Paktong, or ‘white copper’, a kind of copper- HUANG Chao fluted pillar style, made of Chinese nickel or copper-nickel-zinc alloy, is usually paktong but probably manufactured in Britain, ca. the late 18th century. made into candlesticks (fig.1). Not only were Courtesy of HUANG Chao. the paktong products exported to Europe, uring the decades preceding the Qing but the technique of manufacturing paktong empire’s forced opening to the West in items was also transmitted to the West, as D1842, Canton (Guangzhou) was the only demonstrated by some 18th century lab port open for foreign trade. The Sino-Western notebooks on paktong discovered in England relations had mainly evolved around trades research into what was and Sweden. Lead, tin, and iron were usually through Canton from 1700 to 1842, a period then termed ‘Chinese export regarded as ballast cargoes or kentledge known as the ‘Era of the Canton Trade’. silver’.1 Nevertheless, metallic that were used to improve the ship’s stability Scholarship of the Canton Trade focuses commodities other than while sailing at sea. Commodities made of mainly on the trade of tea, porcelain, and silk, silver have yet to be studied these metals were much smaller in scale. yet the commercial exchange of precious and systematically. Pure copper was often imported from Japan semi-precious metallic items has been largely When conducting to Canton by the European traders. Metallic ignored. During the 18th and 19th centuries, my post-doctoral project commodities, though not a common topic large quantities of manufactured goods made ‘Trading Metals in Canton’, of research, did play a significant role in the of silver, gold, tutenag, paktong, lead, tin, as in collaboration with Professor exchanges between China and the West. I well as the raw materials, were exported from Paul A. Van Dyke, a renowned hope this short essay can stimulate more Canton to Southeast Asia, Europe, and the expert on the Canton Trade, interest in the transnational exchange of Americas. Based on archival records, including I started to pay attention to metallic commodities. journals and logbooks, and archaeological the trade of gold with Spanish discoveries from shipwrecks, this essay examines silver coins. Gold ingots were HUANG Chao is an Associate Professor the overlooked metallic items that embodied recovered from a number at the Institute of Sino-Foreign the commercial vitality and momentum of the of shipwrecks, including the Relation History, Jinan University, [email protected] transnational trade. ‘Nanking Cargo’ in Amsterdam. These ingots are impressed In 1684, the Qing court lifted the ban with marks, such as yuanji on maritime trade, reinitiating commercial the Canton Trade, ranging from studies on 元記 that denotes the maker’s name, and exchanges with the outside world. Canton, companies and merchants to that of trading numerals such as shiliang 十两 that stands located at the southeast tip of China’s routes. The trading commodities have long for weight and value. Notes coastal line, gradually grew into one of the been the subject to extensive research. Besides gold and silver, objects made most important port cities of the 18th and However, most studies are concentrated on of tutenag and paktong also constitute 1 Forbes, H. et al. 1975. Chinese Export Silver: 1785 to 1885. Massachusetts: 19th centuries, an era that witnessed the tea, silk, and porcelain. Metallic objects are a significant portion of export metallic Museum of the American China Trade. emergence of the transnational trading largely ignored. In the second half of the commodities. Tutenag is now widely accepted 2 Bonnin, A. 1924. Tutenag & Paktong, with 2 networks. The flourishing maritime trade left 20th century, H.A. Crosby Forbes and his as zinc, thanks to the study by Alfred Bonin. Notes on Other Alloys in Domestic Use a rich body of materials that offers scholars colleagues raised the awareness of export The 18th-century shipwrecks of the English during the Eighteenth Century. Oxford the opportunity to look into every aspect of metallic artifacts through their breakthrough East India Company uncovered tutenag University Press..

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