Shipping, Customs Procedures, and the Foreign Community The 'Pingzhou ketan' on Aspects of Guangzhou's Maritime Economy in the Late Eleventh Century

Throughout history, maritime trade has been an important aspect of China's economy and society. By the early first millennium, Chinese traders had established maritime economic links with Southeast Asia, the Indian Ocean littoral and the Arabian peninsula. With the consolidation of southern China under a single dynastic rule in the fifth century (Liu Song, 420–478), China's maritime economic, cultural and diplomatic ties extended to such states as Funan (Cambodia), Langkasuka (Malay Peninsula), Holing (Java) and Srivijaya (Sumatra).¹ This external interaction, particularly along the southeastern coast of China, led to administrative, diplomatic and social developments in southern Chinese society that catered to the needs and imperatives of China's maritime economy.

By the Tang period (618–907), a vibrant maritime economy had developed that was centered primarily on the port city of Guangzhou, but included other port cities along the southeastern coastline of China as well. Foreign products from Southeast Asia, the Indian Ocean littoral and the Arabian peninsula were imported through the Chinese port cities, while Chinese manufactures, including silks, ceramics and metal ware, were exported to these regions in return.² The growing importance of maritime trade, both as an aspect of China's economy and as a source of revenue for the Chinese state, led the Tang court to attempt to govern this trade in a more accountable manner than had been the case prior to the eighth century. Some time before 714, the post of Superintendent of Mercantile Shipping (shiboshi 市舶使) was established at Guangzhou. This official was specifically tasked with ensuring that maritime trade could be conducted unimpeded at that port city, and the purpose of the appointment was to provide for some form of state-level approach toward the handling of China's maritime diplomatic and economic relations.³ The Tang court also sought to create an environment conducive to the smooth conduct of international trade at its ports, undertaking a number of measures to secure the welfare of foreign traders who arrived annually at these ports.⁴ These measures were aimed at ensuring that trade with China was sufficiently profitable for foreign traders, in particular those who were arriving from or via maritime Southeast Asia, and thus to encourage them to continue to trade with China. Consequently, sojourning communities of foreign traders began to be established at Chinese port cities to facilitate the conduct of trade carried predominantly by foreign ships arriving at these ports on an annual basis.

China's maritime trade at southern port cities had become so well established by the early tenth century that it continued unabated during the collapse of Tang rule in southern China in 904 and the ensuing political upheaval that continued until the advent of Song rule in 960. Each of the port cities, under the administration of autonomous southern Chinese kingdoms, was able to maintain economic and diplomatic relations with states located in the various maritime regions of Asia. The fiscal needs of these autonomous kingdoms led their respective courts to continue to maintain as well as develop the maritime economic and political links that had already been established between China and the polities of maritime Asia. The Kingdom of Min in southern Fujian began to develop Quanzhou and Fuzhou during the early tenth century as major ports for foreign ships to stop upon their arrival,⁵ while the Southern Han kingdom, with its administrative capital located at Guangzhou, continued to maintain the port city as the most important center of economic relations with maritime Asia throughout the course of the tenth century.⁶ The foreign products that were shipped to China via these ports were in turn redistributed to the rest of the Chinese market through domestic mercantile networks.⁷ The presence and importance of foreign traders at these port cities was also so great that the foreign communities attained a level of official recognition that had not previously been accorded them by a Chinese state.⁸

By the Song period, China's maritime trade had developed to become one of the key aspects of its economy and its foreign relations with polities and regions beyond its borders.⁹ Beginning with state-level trade exchanges conducted by the Song court at Guangzhou, Hangzhou and Mingzhou in the latter half of the tenth century,¹⁰ by the early twelfth century, China's maritime trade was characterized by port-level trade. International ports serving as the main ports of call for mercantile shipping were established along the coast of Guangdong, Fujian and Liangzhe circuits at Guangzhou, Quanzhou, Mingzhou, Banqiao and Hangzhou.¹¹ This development was spurred on by the Song court's recognition of maritime trade as an increasingly important aspect of the economy during this period, as well as the court's increasing reliance on official participation in and taxation of maritime trade as a source of state revenue.

With China's maritime trade increasing in value over the course of the eleventh and twelfth centuries,¹² the volume of shipping that passed through its international ports must have increased correspondingly as well, from a fairly small number of ships arriving to conduct state-level trade exchanges in the tenth and early eleventh centuries, to an annual arrival of mercantile vessels from Southeast Asia, riding on the southwest monsoon in the months of May to September. The increase in the volume of shipping must have posed a logistical challenge to the Song court, which endeavored to benefit fiscally and economically from being an end market in the international maritime trade. This led to the need to police and regulate maritime shipping, both in Chinese waters and at the international ports.

Much is already known of the institutions and administrative structures of China's maritime trade. These include the Song court's administration and regulation of maritime trade through the administrative apparatus known as the Mercantile Shipping Superintendancy (tiju shibosi 提舉市舶司);¹³ the fiscal regime, including customs duties and compulsory purchases, which were exacted on incoming mercantile vessels;¹⁴ and the respective histories of Song port cities.¹⁵ What has not been explored in detail, however, is the governance of shipping during this period, the extent of this governance and its effectiveness; and how the Song court's changing perspective on maritime trade led to corresponding changes in these aspects of the administration of maritime shipping.¹⁶

As early as the late tenth century, the Song court had begun to permit ships to sail abroad for the purpose of trade.¹⁷ While Song regulations governing mercantile shipping abroad were restrictive, shipping networks nonetheless developed through the course of the late tenth and eleventh centuries. This development was accompanied by a gradual shift of the domestic trade in foreign products from control by the Song court into the hands of private traders. By the latter half of the eleventh century, private traders held a majority of this domestic trade.¹⁸ The shift of maritime trade from state to port-level exchanges from the late tenth century onwards, coupled with the development of trading relations between Song China and its maritime foreign trading partners at Chinese ports through the course of the eleventh century, created a network of trade involving both foreign and Chinese shipping and traders by the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries. What was the nature of this network? With the changes that Chinese maritime trade experienced from the late tenth century onward, the role of foreign traders also evolved, as these traders and the states they represented adapted to the changing economic context in China. What was the culmination, by the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries, of this process of development and change that the foreign communities at the international port cities of Song China underwent?

The main hindrance to answering these questions is the paucity of pertinent historical sources. Although a number of Chinese texts contain information on China's maritime trade,¹⁹ such as the Lingwai daida 嶺外代答 (1178), Zhufanzhi 諸蕃志 (1225), Song huiyao (1236), Wenxian tongkao (1307), and Songshi (1345),²⁰ information on the administration of international mercantile shipping, the nature of Chinese trade and networks abroad, and on the foreign community during the Northern Song can be found almost exclusively in the Pingzhou ketan.²¹

Written and published in 1116 by Zhu Yu 朱彧, the Pingzhou ketan 萍州可談 is an account of matters pertaining to the governance of the administrative circuits of Guangdong and Guangxi during the late Northern Song period. Consisting of three chapters, the text is comprised of a series of eye-witness accounts based on the author's observations as well as the experiences of his father, who was initially sent to Chuzhou after successfully obtaining a youshi degree (右史) during the Yuanfeng period (1078–1085), and was subsequently promoted to the post of intendant of Guangzhou (Guangzhou jinglüe fushi 廣州經略撫使). The accounts provide details of aspects of local administration in Guangdong and Guangxi. Additional fragments of information, such as local oral traditions, hearsay and gossip, have been added by Zhu Yu to the various sections to substantiate or provide interesting anecdotes to the accounts contained in the text.

The resulting text is so disjointed that it was placed in the xiaoshuo biji 小說筆記 genre of the Siku quanshu. Notwithstanding the shortcomings of the text, the Pingzhou ketan does provide a perspective that differs from official sources, presenting information that does not occur in any of these types of texts, and filling some of the gaps in the overall picture. As Zhu Yu relied on information from his father, as well as his personal experiences, the Pingzhou ketan reflects the state of affairs at Guangdong and Guangxi from the late eleventh to the early twelfth century.

The original version of the text was already lost by the Ming period. The extant version of the Pingzhou ketan used here was compiled during the Qing period, with all the contents of the text having been extracted primarily from the Yongle dadian (c. 1407).²² The use of this text is therefore not without problems. Nonetheless, as a historical text, the Pingzhou ketan has been much used by scholars studying various aspects of Chinese maritime trade. To date, it has not been translated into any Western language, although sporadic translations of selected paragraphs have been published.²³

One aspect of local government dealt with in Zhu Yu's account is the administration of international mercantile trade and shipping centered on the port of Guangzhou during the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries. Contained in the second of the three chapters, the subjects dealt with by Zhu Yu include the Mercantile Shipping Superintendency of Guangzhou, the administration of Chinese maritime territorial sovereignty, the administrative framework and procedures for implementing import taxation, specific functions of the official markets, the description of Chinese sea-going ships and related seafaring practices, the activities of foreigners in Guangzhou and descriptions of the foreign quarter, the office of headman of the foreign quarter and certain issues arising from the co-existence of foreigners in Guangzhou, as well as a brief description of the trade exchanges between the maritime trading polity of Srivijaya (located at Jambi, Sumatra) and the port of Guangzhou. While the information concerning these aspects of China's international trade may not be all-encompassing, it has been regarded by scholars as an important supplement to that found in official texts. In light of information that can be gleaned from the Pingzhou ketan, this article thus aims to examine three issues: the nature of Chinese shipping networks, Chinese governance of maritime shipping, and the role and nature of foreign presence at the port city of Guangzhou.

Chinese Maritime Shipping and Trade

In the late tenth century, the Song court lifted its ban on Chinese vessels sailing abroad to trade in the foreign economic regions of Southeast Asia²⁴ and Northeast Asia.²⁵ Prior to this, the Song court had prohibited its people from participating in maritime trade. During the eleventh century, the lifting of the ban led to the expansion of maritime trade through the development of new levels of trade and their respective networks, and to a broadening of the geographical extent of these networks.

By the late Northern Song, Chinese mercantile vessels were departing annually from Guangzhou to foreign ports to trade. Given Guangzhou's location on the southeastern coast of China, the geographical orientation of that port in terms of its international maritime trade was directly south toward Southeast Asia, and indirectly west toward the Indian Ocean littoral and the Arabian peninsula.²⁶ The trading cycle for Chinese shipping based at Guangzhou began annually in November, with the commencement of the northeast monsoon. According to the Pingzhou ketan, "Ships leave in the eleventh and twelfth months with the north wind, and come in the fifth and sixth months with the south wind."²⁷

Chinese vessels headed for a number of destinations from Guangzhou, including Vietnam (Tonkin), Champa, the Malacca Straits region, Java and Borneo. The final destination of a vessel would determine the sailing route it took. Vessels heading for Tonkin, a former Chinese protectorate during the Tang that still maintained important economic ties with Song China, would sail through the Gulf of Tonkin, known to the Chinese as the Small Sea.²⁸ Vessels heading for Champa would either sail via the Gulf of Tonkin or via the south of Hainan Island, depending on whether the Cham port they were heading toward was in northern or southern Champa. Those heading for the Malacca Straits region, Java, or Borneo would head directly south from Guangzhou, stopping over somewhere along the coast of Champa or along the Gulf of Siam before heading for the different economic regions of maritime Southeast Asia.

By the late Northern Song, Chinese traders and vessels had already established a dispersed network with key ports in both mainland and island Southeast Asia.²⁹ According to the Pingzhou ketan, "Passing Ruzhou 溽洲 (Pearl River delta), [the water] becomes greenish. Merchant ships, when leaving, arrive at Ruzhou, with few requiring to be sailing separately. After this, [they] depart separately. This is known as 'casting into the ocean'."³⁰

Chinese ships made their way to a number of ports in Southeast Asia, sailing together from Guangzhou down to the entrance of the Pearl River delta. However, once the vessels were in open waters, they would disperse in a number of directions, rather than sail southwards as a convoy.³¹ There was no singular route from Guangzhou down the coast of mainland Southeast Asia to maritime Southeast Asia during the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries. Instead, there were multiple routes, all branching out from Guangzhou, depending on the terminus at which the mercantile vessel intended to call. Chinese shipping appears to have benefited from existing trading routes established by foreign traders who had been calling at Guangzhou since the early first millennium, and Chinese merchants relied on these foreign networks to establish Chinese shipping links with various foreign economic regions.

The dispersed nature of Chinese sailing routes appears to have been due to the time constraint imposed by the Song court on Chinese ships that registered to sail abroad for purposes of trade. While there is no record of this restriction in the late eleventh century, the Song huiyao notes in an 1164 memorial that Chinese mercantile vessels were expected to return to their original port of departure within nine months, failing which the Song court would investigate the cause of a vessel's late return, and would mete out punishment if the late return was not due to unforeseen circumstances or difficulties. The same memorial also stipulated that Chinese vessels had to indicate their intended port-of-call abroad during their registration of departure.³² The memorial notes that this restriction had been put in place prior to 1164, and appears to have dated to the Northern Song, possibly enacted when Chinese ships were first permitted to sail abroad to trade in the late tenth century.

The limiting of the length of time that a Chinese vessel could remain abroad to nine months placed severe limits on the geographical extent of Chinese shipping. The need to declare the intended port-of-call suggests that Chinese vessels sailing south from China had to leave in one monsoon season, reach their intended destination as quickly as possible, await the change of monsoon wind direction, and ride the new monsoon winds so as to return to China within the nine-month period stipulated by the Song court. The time limit confined the scope of operation of Chinese shipping toward a southerly orientation, to Southeast Asia.³³

One of the key regions where Chinese maritime traders of Guangzhou engaged in their commercial and shipping activities was island Southeast Asia, in particular the Malacca Straits region. Chinese ships already maintained close links with the Malacca Straits region through the region's chief port-state, Srivijaya, which in the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries was located at Jambi in southeast Sumatra.³⁴ This was in spite of the fact that it took approximately a month for ships leaving Guangzhou to reach Jambi, after which Chinese ships would remain at that port and prepare for the change of the monsoon winds to take them back to Guangzhou.³⁵ The intensity of contact, in both the diplomatic exchanges and economic interaction that China and Chinese traders maintained with Srivijaya, is reflected in the knowledge that the southern Chinese, particularly those who resided in coastal port cities, had accrued concerning the region and its hegemonic port-state. According to the Pingzhou ketan,

The various southern maritime countries each have a chieftain. Srivijaya is the most well known. The country has a written language, is charitable and has numeracy. Merchants say that the days and months are calculated in advance, but they do not understand Chinese. The land has a lot of sandalwood incense and frankincense. [These are] regarded as products for the Chinese. Srivijayan ships deliver frankincense to China. At the locations of the Mercantile Shipping Superintendencies, this incense is regarded as a monopoly item. Apart from the customs duties, all are absorbed by the official market. In recent years, Srivijaya has monopolized [the] sandalwood incense [trade], ordering traders to go to this country to sell it. The price has increased several-fold. Foreigners and [Chinese] citizens do not dare to trade privately [in it]. The state has the means to enforce this. This country is in the southern seas. Westward, [one] arrives at Dashi (大食, Arabia), which is very far. Chinese people going to Dashi arrive at Srivijaya, have the ships repaired, and barter for products.³⁶ [It is] the centrifugal point of long-distance trading. Thus, it is known as the greatest.³⁷

The pattern of China's trade with its foreign trading partners, at least in terms of the trade carried by Chinese shipping, was characterized by exchanges of a region-to-region nature, with Chinese ships most likely calling at only one major trading center in Southeast Asia before preparing to return to China. This was probably due to the restriction that the Song court imposed on the length of time that Chinese ships could remain abroad, as well as the need to declare the intended port-of-call prior to a Chinese vessel's departure from China. In addition, these administrative constraints would have had the effect of reducing of the potential risks that Chinese merchants had to bear in funding such inherently risky commercial activities, as well as reducing the transaction costs of exporting and importing products into and out of these Chinese markets as compared to trans-Asian trade operations.³⁸ The practice of limiting commercial operations to one sector of the trans-Asian trade circuit was not confined to Chinese merchants funding maritime trade activities, but also characterized the commercial activities of traders of the Indian Ocean littoral.³⁹

This is evident from the archaeological data obtained from the wreck sites of vessels that plied the waters between the Malacca Straits region and China, even as textual data concerning this pattern of activity is unavailable. The cargo of the Pulau Buaya, for example, which appears to have been sailing from China to a port in southeast Sumatra when it foundered some time in the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries, was comprised predominantly of Chinese products with a few products of mainland Southeast Asian origin, most likely picked up by the ship's crew while the vessel was stopping over at a mainland Southeast Asian port to replenish supplies.⁴⁰ This region-to-region nature of Chinese shipping is evident even during the early thirteenth century, where, in the case of the Java Sea wreck, the vessel, which was most likely Chinese in origin, appears to have sailed from Quanzhou to the north coast of Java carrying a cargo of almost entirely southern Chinese products, notably iron ware and ceramics, with a minimal quantity of mainland Southeast Asian products.⁴¹

The same appears to have occurred in the return trip of the Chinese ships as well. No data is available on the cargo that was brought back to China during the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries. However, the cargo of the Quanzhou wreck, dated to the 1270s and prior to the advent of Yuan rule in southern China, was comprised almost entirely of Malay region products and a small quantity of products from the Indian Ocean littoral that could have easily been obtained at a major entrepot port in the Malay region.⁴² Up until the late thirteenth century, Chinese ships continued to call at a major entrepot port in Southeast Asia to fill their cargo holds with foreign products before heading directly back to China, with no significant amount of trade conducted enroute.

At the individual level, however, Chinese merchants were engaged in much more complex trading. The Pingzhou ketan notes that Chinese traders were conducting barter trade at Srivijaya, a Malacca Straits region port-state that served as the nodal point and emporium between the South China and Java Sea economic zones on the one hand, and the Indian Ocean littoral zone on the other. These traders appear to have been bartering their holding of Chinese export products for products that were being made available at Srivijaya, in preparation for their onward trip into the Bay of Bengal. This was peddling trade, as opposed to the region-to-region trade that characterized the trade carried by Chinese shipping during this time.

This peddling trade was possible because by the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries maritime trade conducted by individuals, or petty traders, had become well established at Guangzhou, and possibly at the other southern Chinese ports as well. The cargo space of a Chinese vessel was typically not occupied solely by the vessel's owners. According to the Pingzhou ketan,

The ships' depth and width are each several tens of zhang. Traders divide the space to accumulate goods, each person having several feet of space and being permitted to accumulate goods. They pass the night on these goods.⁴³ Most of the goods are ceramic wares of large and small matching sets. None or little space is left.⁴⁴

The nature of the maritime trade carried out by individual traders was apparently fairly complex. This trade appears to have sprung out of the absence of restrictions on Chinese individuals traveling abroad. The Pingzhou ketan notes that:

Northerners (Chinese) who cross the sea and do not return within that year are known as "staying abroad." People of the various countries who arrive at Guangzhou and do not go back that year are known as "staying in Tang (China)." The people of Guangzhou who raise credit of a certain amount and arrange for a ship's passage, even if they stay abroad for ten years and do not return [during that time], the interest [on the principle] does not increase. The wealthy take advantage of the trading season to amass silks and ceramics, and their prices increase. The interest and means of payment is agreed to with the debtors. The Guangzhou bureaucracy regulates this [financial service]. The Superintendent of Mercantile Shipping also disburses useful loans to ensure that [maritime trade] operations go on smoothly.⁴⁵

Chinese traders were thus, by the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries, remaining abroad for as long as ten years. The fact that the credit facility extended by Guangzhou-based merchants to these traders was structured such that the interest repayable remained unchanged regardless of the length of time spent by the traders abroad indicates that prolonged trading voyages by individual traders were the norm, and that the institutions that financed such voyages had developed by the late Northern Song period with this practice factored into their modus operandi. The absence of restrictions on the length of time that Chinese traders could remain abroad continued into the twelfth century. An 1159 memorial recorded in the Song huiyao notes that the Song court was not able to keep track of the number of Chinese abroad, where they were heading for or were currently resident, the length of time they were abroad or the purpose for their travel.⁴⁶ Traders based at other ports also remained abroad for extended periods of time. The Yijianzhi 夷堅志, dated to the twelfth century, contains an account of an individual from Quanzhou by the name of Wang Yunmao 王元懋, who had worked for the king of Champa for ten years and had returned to southern Fujian a very wealthy person.⁴⁷

The absence of restrictions on the length of time abroad allowed individual Chinese traders to operate further than the geographical extent of Chinese shipping. This is noted in the Pingzhou ketan, which states that Chinese traders who intended to travel to the Indian Ocean littoral would seek further passage at the Malacca Straits region.⁴⁸ Chinese traders were heading farther west for the purpose of trade, with destinations including ports on the Indian sub-continent and the Arabian peninsula.⁴⁹ The extensive geographical scope of operation did not necessarily provide individual Chinese traders with much of an advantage in the procurement of Indian Ocean littoral and Arabian products, since such products were made available at key Southeast Asian emporiums such as Srivijaya-Jambi, where traders and shipping from island Southeast Asia, China and the Indian Ocean littoral congregated while awaiting the change of monsoon winds. Instead, the key difference that the absence of restrictions made on Chinese maritime trade at the individual level was that it enabled traders to conduct small-scale peddling trade from port to port along the international east-west trade route, participating in both the international and intra-regional trade of the economic regions that lay between Guangzhou and the Arabian peninsula. These networks of exchanges were more complex, with a large number of possible permutations of networks, given the number of ports along the east-west maritime trade route that were present in the late Northern Song, and would have involved the movement of goods along international and intra-regional lines of exchange.

Thus, by the late Northern Song, two levels of trade had been developed by the Chinese maritime traders at Guangzhou: the shipping trade and the peddling trade. The manner in which shipping was handled by the political regimes in Southeast Asia, particularly the fiscal regimes imposed by the ports of Southeast Asia, affected these levels of trade differently. For the Chinese shipping trade, the Pingzhou ketan notes that "[A]lthough the barbarians do not have trade taxes, requests known as "presenting gifts" are made. Regardless of whether the cargo is large or small, one standard amount is demanded of traders. Thus, it is disadvantageous for small ships."⁵⁰

The port taxes levied on mercantile vessels by foreign ports were therefore set at a fixed amount, instead of a fixed rate, and were the same regardless of the vessel's size, and therefore the volume and value of its cargo. Such a customs regime abroad was clearly disadvantageous to Chinese ship owners whose vessels were not large, a fact noted in the Pingzhou ketan. This apparently caused the Chinese to field larger vessels in their shipping activities in Southeast Asia by the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, reflected in archaeological data from shipwrecks in both Southeast Asia and China. Wrecks datable to the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries, such as the Pulau Buaya, were generally smaller in displacement than thirteenth-century ones, such as the Quanzhou wreck, which had a displacement of between three and four hundred tons.⁵¹ The fiscal circumstances that the Chinese traders and shippers faced while trading abroad appear to have encouraged the development of large-size ships by the late Song period.

On the other hand, for traders operating at the individual level, the customs regimes imposed at Southeast Asian ports may have accorded them a significant degree of financial flexibility. Presumably, with port charges levied only on ships, this cost would have been factored into the rent that traders paid for the space they leased onboard a mercantile vessel. This would have made the unit value of transportation cost, which was a key component of a trader's operating costs, fixed. The traders would thus have been able to vary the net profit of their commercial activities by varying the value of the products they carried in the space they had rented. In this manner, the profit derived from an individual's trading activities could increase, without being accompanied by a proportional increase in his operating cost. Such a commercial system would have allowed Chinese traders to accumulate sufficient profits to repay the loan and interest agreed upon with the merchants at Guangzhou at the start of the trading voyage. It would have also enabled the development of the commercial practice of maritime traders acting as agents on behalf of investors based in China, who would have been able to grow the value of the returns on investments committed at Guangzhou before eventually returning to China.

The Administration of Mercantile Shipping at Guangzhou

Given its southward orientation, the port of Guangzhou catered mainly to ships arriving from Southeast Asia, the Indian Ocean littoral and the Arabian peninsula. By the late eleventh century, this included Chinese ships that had departed for Southeast Asia several months earlier. As maritime trade gained in importance to the Chinese economy, particularly in South China, the Song court simultaneously relegated the handling of maritime trade from the court to the port level. The history of the administration of maritime trade during the Song period was very complicated, with the Song court switching from direct state involvement in the late tenth and early eleventh centuries, to an increasingly decentralized system of governance through the course of the eleventh and early twelfth centuries, to a brief attempt, in the mid-twelfth century, to consolidate the governance system and regulations under central control. During the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries, however, while the Song court was beginning to establish the general directives concerning the imposition of customs duties and compulsory purchases of specific foreign products that arrived at the Chinese ports, there is currently no known textual information pertaining to the Song court's instructions as to how these regulations were to be executed at the ports. The manner in which these directives were carried out, and the practical aspects of administering mercantile vessels arriving at China's international ports, therefore was left to be developed by the circuit administrations and their respective Mercantile Shipping Superintendencies.

Although the Song court had already permitted Chinese ships to travel abroad for trade, China continued to rely heavily on foreign shipping to carry its trade, both into China and abroad, throughout the Northern Song period. This important point may be elucidated from Chinese texts. The Pingzhou ketan notes, for example, that the governor (shuai 帥) of Guangzhou made offerings to the deity Fenglong 豐隆 to bring wind in the fifth month, when the southwest monsoon began.⁵² This took place prior to the annual arrival of mercantile vessels from Southeast Asia, both foreign and Chinese. In association with this ritual, the character lai 來, instead of gui 歸, is used in relation to the arrival of vessels at Guangzhou.⁵³ This suggests that the annual rhythm of Guangzhou's maritime trade was still based on a southwest-northeast monsoon sequence, rather than a northeast-southwest sequence that was to characterize Chinese maritime trade by the late twelfth century. It is likely that the port of Guangzhou was still heavily reliant on foreign shipping to carry its trade abroad. The impact of the administrative procedures governing ships arriving in China may thus have been greater on foreign shipping than on Chinese shipping.

Between April and May, vessels approaching South China from Southeast Asia would ride the southwest monsoon, and arrive at Guangzhou by June or July.⁵⁴ The first contact between the Chinese administration and mercantile shipping was the interception and policing of the latter upon entering Chinese territory. The Song court, at least until the late twelfth century, apparently did not attempt to exercise its authority over the maritime routes that ran along its shoreline in open waters. The dispersed nature of mercantile shipping routes emanating from and converging at Guangzhou made it a logistical challenge for the Song court to police shipping in the open sea. Nor is it apparent that the Song court ever intended to do so. Unlike the Yuan period, when government vessels sailed beyond the river entrances to intercept and conduct preliminary inspections of incoming mercantile vessels,⁵⁵ the Song court did not, at least up until the early twelfth century, possess a navy with the capability of being deployed in open waters to intercept incoming mercantile vessels.⁵⁶ The absence of any form of maritime policing along the Chinese coastline during this period is evident, for example, from a 1025 memorial recorded in the Song huiyao that notes the annual arrival of foreign ships at Zhongmen 鐘門 Harbor in Fujian, a coastal port that was designated only for domestic trade.⁵⁷ This situation continued up until the late eleventh century, and was not confined to Fujian, but extended to the coastal areas of Liangzhe as well. This would only have been possible in the absence of maritime policing of the Chinese coast.

The Pingzhou ketan provides an account of the reception and administration of incoming maritime shipping in the waters around the Pearl River Delta:

Guangzhou, from the Small Sea (Gulf of Tonkin) to Ruzhou, is 700 li. Ruzhou has a Military Inspectorate that seeks ships, [and is] known as "One Slight Glance (一望)." There is a second and third lookout to the north. Passing Ruzhou, [the water] becomes greenish. Merchant ships, when leaving, arrive at Ruzhou, with few requiring to be sailing separately. After this, [they] depart separately. This is known as "casting into the ocean". [Upon] returning to Ruzhou, [they] would celebrate and wish one another well. The soldiers of the stockade have wine and meat [for the sailors and ship's personnel] to consume, and ensure the security of the [ships'] passage to Guangzhou.⁵⁸

The first contact that mercantile vessels had with the Chinese administration was thus at the river delta entrances that led up to the Chinese international ports. The river entrances were secured by governmental vessels, and aided by watchtowers, both of which were manned by the Military Inspectorates of the immediate vicinity. In Guangzhou's case, the Military Inspectorate of the district at the Pearl River Delta—Ruzhou—was specifically tasked with the responsibility of intercepting any incoming ships attempting to sail upriver to Guangzhou.⁵⁹ The Ruzhou Military Inspectorate ensured the security of the river entrance that led to the port-city, guarding against unwelcome maritime parties such as pirates,⁶⁰ while welcomed ones, such as mercantile vessels, would have been allowed through. The Military Inspectorate was thus in effect a land-based keeper of the maritime pass, possibly with some maritime mobility. The existence of such a pass was not confined to Guangzhou alone. According to the Pingzhou ketan, there were two other such passes, presumably located at river entrances, north of Guangzhou.⁶¹ These were most likely located at Quanzhou and another international port in the Liangzhe circuit, the other two major international ports along the Chinese coast in the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries. The Lingwai daida notes that ships approaching China intending to go to Guangzhou would sail through the Tun Pass 屯門, while those wishing to go to Quanzhou would sail past the Yazi Pass 甲子門.⁶²

Vessels were initially stopped at the river entrance, and if more than one vessel were approaching the river entrance, these would be assembled together by the Military Inspectorate before they were escorted up to the port.⁶³ Apart from security issues, this was clearly a preemptive measure against any attempt by traders to evade customs duties, since the ships' cargo could otherwise have been easily unloaded at any point along the way between the river entrances and Guangzhou.

Upon entering the harbor area of an international port in China, ships were required to moor off the customs inspection area, where the cargo was immediately inspected, customs duties were levied, and compulsory purchases were procured.⁶⁴ At Guangzhou, the area where the Mercantile Shipping Superintendency was located, and where the Superintendency conducted its administrative functions (including customs inspections), was located along the shoreline of the harbor area and known as the Mercantile Shipping Superintendency Pavilion.⁶⁵ A description of the customs inspection process is provided by the Pingzhou ketan:

On arrival, the ships are anchored below the pavilion for mercantile shipping. Wuzhou's Military Inspectorate dispatches soldiers to watch the inspection. This is called "weaving a barrier." For any ship that arrives, the military commissioner and fiscal commissioner, together with the mercantile shipping inspection official, will go to inspect and verify the goods and levy [customs duties and compulsory purchases]. This is called "extraction," with ten parts as the scale. [For] pearls, dragon camphor⁶⁶ and fine category [products], one part (10%) is drawn. [For] coral, turtles' carapaces, sapanwood and coarse category [products], three parts (30%) are drawn. Apart from this levy, the official market has priority over [the remaining goods]. After that, merchants can have access to the remainder. Elephant tusks (ivory) weighing more than thirty jin and frankincense are taken by the official market as [state] monopoly products after the levying of customs duties. Merchants who have large pieces of elephant tusks have to break [them] into [pieces of] less than three jin to legally avoid the official market. The prices are [higher than?] those of the official market, [even though the pieces are] small and damaged. There are numerous other products of this nature. If the ship of a merchant who has taken ill arrives and [his cargo] has not yet been subjected to customs duties, and the cargo is privately acquired, even if the amount [that has been acquired] is small, the remainder [of the ship's cargo] would be confiscated, and punishment is meted out. Thus, no merchant dares to commit [this offence]. The Guangzhou Mercantile Shipping Pavilion borders the water. It has a Haishan Lou 海山樓 [viewing tower] that faces Wuzhou.⁶⁷

The location of the Mercantile Shipping Superintendency Pavilions along the waterfront was a standard feature of Chinese port cities of the Song period. At Quanzhou, the Superintendency's office was located along the shoreline as well, with taxation stations at the extreme left and right of the city boundaries that fronted Quanzhou Bay. The taxation station and the Mercantile Shipping Superintendency's office were also often located near or in the commercial district of the port city.⁶⁸ Such a location was important, since the Superintendency was responsible for all matters pertaining to foreign products, sea-going vessels, and travel and trading matters.⁶⁹ The need for easy accessibility between the commercial districts and the Superintendency Pavilions was vital, as the economic activities of the port cities revolved around the maritime trade that took place in these districts.

By the early twelfth century, the Song court had begun to levy customs duties on the cargo that arrived at its ports, in accordance with the classification of the goods. All imported goods were placed into one of two classes—fine goods and coarse goods. After the levying of customs duties, the net cargo of a ship was then subjected to compulsory purchases by the Mercantile Shipping Superintendency. The proportion of the net cargo that was compulsorily purchased by the state depended on their classification as fine or coarse goods.⁷⁰ It was therefore important to be able to distinguish the types of goods carried by vessels arriving at the Chinese ports. Vessels leaving Guangzhou were normally fully laden with cargo, as were ships arriving at the port. The conduct of customs inspection on the vessels, with the cargo hold full, would thus have been virtually impossible. Customs inspections would have had to be conducted on land in order for them to be conducted effectively.

In addition, it was also important for the respective ownership of a vessel's cargo to be distinguishable. The development of individual peddling trade had led, by the late eleventh century, to cargo space onboard Chinese vessels (and possibly foreign ones as well) being rented out to a number of traders. Thus, a ship's cargo often did not belong only to one trader, but to a number of them. This practice continued into the late thirteenth century, evidenced by the presence of numerous wooden ownership tags recovered from the Quanzhou wreck that belonged to a number of maritime trade concerns, including commercial agencies, imperial clansmen and various Chinese and foreign individuals.⁷¹ From the distribution of the tags in the various bulkheads of the Quanzhou wreck, it is apparent that the cargo in each bulkhead belonged to more than one owner. Customs duties and compulsory purchases would have been levied on the various lots of cargo based on their respective ownership, and this would only have been properly conducted if a ship's cargo could be distinguished according to ownership. This would have had to be carried out at a place where there was sufficient space for a ship's cargo to be spread out. The Mercantile Shipping Pavilion would have likely been such a place. This could be the reason why, according to the Pingzhou ketan, the Mercantile Shipping Pavillion grounds at Guangzhou had to be secured by personnel from the Wuzhou Military Inspectorate.⁷²

The security of shipping, from the river entrances to the Mercantile Shipping Superintendency inspections grounds at the port city of Guangzhou, was apparently very effectively maintained. This, along with the severe punishment meted out by the Song court for incidences of smuggling and customs duties evasion,⁷³ resulted in smuggling not occurring on any significant scale, at least at Guangzhou, during the late Northern Song period.⁷⁴ The Guangnan Circuit Administration's control of maritime trade activities at Guangzhou was thus very tight and highly effective. This is in contrast to the regular incidence of smuggling that occurred at such places as Zhongmen Harbour (Fuzhou), and at Quanzhou prior to a Mercantile Shipping Superintendency being established at that port city in 1087.⁷⁵

The apparently low incidence of smuggling at Guangzhou, compared to the rampant smuggling activities that were taking place elsewhere, such as the coastline of Fujian, for example, may have been due to the fact that Guangzhou remained, throughout the tenth to twelfth centuries, the port-of-call where the various states of maritime Asia with which China had trade and diplomatic relations chose to locate their agents and representation. Such relations, which formed the basis of a substantial, if not the significant, part of Guangzhou's maritime trade, necessitated all parties to rely on the bureaucratic structure as the conduit of interaction. This would have left little room, or need, for clandestine trade to occur.

Smuggling activities and the evasion of customs duties would only have been a risk worth taking from the twelfth century onwards, when China began to rely increasingly on private shipping—in particular Chinese private shipping—to provide it with foreign products, while state-sponsored trade, which had hitherto been the key channel through which China's demand for foreign products had been met, declined.⁷⁶ The shift in the demand of the Chinese market for foreign products, from primarily high value and luxury items in the tenth and eleventh centuries, to primarily low value bulk commodities by the latter half of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, would also have been a key motivator for the growth of smuggling activities from the twelfth century onwards.⁷⁷

The entire structure administering mercantile shipping at Guangzhou, which involved several government agencies at different stages of the process, was characterized by a significant degree of departmental operational autonomy. Hierarchically, the prefectural administration was responsible for supervising maritime trade activities at the port city. The prefectural administration, in turn, was ultimately overseen by the Guangnan Circuit Administration, with the Guangzhou Mercantile Shipping Superintendency apparently falling under the supervision of the Guangnan Circuit Administration's Tax Transport Bureau.⁷⁸

Departmental autonomy may have been intentionally instituted to prevent collusion between the various government agencies involved. While the Guangzhou Mercantile Shipping Superintendency was responsible for ensuring that the regulations governing international trade were carried out properly as administrative policies at the port city, it apparently had no power over the policing of maritime shipping. Instead, such duties were under the charge of the Military Inspectorate of Ruzhou, through which mercantile shipping sailing into and out of Guangzhou traversed. The Ruzhou Military Inspectorate was apparently not directly accountable to the Guangzhou Mercantile Shipping Superintendency.

The distinction between the administration of international trade and the policing of mercantile shipping at and near Guangzhou was clearly defined by the late Northern Song period. The respective roles played by the Guangzhou Mercantile Shipping Superintendency and the Ruzhou Military Inspectorate may have been a structure of accountability that had evolved at Guangzhou over a prolonged period of time. Departmental autonomy as a means of preventing collusion and corruption in the administration of mercantile shipping was also evident at Guangzhou in areas within an agency's jurisdiction. From an administrative point of view, fraudulent practices could potentially be committed by the Mercantile Shipping Superintendency officials, in particular during customs inspection. This problem was overcome, at least at Guangzhou, by the instituting of customs inspections being carried out by the Mercantile Shipping Superintendency officials in the presence of one official each from the Fiscal Commission and the Wuzhou Military Inspectorate.⁷⁹

The state of affairs described above may have been unique to Guangzhou. There is no record of any similar arrangement established at any of the other Chinese international ports of that time. Maritime trade, although becoming increasingly important to the Chinese economy through the course of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, had continued to be relegated to the respective circuit administrations and left largely to provincial-level initiatives. While it is possible that similar structures were in place at the other key Chinese international ports of Quanzhou, Mingzhou and Hangzhou during the late Northern Song, the information in the Pingzhou ketan appears to have pertained specifically to the port of Guangzhou. The administrative structure described in the Pingzhou ketan is not found in any other official text with information relating to the Northern Song, and therefore may not have been the result of a state-level initiative or imperial decree, since there is no corresponding evidence in other texts (such as the Song huiyao or the Songshi) to suggest that the arrangements at Guangzhou were reflective of an imperial-level directive promulgated by the Song court. Instead, it appears to have been an informal structure that evolved over a significant period of time as a relatively convenient means by which the prefectural administration dealt annually with the peak maritime trading season.

This state of affairs only began to change following the retreat of the Song court in 1127 from Kaifeng in north China to Hangzhou along the southeastern coast. Having lost its northern territories, the Song court was forced to seek alternative sources of revenue and political prestige.⁸⁰ It embarked on a process of standardizing the regulations and procedures pertaining to the administration of maritime shipping as part of its overall attempts to capitalize on maritime trade as a key source of revenue. The adoption of a structure, with inherent counter-balances built into it, only became a standardized practice in the 1160s. By the time of the Qiandao era (1165–1173), the prefectural magistrates responsible for the port city located within the administrative boundary of their respective prefectural governments were expected to field officials from the Superintendency of Salt Monopolies of the district magistrate's offices that they were responsible for, so as to observe the customs inspections conducted by the officials of the Mercantile Shipping Superintendencies.⁸¹ It was only then that the regulations and administrative practices pertaining to the governance of maritime trade in China were standardized at the imperial level by the Song court.⁸²

Foreign Traders and Foreign Residency at Guangzhou

According to the Wenxian tongkao, Song huiyao and Songshi, following the opening of the port of Guangzhou by the Song court to international trade in 971, and Hangzhou and Mingzhou shortly thereafter, mercantile vessels from a number of foreign states began to resume calling at these three ports. These included the Dashi Arabs, Kollam in India, Java, Champa, Borneo, Mait in the Philippines and Srivijaya in the Malacca Straits region.⁸³ These polities had maintained maritime relations with China since the Tang. The reestablishment of the Mercantile Shipping Superintendencies at the Chinese port cities of Guangzhou, Hangzhou, and Mingzhou encouraged these polities to resume their maritime economic and diplomatic relations with China. Their representatives, a number of which, including the Arabs and Srivijayan Malays, had sojourned at Guangzhou since the Tang period, continued to establish themselves at the port cities, acting as agents on behalf of the rulers of foreign states, as well as sources of information on China for their respective patrons abroad. As the Song court began to relegate trade from the state level to the port level beginning in the late tenth century, foreign traders were required to be resident at the Chinese port cities to act as agents on behalf of ships arriving from China's foreign trading partners.⁸⁴ As trade between China and these partners grew through the course of the eleventh century, the size and prominence of the foreign communities at the Chinese port cities increased as well.

The increasingly diverse nature of China's maritime trade in the eleventh century led to the development of a hierarchy within the foreign community. This appears to have been based largely on the scale of the commercial activities of the various groups,⁸⁵ and reflected the levels of trade in which the foreign residents at Guangzhou were involved. These included the handling of regional and state-level trade, state-sponsored trade, private trade of larger commercial groups, as well as individual and petty trade.

The Pingzhou ketan provides perhaps the most vivid description of the foreign quarter and the foreign sojourning community at Guangzhou:

In Guangzhou's foreign quarter, people from various overseas countries live and trade. [A] foreign headman is appointed to take charge of the public affairs of the foreign quarter, in particular, summons and invitations. The foreign headman is used as the channel for tribute dispatched by foreign traders.⁸⁶ The [foreign headman's] towel, gown, shoes, and audience tablet are like those of the Chinese people. Foreigners who are guilty [of crimes] are dispatched to the Guangzhou foreign quarter to be tried. [They are] bound on a wooden dais and caned from upwards of the calves. Three strokes of the rattan cane [is equivalent to] one stroke of the large staff. As foreign people do not wear trousers and prefer to sit on the ground, they suffer from the cane wounds. They are caned and, if found guilty, they are deported from Guangzhou. The clothes and attire of the foreign people are different from those of the Chinese. The drink and food are the same as that of the Chinese. Their appropriate nature needs to first be clarified. Qu 瞿 and Yun 曇 people are more reserved. They avoid eating various [types of] meat. Till now, they are [still] regarded as foreigners. However, they do not eat pork. Again it has been said that one has to desire to eat, then one slaughters and eats by oneself what one intends. This is known as "causing all to cut the meat one consumes." To this day, foreign people do not slaughter six [types] of livestock, which [they] do not eat. For fish and turtles, [they] do not ask [if the animal is] dead or alive and eat them.⁸⁷ Their fingers are all adorned with precious stones mounted on gold and tin rings, and these distinguish the poor from the rich. They are known as "masters with rings." The most outstanding rings of the people of Jiaozhi (Tonkin) are worth at least a hundred gold [pieces] each. The best is called "cat's eyes." … Stones that have medicinal properties against insect poison are mounted on rings.⁸⁸

The Pingzhou ketan also provides snippets of information on the day-to-day life of foreigners in the foreign quarter:

In Guangzhou's foreign quarter, [one] sees foreign people gambling on elephant chess that does not have the carriage or horse [amongst the pieces]. Only several pieces of ivory, rhinoceros' horn, chen gharuwood⁸⁹ and sandalwood are placed on the chess board. [For] the turns, both [players] move together. Also, there are degrees of victory and defeat. Concerning other matters (rules) pertaining to the game, [I] have not yet tried to enquire about them.⁹⁰

While a large number of traders from China's key foreign trading partners maintained a presence at Guangzhou throughout the eleventh and twelfth centuries, by the late eleventh century, several groups had become established as the prominent sections of the foreign community at that port city. Groups from the Arabian peninsula and the Indian subcontinent, who had been mentioned in Chinese texts from at least the Tang period, appear to have been overtaken in prominence at Guangzhou by those from Southeast Asia. While Indian residents were present at Guangzhou,⁹¹ they remained a small group within the foreign community. The Dashi Arabs, who formed the other prominent group of foreign traders established at Guangzhou prior to the Song, appear to have shifted their focus from Guangzhou to Quanzhou during the Song. This is reflected by the absence of any large body of physical evidence indicative of large-scale Muslim religious activities in Guangzhou during this time, while almost all of the tombstones of foreigners as well as the places of worship discovered to date in the vicinity of Quanzhou that are attributed to this period belong to Central Asian and Arab Muslims.⁹² In addition, textual records of Dashi Arabs within the context of Quanzhou become increasingly frequent, with a corresponding decrease in the mention of Arabs in the context of Guangzhou, during the late twelfth and thirteenth centuries.⁹³

This is not to say that the Arabs were not active at Guangzhou. Indeed, textual information dated to the early twelfth century indicates that Arab traders continued to contribute significantly to the maritime economy of Guangzhou. This is evident from the conferring of official rank on a certain Arab named Pu Luoxin (蒲羅辛) for his regular importing of frankincense into China via Guangzhou.⁹⁴ Similarly, by the latter half of the twelfth century, Malay agents, notably from the Malay polity of Srivijaya, were said to have been established at Quanzhou for at least two generations.⁹⁵ Nonetheless, during the late Northern Song, the key groups at Guangzhou came from Southeast Asia: the Malays, who operated under the auspices of Srivijaya; the Chams from Champa in mainland Southeast Asia; and the Javanese. Collectively, they represented the key states of maritime Southeast Asia at that time.

These foreign groups sought to secure their respective positions at Guangzhou through the course of the Northern Song by augmenting their prominence at the prefectural and state levels. They accomplished this through prolonged processes of local involvement and investments, initiated by the respective foreign rulers, state-level overtures by the rulers or their envoys who were dispatched to the Song court, and the initiatives of the foreign groups at the port-city. Champa, for example, conducted extensive state-level exchanges with the Song court in the guise of tribute missions,⁹⁶ while Srivijaya made several successful overtures through diplomatic exchanges with the Song court in the first three decades of the eleventh century, an extensive restoration of a ruined Daoist temple at Guangzhou that took place between 1064 and 1070, and the support of the temple through the purchase and donation of lands after 1070.⁹⁷

Such efforts were acknowledged by the Song court, and the prestige of the foreign groups that represented these polities were often elevated through the conferring of honorary titles upon the leaders of the groups. In the case of Srivijaya, it was held in high regard by the prefectural administration, culminating in the commissioning of a stone inscription in 1079 by the Guangzhou administration commemorating the project.⁹⁸ At the court level, the efforts were recognized by the Song emperor in 1077, when he acceded to the Srivijayan ruler's request for a bell to be cast and erected in the Daoist temple's bell tower, and conferred an honorary title on the ruler.⁹⁹

The influence of the groups that represented these polities extended into areas of local administration, with the leaders of these groups given administrative appointments. Representatives of Champa and Srivijaya, for example, were conferred the title of commandant (langjiang 朗將) by the Song court in the late eleventh century,¹⁰⁰ suggesting that they had been officially recognized as administrative heads of their respective groups at Guangzhou. Leaders of the most prominent groups were appointed as foreign headmen with responsibility for the foreign community, and they played certain administrative roles in maritime trade at the port-cities.¹⁰¹

By the late Northern Song, the post of foreign headman of Guangzhou was held by a Srivijayan.¹⁰² The Srivijayans commanded a high standing within the Guangzhou foreign community.¹⁰³ This group often organized social events for the entire community, under the auspices of the Srivijayan headman. The Pingzhou ketan records one such event, for which a Srivijayan religious expert was invited to recite a Buddhist canon:¹⁰⁴

At Guangzhou, I was invited to a large gathering of foreigners. At the hall, the foreign headman had brought a Srivijayan to come recite the "Brilliant Peacock King" canon. I had thought that whatever the Buddhist texts call "true sayings" is very difficult to understand. The interpretation of this commentary was erroneous, and [I] was happy to receive an explanation (demonstration of the incantation?), and hence asked [him] to orate it. This person placed two hands against [his] back, leaned against the pillar and called out. The sound was exactly like pouring Buddha with a strong gush from a bottle. Not one sound was like the current version of the "Truths of the Peacock [King]." I said that this text has already been translated [into Chinese], [and it is] clearly different from this. Although there are those who customarily recommend this text for the deceased, it is not known how Chinese spirits would be able to understand [it].¹⁰⁵

Srivijaya had been known during the first millennium as a center of Buddhist studies and an important stop for pilgrims along the China-India maritime pilgrimage route.¹⁰⁶ This was still the case in the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries, and Buddhist scholars such as Dharmakirti as well as the famous Tibetan Buddhist leader Atisa were amongst those who visited and studied Buddhist scriptures at the monasteries of Srivijaya.¹⁰⁷ Presumably, experts in Buddhist scripture would have had a relatively high stranding in the Srivijayan court. The successful invitation of a Srivijayan expert for the event is indicative of the foreign headman's elevated position in Srivijayan society. He would have had to exercise his social network to identify such a person and make the necessary arrangements to and from Guangzhou, all of which would have incurred considerable expense. The entire event would thus have been a display of the Srivijayans' high standing within the foreign community at Guangzhou, and by extension, among China's foreign trading partners.

Although the foreign community at Guangzhou increased both in size and prominence through the course of the Northern Song, there was fairly limited interaction between the local Chinese and foreign communities. There was apparently no restriction against interaction between the Chinese and foreign communities at Guangzhou. Members of the Chinese literati were able to go into the foreign quarter and to observe the day-to-day activities as well as to participate in special events organized by the foreign community,¹⁰⁸ However, the daily life of the foreign community, including cuisine, recreation, religious activities, and judicial matters, remained only a curiosity for the Chinese literati. What little interaction there was between the Chinese and foreigners was confined to the boundaries of the prefecture, since foreigners were prohibited from travelling or trading beyond these borders.¹⁰⁹ There was no process of integration between the two communities during this time, and this was characteristic of the entire Northern Song. This included matters of administration, such as judicial matters, whereby foreigners who were put on trial were judged by the foreign headman instead of the Chinese court.¹¹⁰

Nonetheless, the Song court did make a distinction between locally-born foreigners and those who had recently arrived. This is evident from an 1114 edict recorded in the Song huiyao, which ordered that the estates of foreigners whose families had resided in China for upwards of five generations were to be absorbed and administered by the local Mercantile Shipping Superintendency if there was no business partner to inherit the estate or the estate was not bequeathed to any kin upon death.¹¹¹ The 1114 edict was an official recognition of the growing presence of foreign communities that had settled in China for a long period of time, and were thus subjected to the same administrative processes governing the estates of Chinese households.

However, the use of the Mercantile Shipping Superintendencies as the government agency in executing this regulation, rather than the Fiscal Commission, which administered the estates of Chinese households, suggests that jurisdiction over the foreign community remained linked to maritime trade, and was thus governed through the Song court's administrative agency of maritime trade, despite the incorporation of locally born foreigners into Chinese society. This continued through the rest of the Song, and only changed with the advent of Yuan rule in 1279.¹¹²

There was some progress in the recognition of and differentiation among categories of foreign residents in China by the Song court. In 1104, following appeals by foreign traders, the Song court allowed locally born foreign traders to trade beyond the prefectural boundaries of the international ports, subject to first obtaining an official permit from the Mercantile Shipping Superintendency. Access to the markets at the Song capital of Kaifeng was even granted to them.¹¹³ Thus, by the early twelfth century, locally born foreign residents were allowed greater freedom of movement and commercial access to the Chinese domestic market, a privilege that first generation sojourners did not enjoy.

Limitations that newly-arrived foreigners faced translated into severe restrictions imposed upon their commercial activities in China. In order to secure and boost their commercial networks and gain better access to the Chinese domestic economy, foreign groups attempted to establish linkages with key groups within the local Chinese community at the port cities. Intermarriage was an important means of establishing or reinforcing such linkages.

Textual information concerning such social networking at the lower levels of society is not available. However, the Pingzhou ketan provides some information on such efforts conducted at the higher levels:

In the time of Yuanyou (1086–1094), someone surnamed Liu 劉 [?] of Guangzhou's foreign quarter married a lady of the imperial clan. He was an official of the zuoban 左班 rank when he died. The lady of the imperial clan did not have any sons, and the family disputed the division of the estate. Someone was dispatched to sound the drum of the Public Petitioners Office [Chinese?]. The imperial court at that time realized that the lady of the imperial clan was married to [a person of] foreign stock. Subsequently, it was prohibited. Of three generations, one generation has to have an official. Only then [is one] permitted to marry a lady of the imperial clan.¹¹⁴

Such high-level alliances took place at the port level, and apparently with the Song court completely unaware of them. The high profile feud over the deceased foreigner's estate brought these social networking efforts to the attention of the Song court in the Yuanyou era (1086–1093).¹¹⁵ The feud resulted in the Song court subsequently instituting a prohibition against inter-marriages between foreigners and members of the imperial clan, unless the foreign family to which the foreigner belonged had been resident in China for at least three generations and had had at least one family member receive an official appointment within the time of residency in China.¹¹⁶ Thus, by the late eleventh century, foreign attempts at securing inroads into the Chinese community at the highest echelons were severely restricted.

The requirement of an official appointment in the Chinese bureaucracy effectively limited such marriages at Guangzhou to the Srivijayans, Chams, Javanese and Arabs, who were the only foreign groups at the port cities recorded to have had individuals with appointments as foreign headman (fanzhang 蕃長) or foreign official (fanguan 蕃官), or honorary official titles conferred upon them.¹¹⁷ The restriction would have prevented foreign groups or individuals who had recently arrived or taken residence at a Chinese port city, or groups that were not as prominent as the first tier groups, from advancing their interests through marriage alliances with the Song elite. Instead, the policy favored long-established foreign groups, thereby according them the opportunity to further their already well-established interests. While this restricted the prospects of upward mobility at the lower levels of the foreign community, the establishment of social and commercial networks through intermarriage between these foreigners and the Chinese at Guangzhou no doubt did take place. The level of trade, and the nature of the Chinese domestic networks they were then able to tap into, would also have been at the lower levels.

The presence of the foreign community at the Chinese international ports during the Song was intricately tied to the nature and prosperity of China's maritime trade. The privatization of the Chinese domestic trade in foreign products, and the relegation of maritime trade from the court to the ports by the Song court through the course of the late tenth to late eleventh centuries, led to a corresponding increase in the size of these foreign communities. These also led to the spontaneous development of networks into the Chinese market and society, as well as the establishment of a hierarchy based on diplomatic and economic clout, and the manifestation of this hierarchy in both the social and economic aspects of life in the foreign communities.

The late Northern Song period witnessed the height of the foreign communities at the Chinese port cities, in particular at Guangzhou. Although Chinese shipping expanded considerably through the course of the late tenth and eleventh centuries, China continued to be highly dependent on foreign traders and shipping, in particular to carry foreign products to its shores, and in turn to export its products (predominantly manufactured goods) to Southeast Asia, the Indian Ocean littoral and the Arabian peninsula. However, as Chinese involvement in maritime shipping gradually dominated China's commerce with its maritime trading partners by the early thirteenth century, China's dependence on foreign shipping to carry its trade declined. The importance of foreign traders as agents at the Chinese ports therefore decreased as well.

Conclusion

The three aspects of Chinese maritime trade at Guangzhou that are highlighted in the present study—Chinese shipping and private maritime trade at the macro and micro levels, the administration of customs procedures, and the development of the foreign community—reached a level of sophistication unknown prior to the late Northern Song. The key reason for this unique state of development was the liberalization of Chinese maritime trade that the Northern Song court embarked upon from the late tenth century onwards. The liberalization of Chinese maritime trade which began in the early eleventh century with the Song court's attempts to allow the inflow and freer trade of foreign products in the Chinese market, came to a peak in the late eleventh century, when maritime trade was liberalized by the Song court under the Wang Anshi reforms for the purpose of gaining as much fiscal benefit as possible from the growth of maritime trade in China. This was particularly so from 1072, when maritime trade was directed into the hands of private traders under the restructuring of the trade and barter regulations, and almost all manner of restrictions that had previously been in place, including restrictions imposed on Chinese shipping and the export of copper out of China, were removed.¹¹⁸ This enabled private enterprise to steer the course of Chinese maritime trade, even as the Song court played a minor, but nonetheless significant, role in this aspect of the Chinese economy by the late Northern Song period.

At the same time, the absence of any standardization of the ports' administration and interpretation of the regulations governing maritime trade that had been formulated by the court during the Northern Song led to the idiosyncratic development and implementation of regulations by Chinese international ports according to the unique circumstances and experiences of each port's administration. The organic nature of Chinese maritime trade administration at the port level was a unique characteristic of the Northern Song, since in 1159 the Song court completed an overhaul of the regulations concerning maritime trade and standardized their implementation at all the Chinese international ports.¹¹⁹

Finally, while Chinese traders managed to develop a series of shipping links and trading networks by the late Northern Song, foreign trading groups that operated in China were still vital for the smooth functioning of China's maritime trade, in terms of the shipping networks they brought to China, access to their home markets, and their knowledge of key foreign markets. Even by the late Northern Song, when China had already undergone a century-long process of liberalization of its maritime economy, foreign trading groups continued to play an intimate role in foreign sea-borne trade.

These unique circumstances of the late Northern Song culminated in China's maritime trade being characterized by a dispersed shipping network with a complex micro-level network of exchanges. The administrative structure and procedure of handling incoming mercantile shipping was tailored as a response to private, individual trade as the predominant form of commercial organization in China's maritime trade economy, rather than state-level or state-sponsored trade; and the foreign community developed and enlarged itself to become, both administratively and socially, an integral player and stakeholder in China's maritime trade economy.

The nature and characteristics of Chinese private maritime trade of the late Northern Song continued to characterize this trade up until the fourteenth century, while key commercial practices developed by Chinese traders during the Song continued to be utilized by Chinese traders well beyond the fifteenth century. The study of the late Northern Song period's maritime trade is therefore essential to understanding developments in Chinese maritime trade from the fourteenth century onwards.

Nonetheless, the organic, port-level nature of Chinese maritime trade in the late Northern Song places limits on the extent to which the present study on Guangzhou may be applied to China's maritime trade in general. In this respect, the present paper aims to make a contribution to scholarship on the port-level history of Song China's maritime economy to advance our understanding of Chinese maritime trade, both at the port and imperial levels.

As the present paper has attempted to show, the Pingzhou ketan is an important source in furthering our understanding of key aspects of China's ports during the late eleventh century. The paper has also demonstrated, however, that there are limitations on this text's usefulness because of its focus. The picture portrayed by the Pingzhou ketan appears to have been reflective only of the state of affairs at Guangzhou during the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries. The extent to which the information in the text can be extended to the other Chinese ports is uncertain. In addition, the information in the text does not always concur with other textual and archaeological sources that contain information on various aspects of Chinese maritime trade during the period. The present paper should instead serve as a springboard for more comprehensive studies of issues pertaining to Song China's administration of maritime trade and shipping at the port level, as archaeological research at the port cities continues to be conducted, and the historical texts presently known to scholars of Chinese maritime history are re-read in light of new data as it becomes available.