Maritime history in general and maritime trade history in particular are not new research directions in our country, although achievements in this field are not really outstanding.(1). Meanwhile, studying specific aspects of national history from a maritime perspective is not yet a popular approach. This method has certain advantages, allowing us to have a comparative view and position national history in the broad context of regional and international maritime history. However, it also requires caution from the writer when determining the scope of the study, especially in isolating some specific concepts, especially those related to nation and ethnic groups.(2).
In some previous articles, when reviewing Vietnam's position in the ancient and medieval regional maritime trade system, I was very careful when isolating and using some terms such as "Vietnam/Dai Viet", "Vietnamese people"... to avoid understandings that are not true to the general historical context of Dai Viet and the whole region.(3). In general, the specific isolation of the connotation of some concepts will help the author avoid excessive understandings (either too positive or too negative) of Vietnam's position in the regional maritime trade system through historical periods. From that perspective, this article continues to discuss Vietnam's position in the East Sea trade system in the ancient and medieval period, especially the role of some major seaports of Dai Viet nation under the Ly - Tran - Le So - Mac dynasties, under the impact of the transformation and shift of the regional and international maritime trade network.(4).
Contrary to traditional historical views that tend to downplay the position of the northern part of our country in the regional maritime trade system in ancient and medieval times, recent studies, especially those by foreign Vietnamese scholars, using early Chinese written documents show that, in reality, the territory of the Vietnamese people had a more important position in the maritime trade routes in the East Sea than we once thought.
Archaeological discoveries at Neolithic sites after Hoa Binh (Soi Nhu, Cai Beo) and late Neolithic sites (Ngoc Vung, Ha Long) in recent decades show a relatively high and stable residential density of ancient populations in coastal areas of our country.(5)Not only did they exploit and cultivate on site, the ancient residents here also interacted and exchanged with other groups of residents in southern China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Southeast Asia... creating a relatively open response and a tradition of early and strong communication with the outside world.(6).
After the Qin Dynasty (China) pacified the southern Vietnamese ethnic groups in 214 BC, the north of our country became a part of Tuong district, one of the four districts (Man Chung, Nam Hai, Que Lam and Tuong) established by the Qin Dynasty. After a short period of escaping the rule of the Qin Dynasty (208-179 BC), in 179 BC, the Au Lac people were invaded by Trieu Da's Nam Viet and in 111 BC, the north of our country was annexed under the control of the Han Dynasty.(7)Early Chinese documents show that the main goal of the southern invasion of Chinese dynasties was to plunder the wealth of wealthy Vietnamese people, especially tropical products such as rhino horn, elephant tusks, bird feathers, pearls... which could be exchanged with southern resident groups.(8).
Early Chinese written historical sources also show that, during certain centuries under the Northern domination, Giao Chi played the role of a coordinating center for Chinese maritime trade in the South China Sea; the Long Bien capital was the center of commercial exchanges, a place to welcome foreign merchant delegations to trade with China. These documents also provide concrete evidence of the existence of a regular trade route connecting Guangzhou with trading centers located in the northwestern region of the Gulf of Tonkin.(9). Around the beginning of the Common Era, the two ports of Hepu and Xuwen, located on the northern slope of the Gulf of Tonkin - where pearl fishing and trade were highly developed - were recorded as the starting points for Chinese people to trade along the coast to the south. Not long after, these two trading ports gradually lost their position as coordination centers and southern traders frequently visited the lower Red River Delta.(10).
The North of our country played an important role as a trading gateway for China for at least the first three centuries AD. From the middle of the 3rd century AD, successive uprisings of the Vietnamese people against the rule of the Han people broke out. The harsh ruling policies and the exploitation of the Chinese governors in our country not only negatively affected the internal trade situation but were also considered one of the causes leading to the raids of the Cham people to the north from the second half of the 4th century due to the impact on the traditional exchange flows of Champa through Giao Chi to China.(11). After the relations with Champa in the south were stabilized, a series of uprisings broke out in the north of our country, negatively affecting trading conditions. As a result, foreign merchants changed their trading direction, moving their merchant ships further north to the Guangzhou area, where the political situation was stable and trading conditions were more favorable.(12). Although the situation in the north of our country later stabilized and foreign merchants occasionally visited to trade, it seems that the Northern Delta region could not regain its position in the regional maritime trade system as in previous centuries. At the same time, the port of Guangzhou continued to flourish and quickly became the main gateway for Chinese merchants to trade to the south. Since the Sui Dynasty (589-618), the port of Guangzhou was not only the departure point for most Chinese merchant ships going down to trade with the south, but foreign merchants coming to China also stayed and traded here.(13). The active maritime trade system of the Tang Dynasty in the 7th-10th centuries to Southeast Asia as well as the active activities of Western, Southern, and Southeast Asian merchants in southern China contributed to curbing the revival of maritime trade in the northern coastal region of our country. Although trading activities were still maintained, they were not at a really high level.(14).
For a relatively long period, domestic researchers tended to maintain a relatively negative view of Dai Viet's foreign trade after gaining independence in the 10th century. On the contrary, foreign historians believe that the transfer of the role of coordinating maritime trade from Giao Chi to the southern Chinese ports from the second half of the period of Chinese domination as well as the Vietnamese gaining independence in the 10th century does not mean denying the position of the north of our country in the regional trade system, especially in the maritime trade route connecting China with the southern trading areas.(15). The above viewpoints are increasingly consolidated on the basis of new research, contributing to affirming that the sea and the marine economy have played a much more important role in the development of ancient and medieval Vietnamese history than people once thought.(16).
Water constants, sea constants and economic and cultural activities associated with these constants in the formation and development of Vietnamese history have long been analyzed by researchers.(17). In 1986, based on the analysis of the formation and development of coastal trading centers (Van Don and Nghe - Tinh) during the Ly - Tran period, American historian John Whitmore highlighted "the dynamic commercial role of the Vietnamese in the very prosperous international trade at that time", and at the same time called on researchers to focus on clarifying issues such as "the social production foundation serving trade, the method of organizing trade and the social dynamism leading to surplus products...". He concluded that "the source of wealth gained from trade certainly contributed significantly to the establishment and consolidation of political power, stimulating the local economy".(18). This view of Whitmore was later continued to be researched by subsequent historians such as Momoki Shiro, Li Tana, Charles Wheeler, Nola Cooke... and has now had clear understandings (please see details in the following sections).
The information, though sketchy, in the historical books that remain to this day shows that after gaining independence in the 10th century, especially under the Ly dynasty (11th-13th centuries), the court did not completely turn its back on commerce in general and foreign trade in particular. On the basis of a relatively developed handicraft industry, the Ly dynasty had relatively positive moves in trading with foreign countries. According to the bookContinued Zizhi Tongjian Changbianof Ly Dao, only two years after its establishment, in 1012 the Ly dynasty asked the Song dynasty to open a trade route to Ung Chau by sea; the Song dynasty refused and only allowed Dai Viet merchants to exchange in Guangzhou and some other locations in the border area.(19)In 1040, on the basis of a developed silk weaving industry, King Ly Thai Tong “taught his palace maids to weave brocade [so] he issued an edict to release all the brocade of the Song Dynasty in the warehouse to make clothes for the mandarins […] to show that the king would no longer use brocade of the Song Dynasty.”(20)In 1149, in response to merchant ships from the countries of Trao Oa, Lo Lac, and Siam coming to Hai Dong to request residence and trade, the Ly Dynasty "established a settlement on the island, called Van Don, to buy and sell precious goods and offer local products."(21)In the southern region, the exchange centers in Nghe - Tinh region also had favorable conditions to develop, attracting a large number of merchants from China and Southeast Asia to trade.(22). Beyond the national significance of economic development strategy, in terms of regional and international maritime trade, the establishment of Van Don by the Ly Dynasty had extremely important significance, marking the entry of Dai Viet into the regional and international maritime trade system through the East Sea, as shown in the following main features.
– Before the 15th century, international maritime trade routes connecting China with southern markets mainly passed through the Gulf of Tonkin; the northeastern coastal region of our country therefore had a very important position. In the records of merchants and sailors in the 10th-15th centuries, the sea stretching from southern China through the Gulf of Tonkin down to the Champa coast was famously called Giao Chi Duong (Giao Chi Sea). In this bustling trading area, the main commodities were slaves, salt and horses that were regularly exchanged and Dai Viet under the Ly Dynasty actively participated in trading activities in the Giao Chi sea area.(23). Isolating trade routes, scholar Li Tana argued that, in the broad context of regional and international trade around the end of the Tang Dynasty (7th-10th centuries), Giao Chau in general and the north of our country in particular had an advantage in exchanging goods between the two regions of the sea and the inland areas while Guangzhou and the southern ports of China held a pioneering position in trading with merchant ships from Southeast Asia, West Asia and South Asia.(24).
– Also from the Tang Dynasty, Muslim merchants and sailors played an important role in the maritime trade system in the East Asian region. Going beyond the traditional Southeast Asian exchange centers, Muslim merchants settled and traded in many ports in southern China, the Hainan Island area and were noted for their active role in the small trade routes in the Jiaozhi Yang area.(25)In some major trading centers such as Quanzhou (Fujian), major Hui families such as Pu Kai-zong and Pu Shou-geng were also appointed by the Song Dynasty as commercial supervisors at Quanzhou port.(26)Meanwhile, on Hainan Island, the Muslim community was so large that many Hui-hu villages were established in the coastal areas of Hainan Island.(27). Not only did the Hui merchants have a strong commercial position in southern Chinese ports as previously recognized by traditional views, they also actively participated in trade routes connecting the sea with inland areas, contributing significantly to promoting the development of the exchange network in the East Sea during this period.(28).
– For Dai Viet from the end of the Tran Dynasty and the beginning of the Le Dynasty, the role of Van Don port and the Northeast seaport area in the regional and international maritime trade system in the East Sea was well known through its function of transit and exporting ceramics. Besides the function of transiting Chinese ceramics to the regional market, Van Don was also known as the gateway to bring Dai Viet ceramics (brown glaze of the Tran Dynasty and blue glaze of the early Le Dynasty) to the international market.(29). In a general view, the emergence of Dai Viet ceramics in the international market at this time promptly met the high demand for commercial ceramics of the West Asian market (Persia, Egypt, Turkey...) as well as regional Islamic markets such as in the Philippines, Sulawesi...(30)Dai Viet ceramics were also exported to regional markets until the second half of the 16th century before declining due to both domestic reasons (political upheavals affecting the economy) as well as external influences (the Ming Dynasty abolished the Hai Ban policy in 1567, creating conditions for Chinese ceramic products to return to dominate the international market).(31).
– One of the factors that had a great impact and almost throughout the “early era of Southeast Asian trade (900-1300)”, as Geoff Wade once proposed, was the extremely positive and proactive trade and economic policies of the Song and Yuan dynasties in China. Following the policy of valuing currency to develop trade of the vassals during the Five Dynasties period, under the Song dynasty, specific policies on currency, exchange, taxation... in transactions with foreigners were implemented to stimulate the expansion of foreign trade.(32). Based on the comparison with the changes of regional maritime trade, especially Chinese maritime trade, there have been many opinions that the Ly Dynasty's establishment of Van Don and turning the Northeast region into a commercial gateway for Dai Viet was a quick and timely response, drawing Dai Viet into the international trade orbit in the Gulf of Tonkin region, which had flourished for many centuries, especially after the active foreign trade policies of the Song Dynasty in the late 10th century.(33).
The appearance of Dai Viet's foreign trade in general, as well as Van Don port and the Northeast coastal area in particular, from the last three decades of the 15th century to the end of the 16th century, has been a topic of much debate among researchers in recent years. The lack of information about the Northeast seaport area after 1467 in the official history books of Vietnam has made research difficult, and led to assumptions about the decline of foreign trade and the decline in the function of Van Don port.(34). Meanwhile, information from surveys, fieldwork, archaeological excavations, research results on commercial ceramics combined with comparative historical methods allow for inferences about the Van Don trading port in particular and the Northeast coastal region in general in the regional maritime trade network from a somewhat more positive perspective. Scholar John Whitmore expressed his concerns about "The disappearance of Van Don from the end of the 15th century" when he said that, in terms of official policies of the early Le Dynasty, especially from the Le Thanh Tong Dynasty (1460-1497), it is clear that the state showed quite negative moves towards foreign trade and the existence of the Van Don trading port.(35). “If we equate the Southeast Asian ceramic flow with the Jiaozhi Yang system and are convinced that Van Don was an important node of this system during those few decades [late 15th to early 16th centuries], then what happened? R. Brown has suggested a “Mac gap” in Vietnamese (and other countries’) ceramic production in the 16th century. It seems that this “Mac gap” marked the end of the Jiaozhi Yang system, the disappearance of Van Don, and the transition to a new system like Hoi An. How can we explain this?”(36)
In fact, if the official history of Dai Viet implies the decline of Van Don's function and furthermore the decline of Van Don, the commercial ceramics of Dai Viet exported to the international market in the late 15th and early 16th centuries make people skeptical about this hypothesis. Whitmore himself, although expressing his views on the decline of Van Don as well as the possibility that Dai Viet lost its role in the regional and international trade system in the East Sea from the late 15th century, still shows certain hesitation when comparing with the information from the results of research on commercial ceramics excavated from shipwrecks in recent years. He wondered: “Standing on this issue [economic development policy under the Le Thanh Tong dynasty], we can deduce that the stable and developed administration of Dai Viet in the 15th century certainly stimulated and supported handicraft production and the commercial system [that existed] as part of the Giao Chi Duong network. In fact, Van Don most likely became the key point in this network in the last quarter of the 15th century as well as in the 16th century and replaced Thi Nai. I believe that as long as the [Le dynasty] bureaucratic structure continued to function well, domestic and foreign trade would continue smoothly.”(37).
It can be said that determining the position of Dai Viet trade in the maritime trade system of the East Sea region from 1460 to the end of the 16th century has been and is really challenging researchers. The fact that the early Le dynasty, especially from the Hong Duc period (1460-1497), had negative policies towards foreign trade and the Van Don seaport area as well as the entire Northeast region is true, clearly shown in the set ofNational Dynasty Criminal Lawcompiled during this period(38). However, in a remote area like Van Don, the existence of unofficial trade activities is hard to deny; Dai Viet merchants and foreign merchants certainly maintained exchange activities at a certain level. In any case, the less open policy of the Le Dynasty certainly had negative impacts on the development of Van Don in particular and the entire Northeast seaport area in general after the 1460s.
The development of handicrafts as well as the open attitude of the Mac Dynasty (1527-1592) towards commerce had a significant impact on the domestic exchange situation during this period. However, the issue of Dai Viet's foreign trade under the Mac Dynasty itself has been controversial. While in the past people still believed in an inevitable parallel between the expansion of handicrafts (and domestic trade) and the prosperity of Dai Viet's foreign trade during the Mac Dynasty, some recent researchers have expressed concerns, arguing that the international maritime trade structure in the East Sea region had changed dramatically in the early 16th century, causing Dai Viet's position on the traditional maritime trade routes of the region to be greatly affected. Among the many factors affecting regional maritime trade, I believe that there are at least the following three basic issues that need to be noted when studying Dai Viet's foreign trade in the 16th century, especially in the Northeast coastal region. First, the Portuguese penetration into the East and the establishment of the inter-East Asian trade network of the Royal Portuguese Company (India's Country)(39)has gradually broken the North-South trade structure in the East Sea and South China Sea regions.(40). In particular, with the Portuguese penetration into southern China and the establishment of their commercial position in Macao in the first half of the 16th century, trading activities in the coastal areas of southern China and northeastern Vietnam were significantly affected, if not reduced, by the strong attraction of the Portuguese trading settlements in Macao.(41).
Second, Chinese merchants, especially Fujian merchants, opened and increasingly developed the China - Philippines - Southeast Asia sea trade route from the late 14th century to the early 15th century.(42)had a significant impact on the location of our country's coastal ports. After the Spanish settled and traded in the Philippines, bringing a large amount of silver from the New World every year, the number of Chinese merchants coming here to trade increased. As a result, while the eastern sea route (Dongyang hanglu) of Chinese people to Southeast Asia is increasingly developed, the traditional western route along the coast of Vietnam (Xiyang hanglu) increasingly losing its position(43)In that context, it is understandable that the Northeast region in particular and most of the Dai Viet coast lost their preeminent position in the region's general trading system.
Third, the international ceramic trade network had undergone drastic changes since the mid-16th century and had a significant impact on Dai Viet. If the Ming Dynasty's Hai Ban policy in the 14th and 15th centuries created great conditions for Southeast Asian ceramics (Dai Viet's brown-flowered and Chu Dau ceramics, Champa's Go Sanh ceramics, Siam's Sawankhalok ceramics, etc.) to develop and dominate regional and international ceramic trade flows, the abolition of the Ming Dynasty's closed-door policy in 1567 simultaneously put an end to the era of Southeast Asian commercial ceramics after Chinese ceramics returned to dominate the market.(44). In that context, Dai Viet ceramics in the final stage of the Mac dynasty, although still developing, no longer dominated the outside market, creating a "Mac gap" in the international ceramic trade, as Roxanna M. Brown said.(45)The concern is understandable from the regional and international ceramic trade perspective.
In addition to the three external factors presented above, the continuous change of the dynasty in Dai Viet from the first decades of the 16th century can be considered an internal factor and directly affected the position of Dai Viet, especially the seaports in the Northeast region, in the East Sea trade system during this period. After ascending the throne in 1527, Mac Dang Dung (and the following kings of the Mac dynasty) always advocated developing his hometown Duong Kinh (Hai Phong) into the second political center after Thang Long, at the same time turning this place into a gateway for Dai Viet to the outside world.(46). This strategy of the Mac dynasty clearly took away a large part of the commercial advantage of Van Don and the Northeast coastal region, despite the fact that the Mac dynasty maintained a rather open vision of trade. From the end of the 16th century to the beginning of the 17th century, with the transfer of power from the Mac dynasty to the Le-Trinh dynasty, the commercial gateway of Dai Viet continued to change: from Duong Kinh to the Thai Binh river mouth area. Thus, within only about a hundred years under the Mac and Le-Trinh dynasties, the main commercial gateway of Dai Viet nation continuously shifted south: from Van Don (12th - 16th century) through Duong Kinh (16th century) to the Thai Binh river mouth area (17th century - about the 19th century).
It is worth mentioning that, while the Duong Kinh period was still in the transitional period of regional maritime trade (in the 16th century, Westerners began to penetrate), the emergence of the Thai Binh estuary was associated with a new era of regional maritime trade in East Asia. Since the 17th century, traditional maritime trade routes in the East Sea and South China Sea, which were previously operated by Asian merchants (China, Southeast Asia, South Asia and West Asia), were gradually taken over by Westerners (Dutch, British, French, Portuguese, etc.). Not only the regional maritime trade structure but also the content (or nature) of maritime trade flows were transformed to suit the new context.(47)In the new era of East Asian trade, the Dai Viet nation (both Dang Trong and Dang Ngoai) had an important position and in certain periods became irreplaceable links.(48). In Dang Ngoai alone, an undeniable fact is that in the 17th century and part of the 18th century, the vast majority of foreign merchant ships coming to trade with Dang Ngoai entered the Thai Binh River and stayed at Domea (Tien Lang) while import and export activities took place mainly in the capital Thang Long.(49)The fact that the majority of foreign merchants and merchant ships gathered in Tien Lang in the 17th and 18th centuries, as well as the rise of Duong Kinh in the 16th century, as a consequence, significantly reduced, in terms of official position, the position and role of Van Don in particular and the seaport area of the Northeast region in general.
However, it should also be added that the shift of the trading gateway to the Duong Kinh area (16th century) and the Thai Binh river mouth (17th - 18th century) did not mean the "disappearance" or "complete decline" of Van Don and the Northeast coastal region as some researchers have believed. With its location adjacent to the bustling commercial area in southeastern China, Van Don and the Northeast coastal region - although no longer the main trading gateway of Dai Viet as in the Ly and Tran periods - still had a significant commercial role. The efforts of the Dutch and the British in the strategy of building a trading center in the Northeast border region in the second half of the 17th century showed that this region still had an important position in exchanges with China through large exchange centers (silver trading markets) along the border.(50). However, the biggest obstacle to the development of the Northeast region from the second half of the 17th century was the problem of piracy and political instability in the southern and southeastern regions of China after the Ming-Qing Incident in 1644. After the collapse of the Ming Dynasty, many pirate groups as well as "anti-Qing, restore Ming" forces often chose the southern region of China, a part bordering the Vietnam-China border, to take shelter and plunder foreign merchant ships coming to trade with Dang Ngoai through the northern region of the Gulf of Tonkin and the Leizhou peninsula.(51)The Le-Trinh dynasty therefore tightened its control over the Northeast region for most of the 17th century, making it impossible for the region's commercial position to develop as it had in previous centuries.
As one of the most dynamic maritime trade areas in the world in ancient, medieval and early modern times, the Gulf of Tonkin in particular and the East Sea in general were the destinations of many foreign merchants and merchant ships. In ancient and medieval times, Asian merchants (China, Southeast Asia, South Asia, West Asia) gathered here to trade, turning this place into a bustling maritime trade area. The seaports along our country's coast (Van Don in the Northeast; Thanh-Nghe-Tinh in the North Central region; Vijaya of the Cham people in the South Central region...) also developed accordingly. With the penetration of Europeans into East Asia in the early 16th century, the traditional maritime trade structure in the East Sea region was gradually broken, replaced by a new structure bearing the strong imprint of Western commercial and maritime powers.
Corresponding to the main stages of development of regional and international trade through the East Sea, Dai Viet, through its seaports and coastal trading centers, has shown different levels of integration and played different roles. In a historical and systematic view, Dai Viet's integration and adjustment in the East Sea trade system is clearly shown through the process of self-adjusting the trade gateway: the process of gradually shifting south to integrate with the changes of regional maritime trade. If under the Ly, Tran and early Le dynasties (11th century - late 15th century), Van Don and the Northeast coastal region were the main gateway of Dai Viet, in the 16th century Duong Kinh (Hai Phong) became an important trading hub of the Mac dynasty. The shift continued in the 17th century with the emergence of the Thai Binh estuary (Tien Lang, Hai Phong) as the main trading gateway of Dai Viet during the Le - Trinh period.
If the above shift itself only reflects historical reality, the analysis of the content of historical changes, especially the analysis of internal and external issues affecting the shift, will provide profound insights into the changes in the nature and structure of the above historical phenomena. As analyzed, by the first half of the 16th century, ceramics were considered the main export product of Dai Viet, so Van Don and the Northeast region - quite close to the ceramic center of Chu Dau (Hai Duong) - had a favorable location for transportation and export activities. Besides, Van Don is located at the gateway to the Gulf of Tonkin - the center of slave, salt, horse exchange activities... of the Giao Chi Duong maritime trading world, where there is the participation of many merchants from Southeast Asia, South Asia and West Asia... From the 16th century, not only did Asian merchants gradually lose their position in the East Sea to Westerners, but the structure of trade goods also changed from ceramics to silk - a popular product of the Red River Delta, especially the famous silk villages along the Red River, the capital area and the surrounding areas of Thang Long... Even when Dang Ngoai ceramics were exported to Southeast Asia in large quantities by foreigners
Author:i333
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