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长江与莱茵河II——第二届长江与莱茵河历史文化比较研讨会论文集, 2022
1997年，曹永和老师在Itinerario期刊发表了一篇影响深远的文章“Taiwan as an Entrepôt in East Asia in the Seventeenth Centur... more 1997年，曹永和老师在Itinerario期刊发表了一篇影响深远的文章“Taiwan as an Entrepôt in East Asia in the Seventeenth Century” (十七世纪作为东亚转运站的台湾)，提出十七世纪台湾在东亚海域中扮演着国际贸易转运站角色，但在康熙平台后，清政府便不再将台湾作为国际贸易中心，反而让台湾成为“东亚贸易的主要路线之外的一个微小的边陲区域”。可是，曹老师却未曾继续关注到，在清朝管制下，这个“微小的边陲地域”并未成为蛮荒之地。相反，台湾土地得到空前开发，而台湾与长江下游江南地区的蔗糖贸易也空前繁荣。带着这个疑惑，笔者想要追问：康熙平台后，在国际贸易中被边缘化的台湾是如何转变角色，通过与江南贸易，实现糖业空前之发展？通过分析台湾、江南、福建、长崎及清宫史料，本文提出：台糖入苏贸易之崛起得益于1687年后的宽松局面。是年，清廷在开海禁之余放开台糖贸易，并实施以闽济台政策。这一有利局面持续到1718年。是年闽浙总督借海禁再起，规定装运台糖船只必须赴厦门挂靠查验。这介于两次海禁之间的三十余年相对开放且几乎“无官问津”的时代是台糖入苏贸易兴起之关键阶段。
Guanmian Xu, “Wuguan wenjin: Qingchu Taitang ru Su maoyi de xingqi, 1687-1718” 无官问津：清初台糖入苏贸易的兴起，1687-1718 [Without much attention from the government: The rise of Taiwan sugar’s Suzhou trade in the early Qing period, 1687-1718], in Changjiang yu Laiyinhe II: Di’erjie Changjiang yu Laiyinhe lishi wenhua bijiao yantaohui lunwenji 长江与莱茵河 Ⅱ——第二届长江与莱茵河历史文化比较研讨会论文集 [The Yangzi and the Rhine II: Proceedings of the second conference on the comparison between the history and culture of the Yangzi and the Rhine] (Shanghai: Zhongxi shuju, 2022), 105-127.
Journal of World History, 2022
Taiwan, the first post-Dutch-colonial society in Asia, experienced an exponential growth of sugar... more Taiwan, the first post-Dutch-colonial society in Asia, experienced an exponential growth of sugar production in the six decades following the Siege of Fort Zeelandia (1661–1662) and emerged as a world-leading sugar producer in the 1720s, overshadowing any single sugar island in the contemporary Caribbean region. This unprecedented expansion of a non- western sugar frontier encourages us to revisit the existing theories about sugar and early modern globalization, which represent highly productive offshore sugar islands as a unique product of the expansion of the European capitalist economy in the Atlantic World. The case of Taiwan sugar instead shows how a former European colony in East Asia with a nascent sugar economy was first militarily occupied by a non-western maritime power, then politically incorporated by a non-western empire, and eventually economic- ally integrated by a non-western consumer market. Combining Dutch, Chinese, Japanese, and English sources, in this article, I investigate the rise of Taiwan sugar in a global context from a sugar crisis of the Atlantic system in the 1630s to the Pax Manjurica in the China Seas region in the early eighteenth century.
International Review of Social History, 2022
Not all early modern sugar plantations were in the Atlantic World. Indeed, far away from it, in t... more Not all early modern sugar plantations were in the Atlantic World. Indeed, far away from it, in the rural space surrounding the Dutch headquarters in Asia (the Ommelanden of Batavia (Jakarta)), over a hundred of them were thriving by the end of the seventeenth century. Together, they constituted a unique plantation society that followed Dutch land law, was operated by Javanese rural labour, and was managed by Chinese sugar entrepreneurs. Through archival work on a certain “perfect map” that belonged to a Chinese widow, this article explores how that plantation society took shape on the ground.
清华大学学报（哲学社会科学版）Journal of Tsinghua University (Philosophy and Social Sciences), 2020
近代早期华人在海外活动时，使用的是什么样的货币呢？该问题在历史学界鲜有讨论，在中文史料中也鲜有记载 。查阅荷兰等欧洲殖民史料可知 ，自16世纪起，欧洲殖民者便陆续记载、调查、收藏海外华人的货币。... more 近代早期华人在海外活动时，使用的是什么样的货币呢？该问题在历史学界鲜有讨论，在中文史料中也鲜有记载 。查阅荷兰等欧洲殖民史料可知 ，自16世纪起，欧洲殖民者便陆续记载、调查、收藏海外华人的货币。纵使华人在海外活动的最终目标是要赚取白银带回中国，但是在其日常生活中，所使用的往往是形态、质地各异的各种贱金属钱币。这些钱币基本都是由华人铸造、发行，但也在非华人圈中流通。它们在很大程度上帮助华人实现了对东南亚商品贸易、种植园、矿业、地方金融等经济领域的控制，甚至一度见证了海外华人独立政权的兴起。由此可知，颇具特点的南洋钱法在近代早期的东南亚地区货币体系演变中始终占有一席之地，应重新定位其在全球史与货币交流史中的位置。
What kind of money did the overseas Chinese use in the early modern period? By exploring Dutch colonial records, this study uncovers a rich documentation about overseas Chinese coinage. It shows that, albeit the existence of a silver-dominated global trading system, the overseas Chinese used various kinds of base metal coins in their everyday life. These coins played a critical role in Chinese control of trade, plantations, mining, and local finance in early modern Southeast Asia. They also witnessed the rise of independent overseas Chinese political regimes, which authorised themselves to issue the so-called “kongsi coins”. By integrating these cases, this paper proposes a new field for global monetary history, namely, the “Nanyang Coinage”.
Itinerario: Journal of Imperial and Global Interactions, 2020
Much more globally entangled than many global historians used to think, the so-called Spice Wars ... more Much more globally entangled than many global historians used to think, the so-called Spice Wars were not only a story of European expansion and Southeast Asian interaction, but had an inextricable northern link leading all the way to China. From the capture of a Chinese junk serving the Spaniards in Ternate by Cornelis Matelief in 1607, to the completion of the first manuscript of the incense compendium (Xiangsheng) by Zhou Jiazhou in Jiangnan in 1618, and eventually to the proposal of the strange monopoly policy by Jan Pieterszoon Coen to the Heeren XVII (Gentlemen Seventeen) in the Dutch Republic in 1622, these seemingly irrelevant events are in fact the fragments of an untold global history of cloves which was not westward bound to the Indian Ocean, the Middle East, and Europe, but northward linked with the East Asian world via the Manila route.
歷史人類學學刊, 2019
在前近代中國，地方社會如何參與長程貿易？傳統的觀點是：地方社會通過施堅雅所提出的巨區結構參與長距離貿易。也就是說，地方社會並不直接參與長程貿易，而是遵循市場的等級結構將貨物逐級匯集到它們所在的巨... more 在前近代中國，地方社會如何參與長程貿易？傳統的觀點是：地方社會通過施堅雅所提出的巨區結構參與長距離貿易。也就是說，地方社會並不直接參與長程貿易，而是遵循市場的等級結構將貨物逐級匯集到它們所在的巨區的中心城市，再通過中心城市參與長程貿易。但是，基於在粵西南的調査，筆者發現這種模式未必適用於沿海地區。沿海地區的地方社會，因為海洋貿易的存在，有能力構建自己的長程貿易市場空間，來繞過巨區結構的限制直接參與長距離的海洋貿易。就清代粵西南的廣州灣地區而言，乾隆年間出現的潮州會館就扮演這樣一種角色。該會館一方面深入粵西南的鄉間墟市，另外一方面連接着整個沿海的貿易網絡，同時又以會館為中心在赤坎埠形成獨特的會館社會。通過這種由商業會館所形塑的既「跨域」又「在地」的社會空間，粵西南沿海地方社會在18世紀下半葉開始出現一系列變化。
Fudan Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences, 2019
In the early sixteenth century, the deltas of Rhine and Yangzi faced comparable ecological crises... more In the early sixteenth century, the deltas of Rhine and Yangzi faced comparable ecological crises, but neither of these riverine societies was deterred by the mounting challenges. They independently developed divergent ways to not only defend against the encroaching water, but also reclaim new land from the water. This paper aims to examine the factors in the making of that transformation in these two riverine societies and to ask how they took different paths, why, and what were the implications of that divergence. In asking these questions, particular attention will be paid to the significance of technological and institutional breakthroughs in the Dutch case, such as highly efficient windmills for pumping water, the mapping of cadastral surveys with triangulation, the centralization of power in the local water boards (heemraden), and the involvement of the financial market. In the Chinese case, we focus on the importance of the developing domestic market, the relationship between state and society in local water management, and the formation of unique local land reclamation organizations.
Thesis Chapters by Guanmian Xu
In this study, I aim to address a long-standing question in Southeast Asian historiography, namel... more In this study, I aim to address a long-standing question in Southeast Asian historiography, namely: Why did two seemingly irrelevant edibles, pepper and sea cucumbers, feature so prominently in Southeast Asian exports to China in the early modern period? I approach this question through an intersection of Chinese cultural history and Asian maritime history. I argue that pepper and sea cucumbers represented two distinct Chinese food cultures, which became important in two different stages. Pepper became a popular hot spice in Chinese cuisine during the Mongol Yuan period, when the Mongol Conquest of China and Persia created a trans-Indian Ocean empire and facilitated the circulation of pepper from South India to China. Sea cucumbers became a coveted sea delicacy in Chinese high cuisine in a much later stage, roughly from the late sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries, in association with the expansions of the Manchus, the Dutch, and the British in the areas around the China Seas. Between these two stages, there was a gustatory revolution energised by debates in Chinese medicine from the fourteenth through the seventeenth centuries. Through that revolution, a transformation from the world of pepper to the world of sea cucumbers took place.
长江与莱茵河II——第二届长江与莱茵河历史文化比较研讨会论文集, 2022
1997年，曹永和老师在Itinerario期刊发表了一篇影响深远的文章“Taiwan as an Entrepôt in East Asia in the Seventeenth Centur... more 1997年，曹永和老师在Itinerario期刊发表了一篇影响深远的文章“Taiwan as an Entrepôt in East Asia in the Seventeenth Century” (十七世纪作为东亚转运站的台湾)，提出十七世纪台湾在东亚海域中扮演着国际贸易转运站角色，但在康熙平台后，清政府便不再将台湾作为国际贸易中心，反而让台湾成为“东亚贸易的主要路线之外的一个微小的边陲区域”。可是，曹老师却未曾继续关注到，在清朝管制下，这个“微小的边陲地域”并未成为蛮荒之地。相反，台湾土地得到空前开发，而台湾与长江下游江南地区的蔗糖贸易也空前繁荣。带着这个疑惑，笔者想要追问：康熙平台后，在国际贸易中被边缘化的台湾是如何转变角色，通过与江南贸易，实现糖业空前之发展？通过分析台湾、江南、福建、长崎及清宫史料，本文提出：台糖入苏贸易之崛起得益于1687年后的宽松局面。是年，清廷在开海禁之余放开台糖贸易，并实施以闽济台政策。这一有利局面持续到1718年。是年闽浙总督借海禁再起，规定装运台糖船只必须赴厦门挂靠查验。这介于两次海禁之间的三十余年相对开放且几乎“无官问津”的时代是台糖入苏贸易兴起之关键阶段。
Guanmian Xu, “Wuguan wenjin: Qingchu Taitang ru Su maoyi de xingqi, 1687-1718” 无官问津：清初台糖入苏贸易的兴起，1687-1718 [Without much attention from the government: The rise of Taiwan sugar’s Suzhou trade in the early Qing period, 1687-1718], in Changjiang yu Laiyinhe II: Di’erjie Changjiang yu Laiyinhe lishi wenhua bijiao yantaohui lunwenji 长江与莱茵河 Ⅱ——第二届长江与莱茵河历史文化比较研讨会论文集 [The Yangzi and the Rhine II: Proceedings of the second conference on the comparison between the history and culture of the Yangzi and the Rhine] (Shanghai: Zhongxi shuju, 2022), 105-127.
Journal of World History, 2022
Taiwan, the first post-Dutch-colonial society in Asia, experienced an exponential growth of sugar... more Taiwan, the first post-Dutch-colonial society in Asia, experienced an exponential growth of sugar production in the six decades following the Siege of Fort Zeelandia (1661–1662) and emerged as a world-leading sugar producer in the 1720s, overshadowing any single sugar island in the contemporary Caribbean region. This unprecedented expansion of a non- western sugar frontier encourages us to revisit the existing theories about sugar and early modern globalization, which represent highly productive offshore sugar islands as a unique product of the expansion of the European capitalist economy in the Atlantic World. The case of Taiwan sugar instead shows how a former European colony in East Asia with a nascent sugar economy was first militarily occupied by a non-western maritime power, then politically incorporated by a non-western empire, and eventually economic- ally integrated by a non-western consumer market. Combining Dutch, Chinese, Japanese, and English sources, in this article, I investigate the rise of Taiwan sugar in a global context from a sugar crisis of the Atlantic system in the 1630s to the Pax Manjurica in the China Seas region in the early eighteenth century.
International Review of Social History, 2022
Not all early modern sugar plantations were in the Atlantic World. Indeed, far away from it, in t... more Not all early modern sugar plantations were in the Atlantic World. Indeed, far away from it, in the rural space surrounding the Dutch headquarters in Asia (the Ommelanden of Batavia (Jakarta)), over a hundred of them were thriving by the end of the seventeenth century. Together, they constituted a unique plantation society that followed Dutch land law, was operated by Javanese rural labour, and was managed by Chinese sugar entrepreneurs. Through archival work on a certain “perfect map” that belonged to a Chinese widow, this article explores how that plantation society took shape on the ground.
清华大学学报（哲学社会科学版）Journal of Tsinghua University (Philosophy and Social Sciences), 2020
近代早期华人在海外活动时，使用的是什么样的货币呢？该问题在历史学界鲜有讨论，在中文史料中也鲜有记载 。查阅荷兰等欧洲殖民史料可知 ，自16世纪起，欧洲殖民者便陆续记载、调查、收藏海外华人的货币。... more 近代早期华人在海外活动时，使用的是什么样的货币呢？该问题在历史学界鲜有讨论，在中文史料中也鲜有记载 。查阅荷兰等欧洲殖民史料可知 ，自16世纪起，欧洲殖民者便陆续记载、调查、收藏海外华人的货币。纵使华人在海外活动的最终目标是要赚取白银带回中国，但是在其日常生活中，所使用的往往是形态、质地各异的各种贱金属钱币。这些钱币基本都是由华人铸造、发行，但也在非华人圈中流通。它们在很大程度上帮助华人实现了对东南亚商品贸易、种植园、矿业、地方金融等经济领域的控制，甚至一度见证了海外华人独立政权的兴起。由此可知，颇具特点的南洋钱法在近代早期的东南亚地区货币体系演变中始终占有一席之地，应重新定位其在全球史与货币交流史中的位置。
What kind of money did the overseas Chinese use in the early modern period? By exploring Dutch colonial records, this study uncovers a rich documentation about overseas Chinese coinage. It shows that, albeit the existence of a silver-dominated global trading system, the overseas Chinese used various kinds of base metal coins in their everyday life. These coins played a critical role in Chinese control of trade, plantations, mining, and local finance in early modern Southeast Asia. They also witnessed the rise of independent overseas Chinese political regimes, which authorised themselves to issue the so-called “kongsi coins”. By integrating these cases, this paper proposes a new field for global monetary history, namely, the “Nanyang Coinage”.
Itinerario: Journal of Imperial and Global Interactions, 2020
Much more globally entangled than many global historians used to think, the so-called Spice Wars ... more Much more globally entangled than many global historians used to think, the so-called Spice Wars were not only a story of European expansion and Southeast Asian interaction, but had an inextricable northern link leading all the way to China. From the capture of a Chinese junk serving the Spaniards in Ternate by Cornelis Matelief in 1607, to the completion of the first manuscript of the incense compendium (Xiangsheng) by Zhou Jiazhou in Jiangnan in 1618, and eventually to the proposal of the strange monopoly policy by Jan Pieterszoon Coen to the Heeren XVII (Gentlemen Seventeen) in the Dutch Republic in 1622, these seemingly irrelevant events are in fact the fragments of an untold global history of cloves which was not westward bound to the Indian Ocean, the Middle East, and Europe, but northward linked with the East Asian world via the Manila route.
歷史人類學學刊, 2019
在前近代中國，地方社會如何參與長程貿易？傳統的觀點是：地方社會通過施堅雅所提出的巨區結構參與長距離貿易。也就是說，地方社會並不直接參與長程貿易，而是遵循市場的等級結構將貨物逐級匯集到它們所在的巨... more 在前近代中國，地方社會如何參與長程貿易？傳統的觀點是：地方社會通過施堅雅所提出的巨區結構參與長距離貿易。也就是說，地方社會並不直接參與長程貿易，而是遵循市場的等級結構將貨物逐級匯集到它們所在的巨區的中心城市，再通過中心城市參與長程貿易。但是，基於在粵西南的調査，筆者發現這種模式未必適用於沿海地區。沿海地區的地方社會，因為海洋貿易的存在，有能力構建自己的長程貿易市場空間，來繞過巨區結構的限制直接參與長距離的海洋貿易。就清代粵西南的廣州灣地區而言，乾隆年間出現的潮州會館就扮演這樣一種角色。該會館一方面深入粵西南的鄉間墟市，另外一方面連接着整個沿海的貿易網絡，同時又以會館為中心在赤坎埠形成獨特的會館社會。通過這種由商業會館所形塑的既「跨域」又「在地」的社會空間，粵西南沿海地方社會在18世紀下半葉開始出現一系列變化。
Fudan Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences, 2019
In the early sixteenth century, the deltas of Rhine and Yangzi faced comparable ecological crises... more In the early sixteenth century, the deltas of Rhine and Yangzi faced comparable ecological crises, but neither of these riverine societies was deterred by the mounting challenges. They independently developed divergent ways to not only defend against the encroaching water, but also reclaim new land from the water. This paper aims to examine the factors in the making of that transformation in these two riverine societies and to ask how they took different paths, why, and what were the implications of that divergence. In asking these questions, particular attention will be paid to the significance of technological and institutional breakthroughs in the Dutch case, such as highly efficient windmills for pumping water, the mapping of cadastral surveys with triangulation, the centralization of power in the local water boards (heemraden), and the involvement of the financial market. In the Chinese case, we focus on the importance of the developing domestic market, the relationship between state and society in local water management, and the formation of unique local land reclamation organizations.
In this study, I aim to address a long-standing question in Southeast Asian historiography, namel... more In this study, I aim to address a long-standing question in Southeast Asian historiography, namely: Why did two seemingly irrelevant edibles, pepper and sea cucumbers, feature so prominently in Southeast Asian exports to China in the early modern period? I approach this question through an intersection of Chinese cultural history and Asian maritime history. I argue that pepper and sea cucumbers represented two distinct Chinese food cultures, which became important in two different stages. Pepper became a popular hot spice in Chinese cuisine during the Mongol Yuan period, when the Mongol Conquest of China and Persia created a trans-Indian Ocean empire and facilitated the circulation of pepper from South India to China. Sea cucumbers became a coveted sea delicacy in Chinese high cuisine in a much later stage, roughly from the late sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries, in association with the expansions of the Manchus, the Dutch, and the British in the areas around the China Seas. Between these two stages, there was a gustatory revolution energised by debates in Chinese medicine from the fourteenth through the seventeenth centuries. Through that revolution, a transformation from the world of pepper to the world of sea cucumbers took place.