Page 42 - Ming_China_Courts_and_Contacts_1400_1450 Craig lunas

Plate 3.6 Bengali lexicon from the Extensive Records of the Four Barbarian [Regions] (Siyi guangji 四夷廣記) by Shen Maoshang 愼懋賞,
16th century. Ink on paper, height 27.8cm, width 16.7cm. The National Central Library, Taipei

the group had also brought pepper to trade in China. They South Asian ports they visited. In Calicut, for example, Ma
requested that a tax be levied on the commodity. The Yongle Huan notes that pepper was grown ‘extensively’ in the
emperor objected: gardens established by people living in the mountainous
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Commercial taxes are levied by the state in order to restrain region of the polity. After it ripened, it was dried and sold to
those engaging in the inferior occupation [commerce]. How ‘big pepper-collectors’, who transported the commodity to
can we use taxes for our benefit! The yi 夷are now inclining an official storehouse. Both the local sale of pepper from this
towards virtue and coming from distant places, and you wish to official storehouse and its supply to foreign traders were
appropriate their profits. The resulting loss and disgrace to the monitored and taxed by local authorities. In Cochin, on the
propriety of the country will outweigh by 10,000 times the other hand, there was no state monopoly on the production,
amount received from them! This is not to be permitted!
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transportation and sale of pepper, which was, according to
T’ien Ju-Kang has argued that as a result of Zheng He’s Ma Huan, the only local product that the emerging port
expeditions, the significance of pepper in Ming China traded. There were private warehouses in Cochin, owned
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changed ‘from being a precious commodity to one in by wealthy families, Fei Xin reports, where pepper was
common use’. The use of pepper as payment to court stored. It was then sold directly to foreign merchants,
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officials and military personnel during the later years of the without state supervision. Perhaps because of the lack of
Yongle emperor, T’ien contends, was the main reason for state monopoly, the price of pepper was about 34 per cent
this change. The sale of pepper in China was monopolised cheaper in Cochin than in Calicut. But it was still 25 per cent
and regulated by the state. It was also used by the state to more expensive than the pepper available in Samudera.
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address the issue of inflation caused by the drop in the value Unlike Calicut and Samudera, however, in the early 15th
of paper money. Given the growing interest in acquiring century Cochin had limited presence of foreign traders and
pepper it is not surprising that Calicut was the main perhaps had more reserves of pepper for export than either
destination of Zheng He’s first three voyages. The support of the others.
for Cochin as an alternative source for procuring pepper, The Malabar coast was also a place where Zheng He and
therefore, could also be related to this increasing domestic his entourage procured goods that arrived from elsewhere in
demand for the commodity. the Indian Ocean. In Cochin, the Chetty merchants
The Ming court’s interest in procuring pepper from collected gemstones, pearls and aromatic goods for resale to
South Asia is evident from the records of Ma Huan and Fei the Ming representatives. Similarly in Calicut, horses,
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Xin, both of whom offer detailed descriptions of the coral, pearls, frankincense, putchuck (a medicinal root) and
availability of pepper, its cultivation and its price at various amber were brought from other regions for transit trade.

32 | Ming China: Courts and Contacts 1400–1450