Page 76 - Vol_2_Archaeology of Manila Galleon Seaport Trade

2 The Cultural Change of Kilns and Contents of Export … 43

southern Fujian were also identi!ed, such as the white porcelains of Dehua, the
porcelain plates with the pattern of one autumn leaf, the bowls with the pattern of
Chinese character writing and the bluish white glazed porcelain of south Fujian,
representing the cultural continuation of the ceramic combination of earlier stage.
The blue and white bowls with the Ariso design produced in the Japanese Hizen
kiln (Fig. 2.8: 1) were also widely distributed in this trade network during this
period. Except for the Donggu wreck, it was also found in Tainan, the Hoi An site
in central Vietnam and the Ayutthaya ruins of Thailand. After losing access to
Chinese porcelains, the Zheng group and the Dutch started to deal in Japanese
porcelains instead of Chinese porcelains. Hizen potters in the northwestern part of
the Kyushu island began to produce porcelains for east and southeast Asia maritime
markets and had been exported to maritime world since the 1640’s. Historical
document recorded that a Chinese junk carried “174 straw bags of inferior porce-
lain” from Nagasaki to Cambodia via Xiamen in 1647 (Yamawaki 1988). Except
for VOC, the Zheng’s group had been the most important merchants for the
exportation of Japanese porcelains. They transported them mainly to southeast Asia
and Japanese porcelains rapidly spread in the Asian markets. Japanese porcelains of
this period have been found at archaeological sites in Taiwan, the Philippines,
Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia and Indonesia.
The Manila trade for galleon cargo had continued to be valued by the Zheng’s
group. According to the archives of Spanish custom of the Philippines, various
types of porcelains including Japanese porcelains were imported to Manila by junks
sailing from Taiwan and were sold through galleon trade to the Spanish colonies in
Americas between 1664 and 1684. Archaeologists have discovered Japanese
porcelains in Manila, Cebu City, Mexico City, La Antigua, etc. At these sites, the
porcelains from Fujian such as the plates with pattern of one autumn leaf, bowls
with the pattern of Chinese character writing and white wares of Dehua, were often
discovered together with Japanese porcelains (Nagomi 2006), presenting the same
combination as Donggu shipwreck. All of these porcelains from Japan and Fujian
should have been imported to Manila via seaports of Xiamen, Anhai, and Tainan.
Dehua white porcelains also continued to be exported to overseas regions
through Xiamen seaport in this period. The Portuguese, Spanish, British and Dutch
had engaged in the transportation of Dehua white porcelains, of which the British
had been the most active. In the late period of the Zheng’s kingdom, the trade
between Zheng and British developed. From the end of 17th to the beginning of
18th century, the British and French merchants usually purchased tea, raw silk, silk
and porcelains from Xiamen and Guangzhou. Xiamen became the main trading
seaport with the British at that time. The list of cargoes included in archives of the
British East Indian Company recorded that the British merchants had normally
carried a large number of Dehua white porcelains when they returned to Europe
from Xiamen (Canepa 2012).