Page 11 - Export Porcelain and Globakization- GOOD READ

India the Portuguese headed further south east in order to gain control of Malacca and
to get access to the trading routes for spices. A Portuguese fleet under the command of
Alfonso de Albuquerque conquered Malacca in 1511 and established various new
entrepots on the way between Africa and East Asia to facilitate Asian-European trade.
Goa at the Indian west coast became the capital of the Portuguese Estado da India.
Jorge Alvares was the first European who reached China by sea in 1513, and the
Europeans first contact with Japan took place in 1542. The Portuguese Estado created
entrepots along the trading route from Lisbon to India via the African and Arab coasts,
from Malacca to the Spice Islands and from Macao to Nagasaki. The commercial
network brought Portugal great wealth during the 16th century. However, even though
they forced (by executing military force) their way into the existing Asian trading
system, Portugal was not able to alter the commercial rules. Spices, textiles, porcelain
and other commodities highly in demand in Europe had to be paid for. And since
Portugal did not have much to barter, the commodities had to be paid for in silver.
Portugal’s power was off-shore. Highly armed ships, bigger and faster than any Asian
competitor, and the control of various important entrepots such as Muscat, Hormuz,
some Indian ports in northern Gujarat and at the southern Malabar Coast, gave them
much advantage on the sea routes. They did not only ship commodities from one port
to the other but they were also able to tax other ships with the so-called “cartaz” fee.
The cartaz had to be bought by every merchant ship in the region as a license to trade
and transport, and it granted the buyer Portuguese protection against pirates and other
states. Goa, Diu, Hormuz and Malacca were the most important customs offices to
7
charge the cartaz fee . On-shore however, the influence of the Estado da India on
Mughal India, Ming China or the Japanese Tokugawa Shogunate was negligible.
These land-based or inland-oriented empires did not really take notice of what
happened at their narrow coastal strips or – like China and Japan – opened only a very
tiny window for some very restricted trading activities: The Chinese Emperor gave
permission in 1557 to the Portuguese to rent the Macao peninsula for an annual tribute,
and in Japan the Estado was allowed to open a small trading post in Hirado, near
Nagasaki.
Macao (澳门) was the only official trading city for Europeans in Mainland China
for more than a century until Canton (Guangzhou) - one hundred kilometers in the
north of Macao - was officially opened for Sino-European trade in 1684. But even
then, the Chinese officials restricted direct exchange for more than 150 years, until
they had been violently forced to give access to more harbors after they lost the
Opium war against the UK. And it was the sea route between Macao and Nagasaki
which produced the highest profit for the Portuguese traders. Since the Ming banned
private trade, Portuguese ships were able to substitute Chinese junks in shipping
Chinese silk and porcelain to Japan in exchange for Japanese silver, which was highly
in demand in China, and which gave Portugal additional means to purchase spices or
textiles in Indonesia and India. The silk for silver trade was one of the most lucrative
arbitrage trades until the 17th century. This applied also for the Dutch East India
Company which gained a monopoly for trade with Japan in 1641. Macao is for
several reasons a fascinating case in the history of trade and Chinese European
relations. It was not only the first settlement for Europeans in China, it also preserved
its position as the most relevant location for foreigners for almost 200 years until
Hong Kong – just across the Pearl River Delta – was founded. However, other than
Hong Kong, Macao stands at least for these two centuries with a by and large peaceful
relationship with China. Hong Kong unfortunately cannot deny its origins are from
drug trafficking and armed warfare. This was probably the reason why Portuguese
10