A Study Of The Tang Ship Trade And The Management Of Tang Merchants In The Early Edo Period

With the beginning of the Great Age of Navigation,a new era of trade in the seas of East Asia,which had previously been relatively closed,began with the intervention of Western countries.In the 17 th century,trade in the East Asian seas began to be integrated into the world trading system.Both China and Japan,the two most important countrie.The main form of China-Japan trade during this period was carried out by Tang ships and mainly by Tang merchants.By examining the Tang ship trade and the management of Tang merchants during this period,and analysing the changes in the Tang ship trade system and the changes in the management mode of Tang merchants,it is possible to understand the real state of Sino-Japanese trade at the time,and to understand the process by which Sino-Japanese trade moved from a Chinese-dominated tribute trade system to a part of global trade.The introduction focuses on the background of China-Japan trade at the beginning of the Edo period.The trade between China and Japan in the early Edo period was mainly in the context of the Great Sea Age and was influenced by the domestic political situation in both countries.In addition,a review of current research is presented and the basic idea and framework of the paper is elaborated.The first chapter focuses on the changes in the Tang ship trade system,examining the forms of trade that unfolded and the profitability and scale of trade during the period of the silk cutter system,the period of free trade,the period of the goods market law and the period of the fixed-rate trade system.It is shown that the trade was mainly dominated by the Edo Shogunate,which constantly adjusted the trade system as a process of managing the trade,and in the process,the management became stricter and finally rose to the level of officially controlled trade.The second chapter examines the two main institutions involved in the management of the trade,the Nagasaki bugyo and the Totuji.As bureaucrats of the Shogunate,the political status and positions of the Nagasaki bugyo changed along with the development of the Nagasaki trade;Totuji,as a group of Chinese in Japan,were the direct executors of the Shogunate's management of the Nagasaki trade,and their positions and functions were created to meet the needs of the Nagasaki trade.The third chapter focuses on the Shogunate's management of the Tang merchants during their stay in Japan.The Tang merchants went through a process of free dispersal to semi-free residence in Japan to finally taking up residence in the Tang yashiki,where their behaviour was completely regulated.This process was one of adjustment by the Shogunate to suit the trading system of the time.The concluding section summarises the form of the Tang ship trade and offers ideas and directions for future research.The concluding section summarises the form of the Tang ship trade and offers ideas and directions for future research.