Qing Dynasty Ocean Policy And Maritime Trade In The Bohai Rim Region

The Bohai Sea is China’s inland sea, situated between Shandong Peninsula andLiaoning Peninsula, where its east joins the north of the Huanghai Sea. In terms of itslocation and boundary, the Circum-Bohai-Sea region consists of Baohai Sea and thenorthern part of the Huanghai Sea as well as the coastal areas surrounding thesewaters. Due to its unique geographical features and rich natural resources, theCircum-Bohai-Sea region has been one of the most important regions in northernChina since ancient times. There has long been a maritime trade tradition in thisregion. After Beijing was made the capital of the Ming and Qing dynasties, as itsgateway from sea and also serving as a geographical barrier to Beijing and itsenvirons, the Circum-Bohai-Sea region had gained growing attention from the rulingclass. In the Qing Dynasty, the Circum-Bohai-Sea region mainly includes provincesof Fengtian, Zhili and Shandong etc. After a long policy of ’Maritime Trade Ban’carried out in the early Ming Dynasty, trade activities at home and abroad in theCircum-Bohai-Sea region started to recover and gradually showed a thriving trend inthe late Ming Dynasty. However, with the establishment of the Qing Dynasty, themarine policies were adjusted by the ruling class for many times. The alternationbetween opening-up policy and ’Maritime Trade Ban’ policy had a far-reaching impacton the maritime trades in the Circum-Bohai-Sea region.The marine policy in the early Qing Dynasty can roughly fall into four phases: Thefirst period was from the12th year of Shunzhi to the twenty-second year ofKangxi(1655-1683), in which the most drastic measures were taken against marinetrades. The second period was called the ’Four-Trading-Ports’ period lasting from thetwenty-third year of Kangxi to the twenty-second year of Qianlong(1684-1757).After that came the period of the ’Single-trading-port’ in Canton until the outbreak ofthe Opium War in1840. Only for about30years was the marine policy strictly carriedout in the early Qing Dynasty so overall, the marine police was an open one for therest over100years of the Qing Dynasty. However, affected by a lot of factors at homeand abroad, the marine policy in the early Qing Dynasty shrunk constantly and remained on the defensive. In general, the marine policy in the Qing Dynasty was aconservative and restrictive policy.In the early Qing Dynasty, in order to cut the ties between Zheng Chenggong groupand southeastern coastal areas, the Qing imperial court imposed strict policies of’Maritime Trade Ban’ and ’Coastal Mass Evacuation’. However, those policies not onlyfrustrated the marine trades that became gradually active in late Ming Dynasty, butalso greatly affected the social and economic life in the coastal areas of Shandong,Zhili and Fengtian etc. As the Circum-Bohai-Sea region is far away from Taiwan andsoutheastern coastal areas, the policy of ’Maritime Trade Ban’ actually harmed theinterests of common people as well as the imperial government’s. With court officialsand people with vision calling for lifting the ban, the marine policy in theCircum-Bohai-Sea region first began to loosen. The marine trades in that regiongradually started to recover.In the twenty-third year of Kangxi(1684), the Qing government officially orderedthe lifting ban on maritime trade and open sea trade when the southeast coastal area ofChina had been eliminated.In the following year,the government set up four customs:Jiangsu,Zhejiang, Fujian and Guangdong, the activities of sea trade began to enter thestage of development.In this period,the regional grain seaborne trade of theCircum-Bohai-Sea gradually prosperous along with the development of the northeastarea.While the southern merchant also continue into Bohai sea, trade and commoditycirculation speed up between the areas of north and South. In addition, the coast ofBohai also restored the traditional trade relations with Japan and Korea in a certainextent.In the period of Qianlong, the western capitalist countries which led by Britain setoff a wave of overseas expansion frenzy. In the face of the overbearing westernpowers, the rulers of the Qing Dynasty was alert.In addition,because there had beena lot of maladministration after the Four-Trading-Ports and traditional Chinapsychology, in the year of1757, the Qing government decided to close three ports,only leaving a export of foreign trade in Guangzhou. Thus, the direct trade bewteenthe Circum-Bohai-Sea and western countries were further restricted, foreign trade had conducted through entrepot trade. But at the same time, the sea trade of theCircum-Bohai-Sea region and the southern coastal got further development.Thecapacity of grain output in this region continued to improve, southern provinces andoverseas goods with merchant also entered into Bohai.Around the coast of Yantai,Tianjin, Jinzhou, Yingkou and other ports and towns with superior geographicallocation and port condition, in this period gradually developed into important tradingports. However,the expansion ambitions of western capitalist countries wereexpending increasingly, they showed great pretenders in Circum-Bohai-Sea region.Opium smuggling trade began to spread in the area, in the final after the two OpiumWar, Tianjin, Yantai and Yingkou were opened up as commercial ports, thus,the seatrade of the Circum-Bohai-Sea region entered a new stage of development.In the early Qing Dynasty, the maritime trade of the Circum-Bohai-Sea region hada certain degree of development,because of the policy of open sea trade. But this kindof development has always been in the domestic market. When the southeast coastalareas are full of adventurous spirit,and continuously contacted with western maritime.the Circum-Bohai-Sea region because of the unique characteristics of the location,maritime trade activities are always subject to various limit. In the leading phase ofmarine policy, the Circum-Bohai-Sea region lacked direct trade opportunities withforeign.In this case, the coastal situation of Bohai Sea is eliminated, but also led to thearea offshore trading activities in the early Qing Dynasty always seemed a bit helplessand dull,especially compared with the southeast coastal.So the maritime trade of theCircum-Bohai-Sea region lacked development power with foreign, and showedobvious conservative color type economy.