著者

中島 樂章

出版者

東洋史研究会

雑誌

東洋史研究 (ISSN:03869059)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.74, no.4, pp.755-792, 2016-03

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From 1542 to 1544, the Portuguese arrived successively in Ryukyu, Japan and Korea. Here I investigate the development of intra-Asian trade carried out by Portuguese private traders in the mid-16th century, focusing on the pepper trade in particular. The lifeline of the Portuguese seaborne empire was the export of pepper produced on the Malabar Coast to the European market via the carreira da ĺndia (route to India). In theory, trade in pepper was designated a monopoly of Portuguese crown ships, and private trade in pepper was prohibited. Only the crews of royal ships were permitted to load pepper on board to trade privately. From the mid-16th century, however, it gradually became common for Portuguese kings to confer on certain persons the right to engage in commercial navigation by a specified route. Simultaneously, private trading in pepper gradually increased, too. On the other hand, Chinese smuggling trade to the Southeast Asia, especially to Malacca, also escalated. Smugglers mainly set sail from the coastal region of Zhangzhou 漳州 Bay in Southern Fujian 福建, violating the maritime prohibition policy enforced by the Ming dynasty. In the 1530's and the 1540's, The capitães (captains) of Malacca, such as Estêvão da Gama (in office 1534-39) and Pêro de Faria (in office 1539-42) created their own trade networks in the Southeast and the East Asian seas, where many private traders engaged in intra-Asian trade. In addition, in the 1540's, smuggling traders, who came from Huizhou 徽州 prefecture in Southern Anhui 安徽 province, advanced into the maritime trade in the South China Sea, and developed close connections with Pêro de Faria and his successors. They drew the Portuguese private traders, who were called as "folangji" by the Chinese, into the smuggling trade at 雙嶼 Shuangyu port, located in the Zhoushan 舟山 Islands off Ningbo 寧波. Under the open trade policy of Martin Afonso de Sousa, Governor of Estado da ĺndia (in office 1542-45), intra-Asian trade by Portuguese private traders expanded even more. But his successor, João de Castro (in office 1545-48), planning to tighten discipline in maritime trade in Asian seas, called a conference concerning the intra-Asian trade of pepper. The opinions submitted to the governor by the participants at the conference after the gathering reveal that a large quantity of peppers shipped to the Chinese market by the Portuguese traders remained unsold in 1543 and 1544. And 1543 is precisely the year the Portuguese first arrived at Tanegashima 種子島 on board the junk of Wang Zhi 王直, who later became a leader of wokou (Japanese pirates) in the 1550s. It is estimated that their ship set sail to Japan from Patani, which was a hub port for the exportation of pepper to China, and arrived at Tanegashima via China, probably from Zhangzhou 漳州 or Shuangyu. In 1543 and 1544, the price of pepper in China had plummeted due to excessive supplies. It seems that, as a result, the Portuguese private traders embarked on their voyage to Kyushu, and exchanged their cargo of pepper and Chinese commodities for Japanese silver. The first arrival of the Portuguese in Japan was not only the result of expansion of the trade network of Chinese maritime traders in the East China Sea, but also a consequence of the growth of intra-Asian trade of Portuguese private traders in the mid-16th century.