著者

小沼 孝博

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.75, no.1, pp.204-171, 2016-06

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This paper examines the interactions between political power and local merchants, traces the traditional systems of the caravan trade in Kashgaria oasis towns to the south of the Tianshan Mountains (southern Xinjiang), and investigates how these changed after the Qing conquest. In the 16th and 17th centuries, Yarkand flourished as the capital of Yarkand Khanate and as a hub of trade, from which large-scale caravans that journeyed towards Ming China were dispatched about once a year. The rights and certifications for sending caravans were sold by the Yarkand khan to the caravan leader. The khan also charged a large sum for the rights for mining jade, which was the most important product traded with Ming China. In short, profits from caravan trade were directly connected to the revenue of political power established at oasis towns in Central Asia. After the Kashgaria region was conquered by the Qing dynasty in 1759 and became a new northwestern frontier of the Qing, Kashgarian Muslim merchants faded from the international trade scene of over time due to trade restrictions imposed by the Qing. The Qing set up a series of karun (check points) along the route to monitor traffic. To pass through a karun, the merchant needed permission from the Qing authorities. After the Qing established a government-managed trade relationship with the Kazakhs in northern Xinjiang, they prohibited direct trade between the Kazakhs and the Kashgarian Muslims to ensure their own monopoly over the market. The Qing government did not have a management strategy to make active use of the Kashgarian merchants. However, the Qing imposed restrictions on external trade in Kashgaria primarily to maintain frontier order. Closely tracing the process, the Muslim chieftains, who cooperated in the Qing's conquest and held the position of hākim beg, acquired vested rights to trade. For dispatching caravans, it was first necessary to seek permission to form and dispatch caravans from the hākim beg. The control over the local merchants and their trade and at the oasis level was managed not by the Qing amban but by the hākim beg. The Qing's intention to limit caravan trade enabled the new Muslim chieftains to hold the rights to trade. At least until the end of the 18th century, the "trading management" was ensured to them as a space that the Qing authorities did not directly engage in.