The Evidence of Commercial Ports and Economic-Religious Features in Lower Thai Binh River in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries (from Fieldwork and Inscriptions)

Abstract

In the past decades, research on the Tonkin commercial system has achieved a remarkable progress. The prediction of most of Vietnamese scholars toward the "Tonkin River" has changed from the Red River to the Thai Binh River. However, the discussion around this issue is continuing especially the debate on the exact position and actual function of a place called Domea, an important place in the "Tonkin River". In order to answer such questions, knowledge from filed work and indigenous sources reflecting the history of the lower part of the Thai Binh Delta is important. Based on the surveys made in three districts of Haiphong City (Vinh Bao, Tien Lang, Kien Thuy) and by analyzing 266 inscriptions, the author wishes to contribute further information and analyses on the structure, function of the ports along the estuary of the Thai Binh River.

This research also highlights the relationship between the development of the commercial system and the economic and religious changes of the local communities. In addition, it supplemented materials for the study of history of the port system in Haiphong and in the northern coast of Vietnam in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.