Commercial Relationship between the Chinese and the Cochinchinese Lords, Sixteenth to Eight Centuries

Abstract

Among the foreign merchants trading in Cochinchina (or Dang Trong in Vietnamese language) between the sixthteenth and the eighteenth centuries, the Chinese and the Japanese held the most important position. The Japanese trading relationship with the southern Vietnamese kingdom, however, was short-lived due to the Japanese government's promulgation of the closed-door policy (sakoku) in the middle of the 1630s. The Chinese were therefore the most influential foreigners in Cochinchina. Their transactions also made considerable impact on the local economy and society.

One of the causes for the development of the commercial relationship between the overseas Chinese and the Nguyen rulers of Cochinchina was the latter's flexible policies on the Chinese and their trade. This paper aims to discuss the Chinese commercial activities in central Vietnam between the sixteenth and the eighteenth centuries.