This presentation will map the structure of Chinese maritime trade in Southeast Asia from about 1570, when the Ming dynasty lifted its ban on most commercial shipping to Southeast Asia, until the dynasty’s fall in 1644. It will then compare this structure to the Chinese shipping network in Southeast Asia that was re-established after the Qing dynasty’s conquest of Taiwan and the legalisation of private maritime trade in 1684. Besides the useful Chinese sources from this period related to maritime trade (the Dong xi yang kao 東西洋考, the Shun feng xiang song 順風相送, the Selden Map, etc), the presentation will incorporate information from various commercial reports, travelogues, and correspondence created by European merchants in Southeast Asia during these periods.

Ryan Holroyd is an assistant professor in the Department of History at National Chengchi University (NCCU) in Taipei. In 2018, he obtained a PhD in history and Asian studies from the Pennsylvania State University after completing a project that investigated the commercial ties between China and Southeast Asia in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Before coming to NCCU he undertook a post-doctoral research project at Academia Sinica on the dual commercial and religious roles of Putuoshan, a Buddhist pilgrimage site on the coast of Zhejiang, during the early Qing period. He is currently working on a research project supported by the National Science and Technology Council of Taiwan that investigates the importation and consumption of Chinese products in early modern South Asia.