Ⅻ. The Global Maritime Trade Hub

In the Age of Discovery, the Western countries one after another extended their colonial trade to the East. The Maritime Silk Road was incorporated into a new system of global maritime trade in the early modern period. In the middle of the Ming dynasty, along with the rise of private maritime trade, the pioneering spirit drove Guangdong to initiate trade transformation and adjustment to its system, creating new conditions with the characteristics of Guangzhou in foreign trade.

In the early 16th century, Guangdong before all other provinces in China reformed its taxation system in response to the rise of private maritime trade. Specifically, the local government began to take charge of collecting tax from merchant ships and recognize the legality of private trade. When the Portuguese were permitted to reside and trade in Macao, Guangdong authorities established a cooperative trading system between Guangzhou and Macao and began to conduct trade between the two places. Guangzhou mainly handled domestic trade while Macao foreign trade. Gradually, a dual trading structure whose center was Guangzhou and whose outer port was Macao had been established, which was called "Model of Guangzhong" at that time. Guangzhou and Macao subsequently connected with a worldwide trading network across three Oceans and became the important center of global maritime trade.

In the reign of Kangxi in the Qing dynasty, after the unification of Taiwan, the government lifted the ban on maritime trade. For the first time, the four Customs in Guangdong, Fujian, Zhejiang and Jiangsu were set up. It is recognized as a great innovation of the traditional Maritime Trade Supervisorate and an immense progress for China's diplomatic system. After 1757, the 22nd year of Qianlong when the Qing government confined all the trade with the West to Guangzhou and established the"Canton System" whose center was Guangzhou, the Canton Customs thus became the only Customs for the trade with the West.

After the establishment of the Canton Customs, merchants from the West soon realized that Guangzhou had a lasting tradition of foreign trade and that local government was easier to negotiate. The trading conditions had evident advantages.Its market network linked to other parts of China and stretched into global markets. Therefore, trade gradually boomed in Guangzhou and the city became one of the centers of global maritime trade. In 1798, the 3rd of Jiaqing, Anders Ljungstedt of Sweden wrote, "The situation of Canton and the policy of the Chinese government together with various other causes, have made this city the scene of a very extensive domestic and foreign commerce… the whole trade between the Chinese empire and the nations of the west, centers in this place. Here the production of every part of China are found… Here also merchandise is brought from Ton-quin (Tung-king), Cochin-china, Camboja, Siam, Malacca, or the Malay peninsula, the eastern archipelago, the ports of India, the nations of Europe, the different states of North and South America and the Islands of the Pacific." The first American consul at Canton, Major Samuel Shaw, stated that the trade in Canton "appears to be as little embarrassed, and is, perhaps, as simple as any in the known world." It was also confirmed by Robert Morrison in his Commercial Guide,claiming that"there was no port where trade could be carried on with such facility and regularity as Canton". As is indicated by Professor Leonard Blussé, aiming to "gain a firm grip on international trade", Guangzhou had already become a commercial center of global economy and trade which "laid bare the regional impact of global developments" .

American scholar H. B. Morse who studies the China trade of British East India Company, summarized, "The British China trade as a matter of fact, was the trade between Guangzhou and London". British scholar Michael Greenburg in his book,The Chronicles of the East India Company Trading to China,1635-1834, claims, "Almost all the witnesses before the all-important Select Committee of the House of Commons on the China Trade of 1830 were agreed that business could be dispatched with greater ease and facility at Canton than anywhere else in the world."American scholar, Professor Paul A. van Dyke also points out, "In the early years of the eighteenth century, Canton quickly emerged as one of the most flexible places to negotiate business. While it was not what one would consider 'free' or 'open'…the terms that could be agreed upon in Canton were almost more beneficial than any that foreigners could find in other Chinese ports." "From 1757 to 1842, Canton was officially designated China's center of foreign trade… The expertise of the Canton merchants and officials in negotiating and conducting trade, coupled with the other advantages enjoyed by Canton, compared with other Chinese harbours, meant that the port had already become the center for foreign trade by the early eighteenth century."