Journal of Science and Education , College of Education, Hue University ISSN 1859 - 1612, No 0 1 (3 7 )/2016: pp 5 - 15 TRADE RELATIONS BETWEEN THE TONKINESE AND WESTERN TRADERS IN THE 17 th CENTURY LE THI HOAI THANH College of Education, Hue University Abstract : With the strong growth of the Asian trading system along with the intrinsic requirements, Tonkinese authorities established the trade relations with not only Oriental countries but also with Western ones In particular, trade relations with Western traders (Portugal, Dutch , the UK and France) are one of the important factors contributing to the rapid development of foreign trade economy of the Tonkinese in the seventee nth century Keywords : Trade relations , Tonkinese , Western traders , the 17 th century 1 INTRODUCTION F oreign trade e conomy of the Tonkin has been the matter of interest of many domestic and foreign scholars in finding out comprehensive ly the dimensions such as Le - Trinh government ’s policies on foreign trade, trade relations with foreign traders ; the impact s of foreign trade on the Tonkinese economy - society, in which trade relations between Tonkin ese and Western traders were also mentioned in the works of the researchers Charles B Maybon , Miki Sakuraba, Li Tana, Thanh The Vy , Nguyen Thua Hy, Hoang Anh Tuan , etc O n the basis of the sources found , each author chose his own research direction, in particular : The work British commercial firm in Tonkin in the 17 th century (1672 - 1697) of Charles b Maybon (1910) focused on exploiting and analyzing the stored material s wri t te n about the British East India Company and the British trade rs in Pho Hien who later mov ed to Thang Long ( known as Ke Cho in Nôm - script ) in the last three decades of the seventeenth century A dditionally , in the work A modern history of the land of Annam ( 1920 ) , Charles B Maybon spent two chapters of the same title, "The Europeans in the land of Annam" on the presence and activities of the missionaries, traders in both the Tokin and the Cochinchine in the two centuries XVII - XVIII The work Foreign Trade of Vietnam in the seventeenth, the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries of Thanh The Vy (1961) mentioned the development and the dec line of Vietnam foreign trade from the seventeenth century to the early nineteenth century, in which, the author devoted a section to talk about the import ed and export ed commodities of Tonkin; trade rules of Tonkin government with Western traders The work Cochinchine : economic and social history in seventeenth and eighteen century , Li Tana (1999) presented the economic and social history of Cochin chine However, in Chapter 3, entitled "The foreign traders ," the author talked about the benefits that Wes tern traders ha d in the process of conducting trade with Tonkin compared to those of Cochin chine 6 LE THI HOAI THANH The authors Nguyen Thua Hy, Hoang Anh Tuan with articles: Nguy ễ n Th ừ a H ỷ (2009), “Nh ữ ng th ươ ng nhân Hà Lan đ ầ u tiên đ ế n Đ àng Ngoài và K ẻ Ch ợ n ă m 1637” / Nguyen Thua Hy (2009), "The first Dutch traders arrived in Tonkin and Ke Cho in 1637", Journal of Historical Studies , Vol 4, p 68 - 79; “M ạ ng l ư ớ i giao th ươ ng n ộ i Á và bang giao Hà Lan - Đ ạ i Vi ệ t (1601 - 1638)” / Hoang Anh Tuan (2001), " Intra - Asia Network of trade relations and Dutch - Vietnam relation (1601 - 1638)", Journal of Historical Studies , Vol 6, p 22 - 35; Hoàng Anh Tu ấ n (2005), “Công ty Đ ông Ấ n Hà Lan ở Đ àng Ngoài (1637 - 1700) t ư li ệ u và nh ữ ng v ấ n đ ề nghiên c ứ u” / Hoang Anh Tuan (2005), "Dutch East In dia Company in Tonkin (1637 - 1700) : d ata and research issues", Journal of Historical Studies , V o l 3, p 30 - 41 , etc The article s mainly refer red to the trade activities of the Dutch East India Company and the Dutch traders in Tonkin In addition, there are other articles focused on trade activities of East India Company, such as Le Thanh Thuy (2009), "The formation of the British Empire in the East and the role of British East India compan y in the XVII – XIX centuries ", Journal of Sout heast Asian Studies , Vol 1, p 22 - 29 or Nguyen Manh Dung (2011) " Trade activities of the French East India Company in the Great Viet (the second half of the seventeenth century - the middle of the eighteenth century)" , Vietnam to the sea Project , The Gioi Publish er , p 337 - 350 Thus, the trade relation between Tonkin ese and Western traders was look ed out individually rather than systematic ally and comprehensive ly On the basis of inheriting the previous resources and achievements of the scholars, we focus on trade relations between Tonkin esee and all W estern traders on dimensions such as the penetration of Western traders to the Tonkin ese market ; import and export of goods between the sides ; activities of Western traders as well as the development and decli ne of the trade relations to see a prosperous foreign trade of Tonkin in the seventeenth century Thereby, we draw the comments to see more clearly the nature, characteristics and the role of th e trad e relations To conduct this research paper , we use the histor ical and logic al methodologies These are the two most important methods of historical research es Also, with the available resources, we process ed , analy zed , compar ed and systematiz ed to solve the problem posed 2 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 2 1 Trade relations between Tonkinese and Portuguese traders Portugal is one of the European countries with early and strong maritime development background in the world The achievements made in the geographical discoveries led Portugal to the East With no except ion, the Portuguese traders are the first Westerner s to Tonkin After the capture of Goa (1510), Malacca (1511), the Portuguese established official relations with Le - Trinh government on a trip to the Tonkin of the missionary Juliano Baldinotti in 1626 However, trade activities of the Portuguese in Tonkin did not take full potential as they can easily purchase a sufficient number of Chinese silk needed for the Japanese market thanks to Macau commercial firm TRADE RELATIONS BETWEEN THE TONKINESE AND WESTERN TRADERS 7 Unlike other Western traders, Portuguese trade rs did not to establish commercial firm in Tonkin This stems from the reason that "the Portuguese conducted trade as free traders, in dependent from any administrative rules of a commercial company , so there is no need to have a commercial firm to control activities as they pr oceed " [4, p 41] On the other hand, Portuguese traders also received great support from the Jesuit missionaries in the process of conducting their trading activities In some cases, the missionaries became the brokers and interpreter s for Portuguese traders ; therefore, they found no need to set up a commercial firm in Tonkin Trade period of Portuguese in Tonkin follow ed the monsoon operation They usually c a me during the N ortheast monsoon and stay ed here for trad ing until the South m onsoon next year Portuguese often br ought weapons, lead, copper, zinc and sulfur for sell and purchase silk, sugar and types of incense As any other Western traders, trad ing activ ities of the Portuguese in Tonkin t ook pl ace in the seventeenth century Un til eighteen century, Portuguese traders basically ha d no access to Tonkin 2 2 Trade relations between Tonkinese and Dutch traders Along with other Western countries, the Dutch was also quickly penetrated trade system of the Asia in order to search of markets and sources of raw materials N ot a s the forefront Portug ese , the Dutch gradually r o se predominate in this region in the seventeenth century March 20, 1602, the Dutch East India Company (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie: abbreviat e for V OC) was established to conduct commercial / trade activities in Oriental countries By mid - seventeenth century, VOC basically completed the process of building a network of trade and put into operation in an effective way In the first four decades of the seventeenth century, the Dutch quick ly bui lt the trade relationship with Cochin chine However, since the mid - 30s of the seventeenth century onwards, due to the amount of Chinese silk that Chinese traders brought to Hoi An diminished by the economic slowdow n in China On the other hand, i n this period, Japan ese implemented "sakoku" policy, which ban ned Japanese traders to go abroad for trading This means that Japan lost its position in trade in East Asia and is an opportunity for the Portug ese and Dutch traders to replace the position of Japan in some central Mall in Southeast Asia, including Tonkin At the same time, with the shortage of silk from Cochin chine and the fact that Tonkin silk market started to dominate the Japanese market, VOC found Tonkin c ould become the major supplier of silk These factors ha d a major impact on the trade thinking of VOC Therefore, VOC decided to change the strategy in the Great Vietnamese trade, abandoning the Cochichine and redirect ing to the Tonkin In 1637, Grol S hip commander , Karel Hartsinck c ame from the city of Hirado (Japan) to Tonkin to put trade relations During this trip, Grol ship carr ied a cargo volume worth more than 186,000 florins These goods are transported to Tonkin includes a few items from Europe and Japan, but mainly copper and iron [2, p 69] For Tonkinese authorities, besides trade relations, the warm welcoming to the Dutch t raders also aims to invite the Dutch to participat e he military coalition , or at least facilitate Lord Trinh to 8 LE THI HOAI THANH collect and purchase weapons for the W ar of Trinh - Nguyen Therefore, even when the Grol ship was just docked at the River door , Lord Trinh had to assign people to sen d a letter to the Dutch with the content: " His majesty was pleased that the Dutch arrived The deputies were elected to lead the Dutch and cargo on to the court This time we did not search the ship as usual, but the king wanted tha t they must give an accurate list of all the items contained in the vessel, without hiding anything "[2, p 76] In fact, the Dutch traders w ere g i ve n trade privileges than other foreign trader s by Le - Trinh government From 1637 onwards, annual VOC ships turn ed to Tonkin to conduct trade To better serve the business plan as well as a trading office, storage of goods, the Dutch traders were by the Tokinese authorities allowed to establish the commercial firm in Pho Hien And then this commercial firm was t ransferred to Thang Long in 1645 The introduction of the firm tied to the role of directors since Karel Hartsinck to Jacob van Loo brought an important contribution to the success of Dutch East India company in commercial operation in Tonkin Commercial a ctivities of the VOC concentrated in the purchase of merchandise for export to countries, such as silk, ceramics (for Japan); cinnamon, musk (for The Dutch, Europe), gold (for Coromandel), in which major items were silk and ceramics In contrast, VOC impor ted silver in bars , Japanese ceramics to Tonkin For the silk trade: in 1637, the Dutch found that Tonkin Silk the year before cost an average of 45 ounces/picul while those of Cochin chine ranged from 100 - 130 ounces / picul Attracted by the cheap price of silk, the Portuguese in Macau dispatched three ships to Tonkin to purchas e silk This activity pushed the average price of silk to 60 ounces/picul Thus, even in the first trip to the Tonkin, the Dutch traders bought 536 95 piculs ecrus and 9665 tons of si lk, totaling 190,000 guilders Silk shipments gained 80% rate in Japan [6, p 31] Silk trade activities between the Tonkin and VOC can be divided into 3 phases as follows: 1637 - 1654, 1655 - 1669 and 1670 - 1700 In the first phase, VOC p urchased a large am ount of Tonkin ese silk for export ing to the Japanese market If before 1641, Tonkinese silk in Japan accounted for 37% (63% as Chinese silk), then from 1641 to 1654, Tonkin silk in Japan accounted for 68% (Chinese silk: 13% and Bengal silk: 19%) In this f lourishing period (1637 - 1654), the total value of silk exports to Japan of VOC was up to 4 662 million florins (approximately 1,635,789 ounces of silver in bars ), averaging 260,000 florins/year [1, p 11] The difference between the buying price and the selling price of Tonkin ese silk brought huge profits for VOC in 18 years, particularly the years from 1641 to 1654 which is considered the "golden age not only with the cheap purchase of silk but with the sale of silk in Japan for profit VOC often obtained to 250% or more in this business" [ 3, p 110] Into the second period, the rate of import ing silk of VOC from Tonkin to Japan began to decline, with only 17% as the Bengal silk was preferred Since 1670, the skill sale and purchase in Tonkin declined shar ply Therefore, VOC forced to change its strategy towards dropping the amount of skill purchased to Japanese buyers and boost ing exports of products such as silk s to the European market TRADE RELATIONS BETWEEN THE TONKINESE AND WESTERN TRADERS 9 For commercial ceramics: 1660s and 1670 w ere period s of strong develo pment of import activity of Tonkin ceramics of VOC This phenomenon is explained by the following reasons: First, the import of Japanese ceramics was r educed by VOC due to the Japanese ceramics price increase Second ly , Chinese ceramics exported to the Sou theast Asian market w ere disrupted by unstable political situation of the Qing Dynasty Thirdly, the difficulties in trade silk with Tonkin of VOC were revealed from 1660 [7, p 362] These causes motivated VOC to promote purchase activities of ceramic products of Tonkin to export to Southeast Asia With this decision, VOC simultaneously achieved two important goals : profit s and continuing to maintain trade relations with Tonkin In the years 1663 - 1681, total Tonkin ceramic of VOC exported to the marke ts in Southeast Asia island s was nearly 2 million specimens, representing approximately 41% of total raw ceramics transported t here [8, tr 36] The Tonkinese ceramic products exported to the market were mainly household ceramic s , in which cups, tea cups a nd bowls accounted the most However, Tonkinese ceramics did not maintain its position in the long future After achieving a leading position in the years 1669 - 1670, the number of Tonkin pottery and ceramic started descending Especially after 1681, VOC import ed Tonkin ese ceramics infrequently and insignificantly Besides importing Tonkin ese ceramics, the Dutch traders also import ed Japanese ceramics into Tonkin when Japan ese was implementing "sakoku" policy According to VOC materials, in the 1650 - 1679 period, VOC direct ly export ed Japanese goods such as porcelain bowl, plates, porcelain vase, small teapot, salt jar with the number up to 13 850 specimens in to Tonkin [5, p 88] Along with ceramics directly export ing activities from the port of Nagasaki to Tonkin, in the years 1672 - 1680, 3,312 Japanese ceramics template was also put into Tonkin indirect ly by VOC : through Batavia [5, p 90] Since last three decades of the seventeenth century, the VOC ’s trade in Tonkin was moderat ed as the Dutch traders d id not want to completely abandon commercial activity t here However, by the late seventeenth century, VOC found that they c ould not continue to maintain commercial activity in Tonkin as the decline in profits Therefore, in early eighteenth century, VOC formally withdr e w from Tonkin, terminate d commercial activities with Le - Trinh government after more than six decades of working together 2 3 Trade relations between Tonkinese and British traders In 1600, East India Company (English East India Company, abbreviate as EIC) was established According to the decision of Queen Elizabeth I, the company organized trips to the East India for trad ing and were allowed to monopolize trading in the area between t he Cape Horn and the Strait of Magellan In the Orient , Bantam (Indonesia) became the center of British trade Until the first half of the seventeenth, the British by turn set the political and economic establishments in Hirado (Japan), Calcutta, Madras (I ndia) and Taiwan 10 LE THI HOAI THANH For Great Viet, EIC noticed the transshipment location of Tonkin in Asian trade system , between the two major markets : China and Japan Therefore, EIC board of leaders set out a trade strategy The main content of the strategy is to estab lish a new business model through commercial firm in Taiwan, Japan and Cochinchine According to calculations by EIC, Tonkinese can provide silk, untanned skin, sugar to Japan, Taiwan; Japan also offers silver, commodities which can later reinvest goods to Japan On the other hand, EIC also want ed to turn Tonkin to become the consuming market British industry products To achieve this goal, the three ships Experiment, Return, Zant were dispatched to Taiwan, Japan and Cochinchine at the most favorable monsoon Zant ship under the command of William Gyfford went at the end of May and arrived at Tonkin ese river door on June 25 , 1672 W Gyfford carr ied a letter of the Bantam Council sen ding to " powerful and great Emperor of Tokinese , with a long - life and winning wishes " The letter show ed tremendous goodwill of our His Majesty against the Dutch, Portuguese, Chinese, as well as all foreigners and expressed the wish: "Great Britain His Majesty ha d ordered the esteemed India company to ask your Emperor to give the British the original grace and trust as people in a house, for them to be allowed to live and trade freely" [4 , p 43] However, W Gyfford did not submit the letter to the Lords Le and Trinh as he arrived because th at time , Lord Le Gia Tong and Lord Trinh Tac battl ed the Nguyen Lords in Cochinchine Therefore, not until next year (March 14, 1673), he was to get the audience to Lord Trinh During this meeting, W Gyfford offered the gifts to Lord Trinh, submitted the letter from Bantam Council and asked the Le - Trinh government for the British permission to perform trade activities in Tonkin With the consent of the Le - Trinh authorities , the British established commercial firm in Pho Hien At Pho Hien, the British were provide d a house to the selling transactions, but they refused because this house was located very far from the waterfront This will make it difficult for the trade So, they moved to a rented house of a Portuguese woman and this became the official headquarters of the British commercial firm in Tonkin For greater efficiency in trading , British traders put effort s to obtain Le - Trinh court permission to establish commercial firm in Thang Long Until 1683, British traders achieve d their aspirations The cause of the hesitation in allowing foreign traders, including British commercial firm establishment in the capital of Thang Long is Le - Trinh government ’s concerns about national security issues It was Samuel Baron - who worked for the EIC realize s : "if free trade is extended to foreigners in the country, then this country also make s a lot more profit But God d id not want the European to know its border width to avoid being hit in th at dimension , so he will and never prevent this freedom" [9, p 48] The commercial firm in Thang Long wa s described in detail under the gaze of William Dampier when he arrived at Tonkin in 1688: " Commercial firm of the British did not have so many people, peacefully situated in the north of the city an d located outwards the river This is a low, beautiful house and is the most beautiful house I have seen in the city In the center there is a lovely dining room and at the side is the comfortable room for traders, employees and servants of the firm This house was built parallel to the river, in each gable m; there were smaller houses with different uses TRADE RELATIONS BETWEEN THE TONKINESE AND WESTERN TRADERS 11 such as kitchen, warehouse to stand in a long line from the main house to t he river, creating two wings and a square yard to look toward the river In t he yard behind the waterfront , there was a flagpole with British flag as we have to use the flag in Sunday and British holidays" [1, p 67] In the first year s , the British trader s operat ed efficiently and profitabl y to the EIC The British ship from Bantam, Taiwan, Japan came to Tonkin steadily British t raders often brought t o the Tonkin items such as silver, sulfur, copper, gunpowder, lead, big guns, including elongated rifles as the preferred type, large fabrics , flo wered sil k s and b rought silk s , ceramics, sugar, musk, painted furniture sheaves Silk is the main item of EIC and is the most popular one in the Tonkin ese market The British e special ly likes kinds of flower ed or blank pots with large size Following silk, EIC conducted many ceramics collection To make a profit, traders cho se the method to buy cheap ly popular ceramics (such as Bat Trang brown ceramic bowl ) in bulk for resel ling to the local authorities in Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Myanmar , etc ) and India For example, in 1688, Captain Pool bought in Ke Cho 100,000 bowl s and brought to Sumatra for sell In 1693, British commercial firm in Ke Cho bought 50,000 ceramic cup s in Tonkin and brought to India However, compared to the Japanese, Chinese and Dutch traders , English traders faced more difficulties in trade in Tonkin The EIC objectives were set out when establishing relations with Tonkin as in the original plan of the Bantam Council did not reach Silver mining from the Japanese market to reinvest capital for commercial activities in Tonkin and the export of silk to Japan in Tonkin did not become a reality as EIC was denied in the re - establishment of the trade with Tokugawa government in September 1673 Failure in Japan led to a direct result of trade relations with Tonkin, which put th e commercial firm in to a difficult situation because the goods purchased were not taken and there was no consumer market Still, traders in the firm in Tonkin remain ed maintained by the Board of Directors in London as the Board of Directors found Tonkin was still capable of providing products such as musk, silk for the European market Therefore, as decided by the Board of Directors in London, Bantam Council urged emp loyees of Commercial firm in Tonkin promoting the sale of goods from Britain and purchas e silk items and local products in Tonkin that the company request ed However, the results obtained in the trade relations did not desire much These investments in s il k s in Tonkin for the European market were not successfully received due to the fierce competition of the Chinese trader s Meanwhile, the products of British industry were very hard to get the market in Tonkin, except for weapons sold to the government in Tonkin Items such as fabrics were too expensive for the Tonkin ese market Even in the first shipment o f Zant on June 1672, the entire fabric was sent to Taiwan in August because of the "unmarketable" These events led to the fact that EIC c ould not mainta in the balance of trade Besides the above disadvantages , EIC also fac ed problems in communicating with local officials, especially officials in charge of goods checking up and tax examinations As 12 LE THI HOAI THANH well as other foreign traders , British ones must declare g oods, personnel and list of gifts for the Lord and the prince whenever the ships arrive d at Tonkin With that, officials demanded more lobbies On the other hand, in the course of trade, British traders also s aw the injustice of the Tonkin ese government to them : " The greed of the authorities led to unfair trial has been the subject of complain ing of traders the old debt [the money to buy goods or in - advance cash of Tonkin officials] was no way to be paid back and what officials unusual ly brought, in rare cases will be pa id It is impossible to directly meet the Lord to complain about this behavior without meeting the concubines, and this is the origin of severe abuses of the currency " [ 4, p 45] This made the British more and more depressed Until the late seventeenth century, when the Chinese market was opened along with the difficulties, losses in commercial operation in Tonkin, EIC decided to close the commercial firm in Thang Long in 1697 From t here until 1720, a few British trader ships came to Tonkin but commercial activity was not significant anymore 2 4 Trade relations between Tonkinese and French traders Under the reign of Louis XIV (1643 - 1715), in parallel with promoting mission ary activities, France also had very positive economic development After Jean - Baptiste Colbert became finance minister in 1665, he strengthened the establishment of commercial companies Besides commercial activities ha d been carried out in the Americas , O rient attract ed French capitalist ’s investment to expand the market and search for raw materials On that basis, based on the model of the East India Company, the Dutch, the French East India Company (Compagnie Française des Indes Orientales, abbreviat e a s CIO) was founded in 1664 Since then, CIO ’s commercial firm was set in Surate (1668), Pondicherry (1674) Thus, until the mid - seventeenth century, the strong development of the international trade system connecte d the Asia - Europe regions and French began to pay more attention to the Far East, including Great Viet In 1669, a merchant ship commanded by Captain Junet departure d from Siam to Tonkin, accompanied Captain Junet , there also were missionaries Lambert de la Motte, Bourges and Bouchard When arriving at Tonkin, traders and missionaries of France w ere respectfully received They stayed until February 1670 in Tonkin I n 1671, CIO sent a ship to Tonkin, but d id not set out a specific plan Until August 1674, employees of the CIO brought goods wor th 12,000 francs to meet Lord Le Gia Tong But on his way to Tonkin, CIO ships clashed with Dutch ship and then faced the storm The ship drifted into the Philippines Thus, f rom 1669 until 1674, the French effort in establishing trade relations with Tonki n did not reach In 1680, the ship "Tonquin" commanded by Captain Boitou came to Tonkin During this trip, the CIO appointed trader Chappelain to carry reaux of 3000, two letters to submit to the king along with some gifts as mirrors, crystal chandelier s, gold and silver This time, CIO was allow ed to establish commercial firm by Tonkinese government in Pho Hien In trade relations with Tonkin, French traders often sold items such as weapons: including cannons, sulfur; European silk : French smooth ones with colors such as dark TRADE RELATIONS BETWEEN THE TONKINESE AND WESTERN TRADERS 13 red and dark green; reaux silver coins; pepper; Indian cotton fabrics, including coarse white cloth, painted or printed pattern, yarn dyed fabrics; sandalwood In contrast, French traders conduct ed commercial purchas e of the Tonki n outstanding items such as silk, musk, gold However, the activity of French traders in Tonkin t ook place within 2 years After 1682, there was no longer a CIO trader yet to be sent to Tonkin Especially from 1684 onwards, when China opened a trading port for the West along with the deterioration of the trade in Tonkin in the late seventeenth century, French traders tend ed to look to the Chinese market \ and moved the direction to Cochin chine Based on the study of trade relations between Tonkin and Portugue se traders, Dutch, English, French, we draw the following remarks: - In trade relations with Tonkin, Western traders asked Le - Trinh governments to establish the commercial firm (except for Portug ese traders ) General characteristics of the firm is to be born, work ed with in the seventeenth century and was built in the large cities, large commercial ports such as Thang Long, Pho Hien The existence of the firm helped Western traders to ha ve more advantages in trade And this is a new definition of Tonkin ese foreign trade - Trade relations between Tonkin and Western traders in the seventeenth century turned the natural products and handicraft items of Tonkin into highly valuable commodity in the regional market s , marking the development of foreign trade econ omy of Tonkin In contrast, the commercial items that Western traders brought to Tonkin me t the needs of Le - Trinh governments - For western traders, buying goods from Tonkin collected more profit s than the sale of goods to Tonkin by the fact that commodi ties which traders brought here were mostly just for the Lords and kings and their officials, as a Dutch trader confirmed during his trade: " goods brought to Tonkin gained losses Gains were in shipments " [9, tr 106] - Trade relations between Tonkin and Western traders ha d economic - soci al impacts on the Tonkinese Commodity economy was expanded and developed to a higher level At the same time, this trade hub helped bring to the birth, flourishing of urban cities , marketing port (Thang Long, Pho Hie n, Domea) as well as promot ed cultural exchanges between the Orient and the West On the other hand, the presence of Western traders in Tonkin affected the local people lifestyle , modes of production and trading of various social strata, espe cially traders and craftsmen - Trade relations between Tonkin and Western traders took place in the seventeenth century, at least until 1700 (the beginning of the eighteenth century) , the Dutch traders decided to close the commercial firm which ended the relationship with Tonkin This can be explained by the following main reasons: Firstly, due to the limitations of feudal production, Le - Trinh government administration was not able to meet the increasing demands on product quality of goods for the capitalis m countries, which are countries with higher production development On the other hand, the Le - Trinh government’s 14 LE THI HOAI THANH monopol ized foreign trade ; all rules must be conducted in accordance with the will of the Lords Therefore, the way to trade w ith traders was sometimes anonymous ly arbitrary, inconsistent and inequitable In addition, the state''''s harassment by officials caused many difficulties for traders while trading in Tonkin Second, the establishment of trade relations with Western traders d id not come from the general requirements of the economy, but separate ly from the interests of the government, such as weapons of war from Trinh - Nguyen or on demand supplies for the royal family Thus, when the Trinh - Nguyen war ended, the government d id not need to buy weapons anymore, le a d ing to the downfall of this trade relationship Third ly , until 1684, the Qing Dynasty abolished the banning marine policy Chinese market was opened up to attract traders to trade in the West And once commercial ope rations were not profitable enough with the obstacles in the way o f trade, the Western traders left Tonkin and look ed to other markets to meet their goals 4 CONCLUSION The establishment of trade relations between Tonkin and Western traders is a clear proof of the "open doors" policy and the active joining to the Asian trade system of Le - Trinh government Trade relations contributed to the prosperity of the trade economy of Tonkin For the Westerners, each had a separate business methods but they all ac hieved profitability through commercial activities of traders in Tonkin Thus, along with other countries in Asia, the trade relations between Tonkin and Western traders met the objectives of the parties, and this is one of the vivid expression of the inte gration process, economic exchanges between the Orient and the West in the seventeenth century REFERENCES [1] William Dampier (2007) A trip to Tonkin in 1688 , Hoang Anh Tuan translation , The Gioi Publisher , H a N o i [2] Nguyen Thua Hy (2009) The first Dutch traders arrived in Tonkin and Ke Cho in 1637 , Journal of Histor ical Studies , vol 4, p 68 - 79 [3] Li Tana (1999) Cochinchine: economic and social history in seventeenth and eighteen century , Nguyen Nghi Translation , Youth Publisher , Ho Chi Minh City [4] Charle s B Maybon (2011) The Europeans in the land of Annam , Nguy e n Th u a H y Translation , The Gioi Publisher , H a N o i [5] Miki Sakuraba (2008) “ Japanese porcelain exported to Vietnam and Southeast Asia in the seventeenth century ” , Nguyen Tien Dung translation , Journal of Historical Studies , Vol 9 + Vol 10, p 87 - 96 [6] Ho a ng Anh Tu a n (2001) Intra - Asia Network of trade relations and Dutch - Vietnam relation (1601 - 1638), Journal of Historical Studies , Vol 6, p 22 - 35 [7] Hoang Anh Tuan (2004) Ceramics trade of the Dutch East India Company to Tonkin second half XVII century, East Asia - Southeast Asia: historical and current issues , Th e gi o i Publisher , H a N o i, p 349 - 372 TRADE RELATIONS BETWEEN THE TONKINESE AND WESTERN TRADERS 15 [8] Hoang Anh Tuan (2005) Dutch East India Company in Tonkin (1637 - 1700): data and research issues, Journal of Historical Studies , Vol 3, p 30 - 41 [9] Th a nh Th e V y (1961) Foreign Trade of Vietnam in the seventeenth, the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries , History Studies Pub lisher , H a N o i LE THI HOAI THANH, M A Department of History, College of Education, Hue University Tel: 0913 540 607, Email: fuongthaohoa@yahoo com (Received: 06/01/2016; Revised: 11/4/2016; Accepted: 10/5/2016)
TRADE RELATIONS BETWEEN THE TONKINESE AND WESTERN TRADERS IN THE 17th CENTURY LE THI HOAI THANH College of Education, Hue University Abstract: With the strong growth of the Asian trading system along with the intrinsic requirements, Tonkinese authorities established the trade relations with not only Oriental countries but also with Western ones In particular, trade relations with Western traders (Portugal, Dutch, the UK and France) are one of the important factors contributing to the rapid development of foreign trade economy of the Tonkinese in the seventeenth century Keywords: Trade relations, Tonkinese, Western traders, the 17th century INTRODUCTION Foreign trade economy of the Tonkin has been the matter of interest of many domestic and foreign scholars in finding out comprehensively the dimensions such as Le-Trinh government’s policies on foreign trade, trade relations with foreign traders; the impacts of foreign trade on the Tonkinese economy - society, in which trade relations between Tonkinese and Western traders were also mentioned in the works of the researchers Charles B Maybon, Miki Sakuraba, Li Tana, Thanh The Vy, Nguyen Thua Hy, Hoang Anh Tuan, etc On the basis of the sources found, each author chose his own research direction, in particular: The work British commercial firm in Tonkin in the 17th century (1672-1697) of Charles b Maybon (1910) focused on exploiting and analyzing the stored materials written about the British East India Company and the British traders in Pho Hien who later moved to Thang Long (known as Ke Cho in Nôm-script) in the last three decades of the seventeenth century Additionally, in the work A modern history of the land of Annam (1920), Charles B Maybon spent two chapters of the same title, "The Europeans in the land of Annam" on the presence and activities of the missionaries, traders in both the Tokin and the Cochinchine in the two centuries XVII - XVIII The work Foreign Trade of Vietnam in the seventeenth, the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries of Thanh The Vy (1961) mentioned the development and the decline of Vietnam foreign trade from the seventeenth century to the early nineteenth century, in which, the author devoted a section to talk about the imported and exported commodities of Tonkin; trade rules of Tonkin government with Western traders The work Cochinchine: economic and social history in seventeenth and eighteen century, Li Tana (1999) presented the economic and social history of Cochinchine However, in Chapter 3, entitled "The foreign traders," the author talked about the benefits that Western traders had in the process of conducting trade with Tonkin compared to those of Cochinchine Journal of Science and Education, College of Education, Hue University ISSN 1859-1612, No 01(37)/2016: pp 5-15 LE THI HOAI THANH The authors Nguyen Thua Hy, Hoang Anh Tuan with articles: Nguyễn Thừa Hỷ (2009), “Những thương nhân Hà Lan đến Đàng Ngoài Kẻ Chợ năm 1637”/ Nguyen Thua Hy (2009), "The first Dutch traders arrived in Tonkin and Ke Cho in 1637", Journal of Historical Studies, Vol 4, p 68-79; “Mạng lưới giao thương nội Á bang giao Hà Lan - Đại Việt (1601 - 1638)”/ Hoang Anh Tuan (2001), " Intra-Asia Network of trade relations and Dutch - Vietnam relation (1601-1638)", Journal of Historical Studies, Vol 6, p 22-35; Hoàng Anh Tuấn (2005), “Cơng ty Đơng Ấn Hà Lan Đàng Ngồi (1637-1700) tư liệu vấn đề nghiên cứu”/Hoang Anh Tuan (2005), "Dutch East India Company in Tonkin (1637-1700): data and research issues", Journal of Historical Studies, Vol 3, p 30-41, etc The articles mainly referred to the trade activities of the Dutch East India Company and the Dutch traders in Tonkin In addition, there are other articles focused on trade activities of East India Company, such as Le Thanh Thuy (2009), "The formation of the British Empire in the East and the role of British East India company in the XVII – XIX centuries", Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, Vol 1, p 22-29 or Nguyen Manh Dung (2011) "Trade activities of the French East India Company in the Great Viet (the second half of the seventeenth century - the middle of the eighteenth century)", Vietnam to the sea Project, The Gioi Publisher, p 337-350 Thus, the trade relation between Tonkinese and Western traders was looked out individually rather than systematically and comprehensively On the basis of inheriting the previous resources and achievements of the scholars, we focus on trade relations between Tonkinesee and all Western traders on dimensions such as the penetration of Western traders to the Tonkinese market; import and export of goods between the sides; activities of Western traders as well as the development and decline of the trade relations to see a prosperous foreign trade of Tonkin in the seventeenth century Thereby, we draw the comments to see more clearly the nature, characteristics and the role of the trade relations To conduct this research paper, we use the historical and logical methodologies These are the two most important methods of historical researches Also, with the available resources, we processed, analyzed, compared and systematized to solve the problem posed FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 2.1 Trade relations between Tonkinese and Portuguese traders Portugal is one of the European countries with early and strong maritime development background in the world The achievements made in the geographical discoveries led Portugal to the East With no exception, the Portuguese traders are the first Westerners to Tonkin After the capture of Goa (1510), Malacca (1511), the Portuguese established official relations with Le-Trinh government on a trip to the Tonkin of the missionary Juliano Baldinotti in 1626 However, trade activities of the Portuguese in Tonkin did not take full potential as they can easily purchase a sufficient number of Chinese silk needed for the Japanese market thanks to Macau commercial firm TRADE RELATIONS BETWEEN THE TONKINESE AND WESTERN TRADERS Unlike other Western traders, Portuguese traders did not to establish commercial firm in Tonkin This stems from the reason that "the Portuguese conducted trade as free traders, independent from any administrative rules of a commercial company, so there is no need to have a commercial firm to control activities as they proceed" [4, p 41] On the other hand, Portuguese traders also received great support from the Jesuit missionaries in the process of conducting their trading activities In some cases, the missionaries became the brokers and interpreters for Portuguese traders; therefore, they found no need to set up a commercial firm in Tonkin Trade period of Portuguese in Tonkin followed the monsoon operation They usually came during the Northeast monsoon and stayed here for trading until the South monsoon next year Portuguese often brought weapons, lead, copper, zinc and sulfur for sell and purchase silk, sugar and types of incense As any other Western traders, trading activities of the Portuguese in Tonkin took place in the seventeenth century Until eighteen century, Portuguese traders basically had no access to Tonkin 2.2 Trade relations between Tonkinese and Dutch traders Along with other Western countries, the Dutch was also quickly penetrated trade system of the Asia in order to search of markets and sources of raw materials Not as the forefront Portugese, the Dutch gradually rose predominate in this region in the seventeenth century March 20, 1602, the Dutch East India Company (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie: abbreviate for VOC) was established to conduct commercial / trade activities in Oriental countries By mid-seventeenth century, VOC basically completed the process of building a network of trade and put into operation in an effective way In the first four decades of the seventeenth century, the Dutch quickly built the trade relationship with Cochinchine However, since the mid-30s of the seventeenth century onwards, due to the amount of Chinese silk that Chinese traders brought to Hoi An diminished by the economic slowdown in China On the other hand, in this period, Japanese implemented "sakoku" policy, which banned Japanese traders to go abroad for trading This means that Japan lost its position in trade in East Asia and is an opportunity for the Portugese and Dutch traders to replace the position of Japan in some central Mall in Southeast Asia, including Tonkin At the same time, with the shortage of silk from Cochinchine and the fact that Tonkin silk market started to dominate the Japanese market, VOC found Tonkin could become the major supplier of silk These factors had a major impact on the trade thinking of VOC Therefore, VOC decided to change the strategy in the Great Vietnamese trade, abandoning the Cochichine and redirecting to the Tonkin In 1637, Grol Ship commander, Karel Hartsinck came from the city of Hirado (Japan) to Tonkin to put trade relations During this trip, Grol ship carried a cargo volume worth more than 186,000 florins These goods are transported to Tonkin includes a few items from Europe and Japan, but mainly copper and iron [2, p 69] For Tonkinese authorities, besides trade relations, the warm welcoming to the Dutch traders also aims to invite the Dutch to participate he military coalition, or at least facilitate Lord Trinh to LE THI HOAI THANH collect and purchase weapons for the War of Trinh - Nguyen Therefore, even when the Grol ship was just docked at the River door, Lord Trinh had to assign people to send a letter to the Dutch with the content: "His majesty was pleased that the Dutch arrived The deputies were elected to lead the Dutch and cargo on to the court This time we did not search the ship as usual, but the king wanted that they must give an accurate list of all the items contained in the vessel, without hiding anything "[2, p 76] In fact, the Dutch traders were given trade privileges than other foreign traders by Le-Trinh government From 1637 onwards, annual VOC ships turned to Tonkin to conduct trade To better serve the business plan as well as a trading office, storage of goods, the Dutch traders were by the Tokinese authorities allowed to establish the commercial firm in Pho Hien And then this commercial firm was transferred to Thang Long in 1645 The introduction of the firm tied to the role of directors since Karel Hartsinck to Jacob van Loo brought an important contribution to the success of Dutch East India company in commercial operation in Tonkin Commercial activities of the VOC concentrated in the purchase of merchandise for export to countries, such as silk, ceramics (for Japan); cinnamon, musk (for The Dutch, Europe), gold (for Coromandel), in which major items were silk and ceramics In contrast, VOC imported silver in bars, Japanese ceramics to Tonkin For the silk trade: in 1637, the Dutch found that Tonkin Silk the year before cost an average of 45 ounces/picul while those of Cochinchine ranged from 100-130 ounces/picul Attracted by the cheap price of silk, the Portuguese in Macau dispatched three ships to Tonkin to purchase silk This activity pushed the average price of silk to 60 ounces/picul Thus, even in the first trip to the Tonkin, the Dutch traders bought 536.95 piculs ecrus and 9665 tons of silk, totaling 190,000 guilders Silk shipments gained 80% rate in Japan [6, p 31] Silk trade activities between the Tonkin and VOC can be divided into phases as follows: 1637-1654, 1655-1669 and 1670 - 1700 In the first phase, VOC purchased a large amount of Tonkinese silk for exporting to the Japanese market If before 1641, Tonkinese silk in Japan accounted for 37% (63% as Chinese silk), then from 1641 to 1654, Tonkin silk in Japan accounted for 68% (Chinese silk: 13% and Bengal silk: 19%) In this flourishing period (1637 - 1654), the total value of silk exports to Japan of VOC was up to 4.662 million florins (approximately 1,635,789 ounces of silver in bars), averaging 260,000 florins/year [1, p 11] The difference between the buying price and the selling price of Tonkinese silk brought huge profits for VOC in18 years, particularly the years from 1641 to 1654 which is considered the "golden age not only with the cheap purchase of silk but with the sale of silk in Japan for profit VOC often obtained to 250% or more in this business" [3, p 110] Into the second period, the rate of importing silk of VOC from Tonkin to Japan began to decline, with only 17% as the Bengal silk was preferred Since 1670, the skill sale and purchase in Tonkin declined sharply Therefore, VOC forced to change its strategy towards dropping the amount of skill purchased to Japanese buyers and boosting exports of products such as silks to the European market TRADE RELATIONS BETWEEN THE TONKINESE AND WESTERN TRADERS For commercial ceramics: 1660s and 1670 were periods of strong development of import activity of Tonkin ceramics of VOC This phenomenon is explained by the following reasons: First, the import of Japanese ceramics was reduced by VOC due to the Japanese ceramics price increase Secondly, Chinese ceramics exported to the Southeast Asian market were disrupted by unstable political situation of the Qing Dynasty Thirdly, the difficulties in trade silk with Tonkin of VOC were revealed from 1660 [7, p 362] These causes motivated VOC to promote purchase activities of ceramic products of Tonkin to export to Southeast Asia With this decision, VOC simultaneously achieved two important goals: profits and continuing to maintain trade relations with Tonkin In the years 1663 - 1681, total Tonkin ceramic of VOC exported to the markets in Southeast Asia islands was nearly million specimens, representing approximately 41% of total raw ceramics transported there [8, tr 36] The Tonkinese ceramic products exported to the market were mainly household ceramics, in which cups, tea cups and bowls accounted the most However, Tonkinese ceramics did not maintain its position in the long future After achieving a leading position in the years 1669 - 1670, the number of Tonkin pottery and ceramic started descending Especially after 1681, VOC imported Tonkinese ceramics infrequently and insignificantly Besides importing Tonkinese ceramics, the Dutch traders also imported Japanese ceramics into Tonkin when Japanese was implementing "sakoku" policy According to VOC materials, in the 1650 - 1679 period, VOC directly exported Japanese goods such as porcelain bowl, plates, porcelain vase, small teapot, salt jar with the number up to 13 850 specimens into Tonkin [5, p 88] Along with ceramics directly exporting activities from the port of Nagasaki to Tonkin, in the years 1672 - 1680, 3,312 Japanese ceramics template was also put into Tonkin indirectly by VOC: through Batavia [5, p 90] Since last three decades of the seventeenth century, the VOC’s trade in Tonkin was moderated as the Dutch traders did not want to completely abandon commercial activity there However, by the late seventeenth century, VOC found that they could not continue to maintain commercial activity in Tonkin as the decline in profits Therefore, in early eighteenth century, VOC formally withdrew from Tonkin, terminated commercial activities with Le-Trinh government after more than six decades of working together 2.3 Trade relations between Tonkinese and British traders In 1600, East India Company (English East India Company, abbreviate as EIC) was established According to the decision of Queen Elizabeth I, the company organized trips to the East India for trading and were allowed to monopolize trading in the area between the Cape Horn and the Strait of Magellan In the Orient, Bantam (Indonesia) became the center of British trade Until the first half of the seventeenth, the British by turn set the political and economic establishments in Hirado (Japan), Calcutta, Madras (India) and Taiwan 10 LE THI HOAI THANH For Great Viet, EIC noticed the transshipment location of Tonkin in Asian trade system, between the two major markets: China and Japan Therefore, EIC board of leaders set out a trade strategy The main content of the strategy is to establish a new business model through commercial firm in Taiwan, Japan and Cochinchine According to calculations by EIC, Tonkinese can provide silk, untanned skin, sugar to Japan, Taiwan; Japan also offers silver, commodities which can later reinvest goods to Japan On the other hand, EIC also wanted to turn Tonkin to become the consuming market British industry products To achieve this goal, the three ships Experiment, Return, Zant were dispatched to Taiwan, Japan and Cochinchine at the most favorable monsoon Zant ship under the command of William Gyfford went at the end of May and arrived at Tonkinese river door on June 25, 1672 W.Gyfford carried a letter of the Bantam Council sending to "powerful and great Emperor of Tokinese, with a long-life and winning wishes " The letter showed tremendous goodwill of our His Majesty against the Dutch, Portuguese, Chinese, as well as all foreigners and expressed the wish: "Great Britain His Majesty had ordered the esteemed India company to ask your Emperor to give the British the original grace and trust as people in a house, for them to be allowed to live and trade freely" [4, p 43] However, W Gyfford did not submit the letter to the Lords Le and Trinh as he arrived because that time, Lord Le Gia Tong and Lord Trinh Tac battled the Nguyen Lords in Cochinchine Therefore, not until next year (March 14, 1673), he was to get the audience to Lord Trinh During this meeting, W Gyfford offered the gifts to Lord Trinh, submitted the letter from Bantam Council and asked the Le-Trinh government for the British permission to perform trade activities in Tonkin With the consent of the Le-Trinh authorities, the British established commercial firm in Pho Hien At Pho Hien, the British were provided a house to the selling transactions, but they refused because this house was located very far from the waterfront This will make it difficult for the trade So, they moved to a rented house of a Portuguese woman and this became the official headquarters of the British commercial firm in Tonkin For greater efficiency in trading, British traders put efforts to obtain Le-Trinh court permission to establish commercial firm in Thang Long Until 1683, British traders achieved their aspirations The cause of the hesitation in allowing foreign traders, including British commercial firm establishment in the capital of Thang Long is Le- Trinh government’s concerns about national security issues It was Samuel Baron - who worked for the EIC realizes: "if free trade is extended to foreigners in the country, then this country also makes a lot more profit But God did not want the European to know its border width to avoid being hit in that dimension, so he will and never prevent this freedom" [9, p 48] The commercial firm in Thang Long was described in detail under the gaze of William Dampier when he arrived at Tonkin in 1688: "Commercial firm of the British did not have so many people, peacefully situated in the north of the city and located outwards the river This is a low, beautiful house and is the most beautiful house I have seen in the city In the center there is a lovely dining room and at the side is the comfortable room for traders, employees and servants of the firm This house was built parallel to the river, in each gablem; there were smaller houses with different uses TRADE RELATIONS BETWEEN THE TONKINESE AND WESTERN TRADERS 11 such as kitchen, warehouse to stand in a long line from the main house to the river, creating two wings and a square yard to look toward the river In the yard behind the waterfront, there was a flagpole with British flag as we have to use the flag in Sunday and British holidays" [1, p 67] In the first years, the British traders operated efficiently and profitably to the EIC The British ship from Bantam, Taiwan, Japan came to Tonkin steadily British traders often brought to the Tonkin items such as silver, sulfur, copper, gunpowder, lead, big guns, including elongated rifles as the preferred type, large fabrics, flowered silks and brought silks, ceramics, sugar, musk, painted furniture sheaves Silk is the main item of EIC and is the most popular one in the Tonkinese market The British especially likes kinds of flowered or blank pots with large size Following silk, EIC conducted many ceramics collection To make a profit, traders chose the method to buy cheaply popular ceramics (such as Bat Trang brown ceramic bowl) in bulk for reselling to the local authorities in Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Myanmar, etc.) and India For example, in 1688, Captain Pool bought in Ke Cho 100,000 bowls and brought to Sumatra for sell In 1693, British commercial firm in Ke Cho bought 50,000 ceramic cups in Tonkin and brought to India However, compared to the Japanese, Chinese and Dutch traders, English traders faced more difficulties in trade in Tonkin The EIC objectives were set out when establishing relations with Tonkin as in the original plan of the Bantam Council did not reach Silver mining from the Japanese market to reinvest capital for commercial activities in Tonkin and the export of silk to Japan in Tonkin did not become a reality as EIC was denied in the re-establishment of the trade with Tokugawa government in September 1673 Failure in Japan led to a direct result of trade relations with Tonkin, which put the commercial firm into a difficult situation because the goods purchased were not taken and there was no consumer market Still, traders in the firm in Tonkin remained maintained by the Board of Directors in London as the Board of Directors found Tonkin was still capable of providing products such as musk, silk for the European market Therefore, as decided by the Board of Directors in London, Bantam Council urged employees of Commercial firm in Tonkin promoting the sale of goods from Britain and purchase silk items and local products in Tonkin that the company requested However, the results obtained in the trade relations did not desire much These investments in silks in Tonkin for the European market were not successfully received due to the fierce competition of the Chinese traders Meanwhile, the products of British industry were very hard to get the market in Tonkin, except for weapons sold to the government in Tonkin Items such as fabrics were too expensive for the Tonkinese market Even in the first shipment of Zant on June 1672, the entire fabric was sent to Taiwan in August because of the "unmarketable" These events led to the fact that EIC could not maintain the balance of trade Besides the above disadvantages, EIC also faced problems in communicating with local officials, especially officials in charge of goods checking up and tax examinations As 12 LE THI HOAI THANH well as other foreign traders, British ones must declare goods, personnel and list of gifts for the Lord and the prince whenever the ships arrived at Tonkin With that, officials demanded more lobbies On the other hand, in the course of trade, British traders also saw the injustice of the Tonkinese government to them: "The greed of the authorities led to unfair trial has been the subject of complaining of traders the old debt [the money to buy goods or in-advance cash of Tonkin officials] was no way to be paid back and what officials unusually brought, in rare cases will be paid It is impossible to directly meet the Lord to complain about this behavior without meeting the concubines, and this is the origin of severe abuses of the currency" [4, p 45] This made the British more and more depressed Until the late seventeenth century, when the Chinese market was opened along with the difficulties, losses in commercial operation in Tonkin, EIC decided to close the commercial firm in Thang Long in 1697 From there until 1720, a few British trader ships came to Tonkin but commercial activity was not significant anymore 2.4 Trade relations between Tonkinese and French traders Under the reign of Louis XIV (1643 - 1715), in parallel with promoting missionary activities, France also had very positive economic development After Jean-Baptiste Colbert became finance minister in 1665, he strengthened the establishment of commercial companies Besides commercial activities had been carried out in the Americas, Orient attracted French capitalist’s investment to expand the market and search for raw materials On that basis, based on the model of the East India Company, the Dutch, the French East India Company (Compagnie Franỗaise des Indes Orientales, abbreviate as CIO) was founded in 1664 Since then, CIO’s commercial firm was set in Surate (1668), Pondicherry (1674) Thus, until the mid-seventeenth century, the strong development of the international trade system connected the Asia - Europe regions and French began to pay more attention to the Far East, including Great Viet In 1669, a merchant ship commanded by Captain Junet departured from Siam to Tonkin, accompanied Captain Junet, there also were missionaries Lambert de la Motte, Bourges and Bouchard When arriving at Tonkin, traders and missionaries of France were respectfully received They stayed until February 1670 in Tonkin In 1671, CIO sent a ship to Tonkin, but did not set out a specific plan Until August 1674, employees of the CIO brought goods worth 12,000 francs to meet Lord Le Gia Tong But on his way to Tonkin, CIO ships clashed with Dutch ship and then faced the storm The ship drifted into the Philippines Thus, from 1669 until 1674, the French effort in establishing trade relations with Tonkin did not reach In 1680, the ship "Tonquin" commanded by Captain Boitou came to Tonkin During this trip, the CIO appointed trader Chappelain to carry reaux of 3000, two letters to submit to the king along with some gifts as mirrors, crystal chandeliers, gold and silver This time, CIO was allowed to establish commercial firm by Tonkinese government in Pho Hien In trade relations with Tonkin, French traders often sold items such as weapons: including cannons, sulfur; European silk: French smooth ones with colors such as dark TRADE RELATIONS BETWEEN THE TONKINESE AND WESTERN TRADERS 13 red and dark green; reaux silver coins; pepper; Indian cotton fabrics, including coarse white cloth, painted or printed pattern, yarn dyed fabrics; sandalwood In contrast, French traders conducted commercial purchase of the Tonkin outstanding items such as silk, musk, gold However, the activity of French traders in Tonkin took place within years After 1682, there was no longer a CIO trader yet to be sent to Tonkin Especially from 1684 onwards, when China opened a trading port for the West along with the deterioration of the trade in Tonkin in the late seventeenth century, French traders tended to look to the Chinese market\and moved the direction to Cochinchine Based on the study of trade relations between Tonkin and Portuguese traders, Dutch, English, French, we draw the following remarks: - In trade relations with Tonkin, Western traders asked Le-Trinh governments to establish the commercial firm (except for Portugese traders) General characteristics of the firm is to be born, worked within the seventeenth century and was built in the large cities, large commercial ports such as Thang Long, Pho Hien The existence of the firm helped Western traders to have more advantages in trade And this is a new definition of Tonkinese foreign trade - Trade relations between Tonkin and Western traders in the seventeenth century turned the natural products and handicraft items of Tonkin into highly valuable commodity in the regional markets, marking the development of foreign trade economy of Tonkin In contrast, the commercial items that Western traders brought to Tonkin met the needs of Le- Trinh governments - For western traders, buying goods from Tonkin collected more profits than the sale of goods to Tonkin by the fact that commodities which traders brought here were mostly just for the Lords and kings and their officials, as a Dutch trader confirmed during his trade: "goods brought to Tonkin gained losses Gains were in shipments" [9, tr.106] - Trade relations between Tonkin and Western traders had economic - social impacts on the Tonkinese Commodity economy was expanded and developed to a higher level At the same time, this trade hub helped bring to the birth, flourishing of urban cities, marketing port (Thang Long, Pho Hien, Domea) as well as promoted cultural exchanges between the Orient and the West On the other hand, the presence of Western traders in Tonkin affected the local people lifestyle, modes of production and trading of various social strata, especially traders and craftsmen - Trade relations between Tonkin and Western traders took place in the seventeenth century, at least until 1700 (the beginning of the eighteenth century), the Dutch traders decided to close the commercial firm which ended the relationship with Tonkin This can be explained by the following main reasons: Firstly, due to the limitations of feudal production, Le - Trinh government administration was not able to meet the increasing demands on product quality of goods for the capitalism countries, which are countries with higher production development On the other hand, the Le - Trinh government’s 14 LE THI HOAI THANH monopolized foreign trade; all rules must be conducted in accordance with the will of the Lords Therefore, the way to trade with traders was sometimes anonymously arbitrary, inconsistent and inequitable In addition, the state's harassment by officials caused many difficulties for traders while trading in Tonkin Second, the establishment of trade relations with Western traders did not come from the general requirements of the economy, but separately from the interests of the government, such as weapons of war from Trinh - Nguyen or on demand supplies for the royal family Thus, when the Trinh - Nguyen war ended, the government did not need to buy weapons anymore, leading to the downfall of this trade relationship Thirdly, until 1684, the Qing Dynasty abolished the banning marine policy Chinese market was opened up to attract traders to trade in the West And once commercial operations were not profitable enough with the obstacles in the way of trade, the Western traders left Tonkin and looked to other markets to meet their goals CONCLUSION The establishment of trade relations between Tonkin and Western traders is a clear proof of the "open doors" policy and the active joining to the Asian trade system of Le-Trinh government Trade relations contributed to the prosperity of the trade economy of Tonkin For the Westerners, each had a separate business methods but they all achieved profitability through commercial activities of traders in Tonkin Thus, along with other countries in Asia, the trade relations between Tonkin and Western traders met the objectives of the parties, and this is one of the vivid expression of the integration process, economic exchanges between the Orient and the West in the seventeenth century REFERENCES [1] William Dampier (2007) A trip to Tonkin in 1688, Hoang Anh Tuan translation, The Gioi Publisher, Ha Noi [2] Nguyen Thua Hy (2009) The first Dutch traders arrived in Tonkin and Ke Cho in 1637, Journal of Historical Studies, vol 4, p 68-79 [3] Li Tana (1999) Cochinchine: economic and social history in seventeenth and eighteen century, Nguyen Nghi Translation, Youth Publisher, Ho Chi Minh City [4] Charles B Maybon (2011) The Europeans in the land of Annam, Nguyen Thua Hy Translation, The Gioi Publisher, Ha Noi [5] Miki Sakuraba (2008) “Japanese porcelain exported to Vietnam and Southeast Asia in the seventeenth century”, Nguyen Tien Dung translation, Journal of Historical Studies, Vol + Vol.10, p 87- 96 [6] Hoang Anh Tuan (2001) Intra-Asia Network of trade relations and Dutch - Vietnam relation (1601-1638), Journal of Historical Studies, Vol 6, p 22-35 [7] Hoang Anh Tuan (2004) Ceramics trade of the Dutch East India Company to Tonkin second half XVII century, East Asia - Southeast Asia: historical and current issues, The gioi Publisher, Ha Noi, p 349-372 TRADE RELATIONS BETWEEN THE TONKINESE AND WESTERN TRADERS 15 [8] Hoang Anh Tuan (2005) Dutch East India Company in Tonkin (1637-1700): data and research issues, Journal of Historical Studies, Vol 3, p 30-41 [9] Thanh The Vy (1961) Foreign Trade of Vietnam in the seventeenth, the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, History Studies Publisher, Ha Noi LE THI HOAI THANH, M.A Department of History, College of Education, Hue University Tel: 0913 540 607, Email: fuongthaohoa@yahoo.com (Received: 06/01/2016; Revised: 11/4/2016; Accepted: 10/5/2016)