2.1 Woods. Winds, Shipbuilding, and Shipping: Why China Didn’t Rule the Waves
Ashley & Trump
- Chinese navy’s “treasure ships” were the largest ships in the pre-industrial world
- Treasure ships were put afloat centuries before European vessels
- The ships went from the East African coastline to somewhere around the Cape of Good Hope
- The treasure ships were three times the size of any British navy ship before the 1800s
- China’s sea power was lost when the Ming Dynasty withdrew support for treasure ship journeys after 1433
- Chinese ships stayed east of present-day Singapore after the withdrawal of support
- Members of China’s Ming court put great focus on domestic and continental matters like emphasizing agricultural production, internal stability, military buildup and colonization at the edges of the Chinese steppe, and refurbishment of the Great Wall
- The curtailing of private sector ocean trips made private trades more active on the Southeast Asian shipping routes, but not as far as the treasure ships
- Private traders based their decisions on market forces
- Timber at the time was very expensive because coal had not been widely available yet
- The market developed a huge private trade in timber, wherever water was located
- Logs were floated from interior forests down all of China’s rivers canals
- The method was only good for tapping resources already close to water routes
- Coastal and riverside forests were used up quickly because of it
- Log movement required a lot of hard labor, so by the 18th century the cost of build a boat in central China had risen three times as fast as the price of rice
- Rice is the China’s staple food and the most reliable indicator of the general cost of living
- Chinese shippers contracted construction of boats at several Southeast Asian locations
- There was no longer a market for outsized “treasure ships” anymore
- Instead of financing big ships, Chinese traders used smaller vessels that could carry porcelain and silk to midway points
- Shorter routes fit better with weather patterns because it kept Chinese merchants out of far-flung ports with shifting monsoon winds that left ships stranded for months
- Maximum profit meant relying on entrepots
- Entrepots developed where winds made it convenient to meet
Overview
China before the early 1400s (1433 specifically) had treasure ship which could be up to 3 time the European vessels before the 1800s. This raises the question “why did they not have a larger stand in over sea trade if they had such a large lead in navel affairs?” government support in Chinese treasure ships were withdrawn in the Ming dynasty after 1433. From then on ChineseShips stayed east of now present day Singapore.
Later in time long distance exploration was then passed on to the Europeans as well as long distance trade (but that’s another story for a different day). Attention then became to be given to domestic and continental matters, agriculture, internal stability military build-up and colonization at the edges of the central Asian steppe, as well as renovation of the Great Wall. Timber was becoming expensive and there was a wood shortage causing big boats like the treasure ships to be outdated.
The Qing dynasty later left the market to respond to timber prices shooting up and the market responded by developing a huge private trade in timber which grew up wherever there was water transport. Moving logs from the forest also took a lot of labor so by the 18c the cost of building a boat in china had risen about tree times as fast as the price of rice. There just wasn’t a market for the outsized treasure ships anymore.
Chinese trades started using smaller ships to carry porcelain and silk to ports. these ports called entrepots where developed and created a series of these meeting places created a marketing network that carried products from the Mediterranean toJapan, China and Koreawithout anyone being away for more than one season