In contrast to their emphasis on political and agricultural history, the twentieth-century Vietnamese historians have paid surprisingly little attention to maritime history despite the fact that Vietnam is a maritime country with over 3000 kilometres of shoreline along the Indo-Chinese coast. More critical is their tendency either to refuse or downplay the role of maritime trade in overall economic development and state-building in pre-modern Vietnam, even though contemporary non-Vietnamese scholars tend to take the opposite view. Applying a regional perspective, this article underlines the process by which Vietnam became integrated into the East Asian maritime trade during ancient and medieval times.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AoyagiYoji. 1993. ‘Vietnamese Ceramics Discovered on Southeast Asian Islands’, in The National Committee for the International Symposium on the Ancient Town of AnHoi (ed.), Ancient Town of Hội An, Hanoi: 72–76.
2.
BenedictPaul K.1941. ‘A Cham Colony on the Island of Hainan’, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, vol. 6(2): 129–34.
3.
BlusséLeonard. 1996. ‘No Boats to China: The Dutch East India Company and the Changing Pattern of the China Sea Trade, 1635–1690’, Modern Asian Studies, vol. 30(1): 51–70.
4.
BronsonBennet, ‘Export Porcelain in Economic Perspective: The Asian Ceramic Trade in the 17th Century’, in HoChumei (ed.), Ancient Ceramic Kiln Technology in Asia, Hong Kong: 126–50.
5.
BrownRoxanna. 1988. The Ceramics of South-East Asia, Singapore.
6.
BrownRoxanna. 2003. ‘Ming Gap? Data from Shipwreck Cargoes’, Paper presented at theARI Workshop on Southeast Asia in the Fifteenth Century and the Ming Factor, Singapore.
7.
BrownRoxanna.2004. ‘The “Mac Gap” and Vietnamese Ceramics’, Paper presented at Second International Conference on Vietnamese Studies. Ho Chi Minh City.
8.
ChangT’ien Tse. 1933. Sino-Portuguese Trade from 1514 to 1644: A Synthesis of Portuguese and Chinese Sources, Leiden.
9.
ChinJames. 2004. ‘Bridging East Ocean and West Ocean: Hokkien Merchants in Maritime Asia Prior to 1683, with a Special Reference to the Ports of East Asia’, in Workshop on Northeast Asia in Maritime Perspective: A Dialogue with Southeast Asia (conference proceedings), Osaka, Singapore: 121–59.
10.
AnhĐào Duy. 2005. Đất nước Việt Nam qua các đời (Vietnam through the Ages), Hanoi.
11.
Đỗ Thị Thùy Lan. 2008. ‘Vùng cửa sông Đàng Ngoài thế kỷ XVII–XVIII: Batsha và mối liên hệ với quê hương nhà Mạc’ (Tonkin River Estuary during the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries: Batsha in Relations with the Mạc Dynasty’s Homeland), Nghiên cứu Lịch sử (Journal of Historical Studies, hereafter: JHS) vol. 1: 21–32 and vol. 2: 42–48.
GuyJohn. 1994. ‘Vietnamese Ceramics in International Trade’, in StevensonJohnGuyJohn (eds), Vietnamese Ceramics: A Separate Tradition, Michigan: 47–61.
14.
TấnHà Văn (ed.). 1998. Khảo cổ học Việt Nam (Vietnam Archaeology), vol. 1: Thời đại đá Việt Nam (The Stone Age in Vietnam), Hanoi.
15.
HallKenneth. 1985. Maritime Trade and State Development in Early Southeast Asia, Honolulu.
16.
HallKenneth. 2006. ‘Multi-dimensional Networking: Fifteenth Century Indian Ocean Maritime Diaspora in Southeast Asian Age of Commerce’, Journal of Economic and Social History of the Orient, vol. 49(4): 454–81.
17.
DũngHồ Trung. 2008. Vị trí của Nghệ-Tĩnh trong hệ thống thương mại khu vực thời Lý-Trần (The Position of Nghệ-Tĩnh in the Regional Trade during the Lý and Trần Dynasties), unpublished thesis, History Department, Vietnam National University, Hanoi.
18.
TuấnHoàng Anh. 2005. ‘From Japan to Manila and Back to Europe: The Abortive English Trade with Tonkin in the 1670s’, Itinerario, vol. 29(3): 73–92.
19.
TuấnHoàng Anh. 2007. ‘Gốm sứ Đàng Ngoài xuất khấu ra Đông Nam Á thế kỷ XVII: Tư liệu và nhận thức’ (Vietnamese Ceramics Exported to South-East Asia in the Seventeenth Century: Documents and Awareness), JHS, vol. 11: 28–39.
20.
TuấnHoàng Anh. 2007. ‘Hải cảng miền Đông Bắc và hệ thống thương mại Đàng Ngoài thế kỷ XVII’ (The North-Eastern Seaports and the Commercial System of Seventeenth-Century Tonkin as Seen from Western Sources), JHS, vol. 1: 54–64 and vol. 2: 54–63.
21.
TuấnHoàng Anh. 2007. Silk for Silver: Dutch-Vietnamese Relations, 1637–1700, Leiden.
22.
TuấnHoàng Anh. 2008. ‘Vị trí của Việt Nam trong hệ thống thương mại Biển Đông thời cổ trung đại’ (The Position of Vietnam in the Eastern Sea Trading System in the Ancient and Medieval Times), JHS, vol. 9–10: 1–16.
23.
TuấnHoàng Anh. 2010. ‘Tonkin Rear for China Front: The Dutch East India Company’s Strategy towards the North-Eastern Vietnamese Ports in the 1660s’, in KleinenJohnOsseweijerManon (eds), Ports, Pirates and Hinterlands in the East and Southeast Asia: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives, Singapore: 51–75.
24.
TuấnHoàng Anh. 2011. ‘Quốc tế hóa lịch sử dân tộc: Toàn cầu hóa cận đại sơ kỳ và lịch sử Việt Nam thế kỷ XVII’ (Internationalizing National History: Early Modern Globalization and Seventeenth-Century Vietnam), in LêHồngLý (ed.), Di sản lịch sử và những hướng tiếp cận mới (Historical Heritage and New Approaches), Hanoi: 247–82.
25.
HolmgranJenifer. 1980. Chinese Colonization of Northern Vietnam: Administrative Geography and Political Developments in the Tonking Delta, First to Sixth Century AD, Canberra.
26.
KleinP.W.1996. ‘The China Seas and the World Economy between the 16th and 19th Centuries: The Changing Structure of Trade’, in DavidsC.A.FritschyW.van der ValkL.A. (eds), Kapitaal, Ondernemerschap en Beleid: Studie over economie en politiek in Nederland, Europa en Azië van 1500 tot heden [Capital, Entrepreneurship and Policy: Study on Economics and Politics in the Netherlands, Europe and Asia from 1500 to Present], Amsterdam: 385–408.
27.
LiTana. 1998. Nguyễn Cochinchina, Southern Vietnam in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, Ithaca.
28.
LiTana. 2006. ‘A View from the Sea: Perspectives on the Northern and Central Vietnam Coast’, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, vol. 37(1): 83–102.
29.
LiangBingmeng. 2008. ‘The Hepu Port—the Most Ancient Departure Port and the Maritime Silk Route’, in ‘A Mini Mediterranean Sea’: Gulf of Tongking through History (conference proceedings), Nanning-China.
30.
LiebermanVictor.2003. Strange Parallels: Southeast Asia in Global Context, c. 800–1830, vol. 1: Integration in the Mainland, Cambridge.
31.
MomokiShiro. 1988. ‘Dai Viet and the South China Sea Trade from the 10th to the 15th Century’, Crossroads, vol. 12(1): 1–34.
32.
MomokiShiroTakashiHasuda. 2007. ‘Vietnam in the Early Modern East- and Southeast Asia’, in Việt Nam trong hệ thống thương mại châu Á thế kỷ XVI–XVII (Vietnam in the Asian Commercial System, Sixteenth–Seventeenth Centuries), Hanoi: 351–86.
33.
Nguyễn Khắc Sử. 2008. ‘Giao lưu văn hoá thời tiền sử ở vùng duyên hải Đông Bắc Việt Nam qua tư liệu khảo cổ học’ (Prehistorical Cultural Exchanges in the North-eastern Coastal Area of Vietnam), in Vietnam National University, Hanoi (ed.), Thương cảng Vân Đồn: Lịch sử, tiềm năng kinh tế, và các mối giao lưu văn hoá (Vân Đồn Commercial Port: History, Economic Potential, and Cultural Exchanges), Quảng Ninh: 461–74.
34.
Nguyen Long Kerry. 1994. ‘Bat Trang and the Ceramic Trade in Southeast Asian Archipelagos’, in LePhan HuyNgocNguyen QuangChienNguyen Dinh (eds), Bat Trang Ceramic, 14th–19th Centuries, Hanoi: 84–90.
35.
HuyNguyen NgocTaiTa VanLiemTran Van. 1987. The Lê Code: Law in Traditional Vietnam: A Comparative Sino-Vietnamese Legal Study with Historical-Juridical Analysis and Annotations, Athens, Ohio.
36.
Nguyễn Quang Ngọc. 2000. Tiến trình lịch sử Việt Nam (History of Vietnam), Hanoi.
37.
ChiNguyễn Thị PhươngDũngNguyễn Tiến. 2007. ‘Về các mối giao thương của quốc gia Đại Việt thời Lý, Trần (thế kỷ XI–XIV)’ [On the Commercial Relations of Đại Việt during the Lý and Trần Dynasties (Eleventh to Fourteenth Centuries)], JHS, vol. 2: 23–37.
38.
KimNguyễn Văn. 2004.’Hệ thống thương cảng Vân Đồn qua các nguồn tư liệu lịch sử, điền dã và khảo cổ học’ (Vân Đồn Seaport System through Historical, Survey and Archaeological Documents), Khảo cổ học (Journal of Archaeology), vol. 4: 46–65.
39.
Nguyễn VănKimDũngNguyễn Mạnh. 2007, ‘Về truyền thống và hoạt động ngoại thương của người Việt—Thực tế lịch sử và nhận thức’ (On the Tradition and Activity of the Vietnamese Foreign Trade: Historical Reality and Awareness), JHS, vol. 8: 21–37 and vol. 9: 19–31.
40.
JunkaiNiuQingxinLi. 2011. ‘The Chinese “Political Pirate” in the Seventeenth-Century Gulf of Tongking’, inCookeNolaTanaLiAndersonJames (eds), The Tongking Gulf through History, Philadenphia: 133–42.
41.
AnhPhạm ĐứcPhúcNguyễn Ngọc. 2007. ‘Nghiên cứu ngoại thương Việt Nam trước thế kỷ XVIII: vài nét nhìn lại’ (The Study of the Vietnamese Foreign Trade before the Eighteenth Century: A Statistical Review), in Việt Nam trong hệ thống thương mại châu Á thế kỷ XVI–XVII [Vietnam in the Asian Commercial System, Sixteenth–Seventeenth Centuries], Hanoi: 417–32.
42.
Phạm Lê Huy. 2011. ‘Hoạt động buôn bán ngựa và chính sách kinh dinh của nhà Lý ở khu vực Tây Bắc’ (The Horse Trade and the Lý Dynasty’s Policy on the Northwestern Region), JHS, vol. 2: 30–44.
43.
PtakRoderich. 2008. ‘The Gulf of Tongking: A Mediterranean?’ in ‘A Mini Mediterranean Sea’: Gulf of Tongking through History (conference proceedings), Nanning-China.
44.
RhodesAlexandre de. 1651. Histoire du royaume de Tunquin [History of the Kingdom of Tonquin], Lyon.
45.
SouzaGeorge. 1986. The Survival of Empire: Portuguese Trade and Society in China and the South China Sea 1630–1754, Cambridge.
46.
TaylorKeith. 1983. The Birth of Vietnam, Berkeley.
47.
VượngTrần Quốc. 2001. ‘Trạng Trình Nguyễn Bỉnh Khiêm trong bối cảnh văn hoá Việt Nam thế kỷ XVI’ (Nguyễn Bỉnh Khiêm in the Cultural Context of Sixteenth Century Vietnam), in ThanhTrần Thị BăngThanhVũ (eds), Nguyễn Bỉnh Khiêm: về tác gia và tác phấm (Nguyễn Bỉnh Khiêm: His Life and Works), Hanoi: 70–83.
48.
QuýnhTrương HữuDoãnPhanĐạiMinhNguyễn Cảnh. 1999. Đại cương lịch sử Việt Nam (A Brief History of Vietnam), vol. I, Hanoi.
49.
Viện Nghiên cứu Đông Nam Á
. 1996. Biển với người Việt cổ (The Sea and the Ancient Vietnamese), Hanoi.
50.
Viện Sử học. 1998. Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư (The Complete Book of the Historical Records of Đại Việt), vol. I, Hanoi.
51.
Viện Sử học. 2002. Quốc triều hình luật (The Penal Code of the Lê Dynasty), Ho Chi Minh City.
52.
WadeGeoff. 1993. ‘On the Possible Cham Origin of the Philippine Scripts’, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, vol. 24(1): 44–87.
53.
WadeGeoff. 2006. ‘An Earlier Age of Commerce in Southeast Asia: 900–1300 C.E.?’, Workshop on Dynamic Rimlands and Open Heartlands: Maritime Asia as a Site of Interactions (conference proceedings), Osaka, Singapore: 27–81.
54.
WangGungwu. 1998. The Nanhai Trade, The Early History of Chinese Trade in the South China Sea, Singapore.
55.
WhitmoreJohn2011. ‘Vân Đồn, the “Mac Gap,” and the End of the Jiaozhi Ocean System: Trade and State in ĐạiViệt, Circa 1450–1550’, in CookeNolaTanaLiAndersonJames (eds), The Tongking Gulf through History, Philadelphia: 101–16.
56.
WhitmoreJohn. 1986. ‘“Elephants Can Actually Swim”: Contemporary Chinese View of Late Ly Dai Viet’, in MarrDavid G.MilnerA.C. (eds), Southeast Asia in the 9th to 14th Centuries, Singapore: 117–38.
57.
WhitmoreJohn. 2006. ‘The Rise of the Coast: Trade, State and Culture in Early Đại Việt’, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, vol. 37(1): 103–22.
