认知、市场与贸易——明清时期中国与东南亚的海参贸易

Cognition,Market and Trade:Discussion on Trepang Trade between China and Southeast Asia in the Ming and Qing Dynasties

国人对海参的认知有一个不断加深的过程,尤其至明清时代,其补肾壮阳的功效得到广泛"传颂",明清上流社会群体因之趋之若鹜。受众群体的无限贪求加剧了国内海参市场的供货危机,这极大地刺激了东南亚海参的捕捞与贸易,使之成为东南亚岛际贸易者冒死犯险、置身绝域而搜集海参的原动力。东南亚海参因之得以源源不断输入,成为中国国内海参市场亏缺的重要补给源。中国海商几乎垄断了中国与东南亚的海参贸易,这在欧洲人占统治地位的贸易格局下,成为一道亮丽的风景线。由此或可呈现出国人对于海参的认知、市场发展兴盛与中外双方贸易关系等诸多历史面相的重叠交错。

In China trepang has long be believed to be effective in increasing man ＇ s sexual potency, especially in the Ming and the Qing Dynasties. People in upper-class circles of the Ming and the Qing periods had been scrambling for it. The unlimited desire for trepang deepened the crisis of demand and supply in national trepang market, which stimulated the fishing and trading of trepang in the Southeast Asian countries. Traders in the Southeast Asia kept taking risks to ship tre- pang. Southeast Asia had become a significant supplying source of trepang in Chinese market . Chinese merchants almost monopolized trepang trade between China and the Southeast Asia, which was definitely the highlight in the trading structure dominated by Europeans.