Sea Rovers, Silver, and Samurai

Tonio Andrade, Xing Hang, Robert J. Antony

"Sea Rovers, Silver, and Samurai traces the roots of modern global East Asia by focusing on the fascinating history of its seaways. The East Asian maritime realm, from the Straits of Malacca to the Sea of Japan, has been a region of international trade for centuries, but from 1550 to 1700 that the velocity and scale of commerce began to increase dramatically. Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese smugglers and pirates forged autonomous networks, or in the case of the Zheng family of southeastern China and Taiwan, maritime-focused polities. They competed and cooperated with one another and with ambitious state-builders, such as the Manchu Qing, Tokugawa Japan, the Iberians, and the Dutch. ... Consider, for example that European mariners, whom we associate with opening oceanic trade routes, were far from the most important actors in East and Southeast Asia. During this period, it was the...