CHAPTER THREE
Uncharted seas and inhospitable lands
Macaenses in China, sixteenth to mid-nineteenth century
Inhospitable lands
The first three centuries of Macaense settlement in China witnessed the transformation of the community from illegal fringe-dwellers to legitimate traders, from sojourners to settlers, and from living at the outer fringes of the Portuguese empire to being the epicentre of Western imperialism in China. From shaky foundations, the Macaenses survived and rose to prominence on the China coast. How they survived and collaborated in a relationship that lasted unbroken for over four hundred and fifty years formed the subject of the following chapters. Through it all, the Macaenses were no mere spectators.
According to Jack Braga, the first Portuguese to set foot on Chinese soil was Jorge Alvares in 1513 during the reign of the Ming Emperor Zhengde (1506-1521). Alvares was sent from Malacca to find out more about the Chinese and the possibility of trade.3_1 News of the new trading destination spread quickly among the Portuguese in Malacca and Goa and soon other private traders joined in. The first official attempt to establish trade and diplomatic relations with China was the despatch of the Thome Pires mission in 1517. It was unsuccessful and the mission ended in disaster for Pires and his party. The failure of the mission was due to various factors including the alleged misconduct of their compatriots on the China coast especially that of Simão de Andrade. As a result, all Portuguese ships were forbidden to enter China from 1521.3_2
Following this ban and the subsequent expulsion of another emissary fleet under the command of Martin Alfonso de Melo Coutinho, the Portuguese resorted to trading illegally along the coast of Zhejiang and Fujian provinces, facilitated by powerful Chinese interest and corrupt local officials.3_3 On the Fujian coast, Portuguese ships were allowed to be careened for repairs. There were several trading posts established along the coast with the one at Ningbo being the subject of controversy regarding its size.
Ningbo
Some writers, the Macaense historian Montalto de Jesus included, claimed that Ningbo was the first European settlement in China. He referred to a description of a flourishing settlement in Ningbo by Fernão Mendes Pinto, said to have been on the crew of the first Portuguese ship to reach Japan. According to Pinto, Ningbo was “deemed the finest and richest among the colonial establishments of Portugal with a foreign community of twelve hundred Portuguese and eighteen hundred Orientals.” Pinto described the destruction of the Ningbo settlement in 1542. It was ordered by the provincial government in retaliation for the raid by Portuguese pirates on neighbouring villages. The destruction of the settlement was said to have taken five hours with a force of sixty thousand men and over three hundred vessels. It cost the lives of twelve thousand Christians including eight hundred Portuguese who perished on board their thirty-five ships and forty-two junks.3_4
Montalto acknowledged that Pinto’s credibility had been challenged and that there appeared to be no record of such a calamity in the Chinese archives. He thought it strange that “such a catastrophe as the destruction of a town with its churches, hospitals, and a large fleet, and the massacres of so many thousands … of obstinate lawless foreigners … could not have escaped the attention of the court annalist.” Nevertheless Montalto contended that such a settlement did exist, as the ruins of a fort were found in Ningbo. The fort was of “decidedly European construction [with] the national arms of Portugal carved on a gate.”3_5
Although no Chinese record of the destruction of Ningbo existed, there was a recorded incident off the Fujian coast on 19 March 1549, eight years before the settlement of Macau, when Ming forces attacked the smugglers.3_6 They were forced out allegedly for trying “to set up colonial strongholds at these places.”3_7 Following various attacks by the Ming troops in Zhejiang and Fujian, the Portuguese returned to the southern province of Guangdong when a rapprochement of sorts between them and the provincial authorities had been made in 1553.3_8 In return for officially sanctioned trade, the Portuguese agreed to pay the various taxes that other merchants from Southeast Asia paid; in effect to be law abiding and work within China’s customs regulations.3_9 This change represented a significant departure from hostilities towards a spirit of co-operation, compliance and compromise.3_10 Accompanied by the payment of substantial bribes, permission was given and for a short period they traded at Shangchuang Island before moving to Langbai (Lampacau) where from 1553 to 1557 an annual trade fair was conducted where Chinese goods could be purchased.
Macau
There were political, economic and logistic reasons for the decision to consolidate at Macau. K.C. Fok observed that from the provincial authority’s point of view, Macau was ideally located. It was close enough to allow the province to harness the benefits of trade while keeping an eye on the Portuguese, yet far enough to lure the Portuguese away from associations with the coastal pirates and anti-dynastic forces from the interior. It was also convenient, as the Portuguese did not fit into the mould of the Chinese tributary trade system. Located at a safe distance from major population centres, Macau represented a compromise between the “staunchly doctrinaire central officials and the more practically-minded provincial officials.3_11
For the Portuguese, it was attractive and offered better food and water supplies and being closer to the important trade centre of Guangzhou.3_12
The settlement grew rapidly. In 1555, according to a contemporary source, there were only about seven Portuguese living in Macau with most of the traders still in Langbai. Around 1562, they all consolidated their activities at Macau and within twelve years, a large settlement emerged that consisted of three churches and a hospital for the poor servicing a community of five thousand Christians. It was a very rapid increase in population given the state of transportation and communications in those early centuries.3_13
There were divergent views regarding the nature of the permission for the European settlement at Macau. Regardless of the controversy, several points could be made regarding the early Macaense settlers and factors that shaped their identity. Firstly, by the time Macau became the main settlement for the Portuguese in China, they had already been in China for nearly forty years. This promoted a strong sense of belonging as well as impacting upon their ethnicity. Secondly, the settlement of Macau was considered as an achievement between the Chinese provincial authorities and the private traders, creating a sense of independence and desire for autonomy from Lisbon and Goa. The Chinese connection placed the Macaense settlers in an influential position and gave rise to their much-publicised role as a bridge and intermediary between the Portuguese officials and the Chinese. As the Portuguese empire declined, these skills provided the means of survival for the Macanese community. Thirdly, the existence of Macau and its viability depended to a large extent on the goodwill between the Portuguese officials and the Chinese authorities. The shift towards co-operation, compromise and compliance was essential for China giving them permission to settle; and necessary for their survival in latter centuries.
In the first few decades of their arrival in China, the interaction between the Portuguese and Chinese were a series of clashes and blunders on both sides due mainly to their ignorance of each other. Ming China displayed a high degree of cultural arrogance and ignorance of foreigners from Europe while the Portuguese arrived in Asia with heavy cultural and religious baggage and a tradition of extreme hostility towards Muslims. The Portuguese could not have been expected to know what was in store for them as they ventured to distant lands and were hampered by the lack of knowledge of the language, local laws, customs and religions. Until their arrival in China, what they had achieved in the rest of Asia came through the use of force. As Chandra Richard de Silva observed, the use of excessive force to plunder other ships and to bomb populated centres into submission caused relations to deteriorate to greater depths than mere cultural misunderstanding.3_14
In China, the force applied by the Portuguese proved ineffective due to the strength of the Ming forces. Eventually compromise, compliance and co-operation won the day for Portuguese interests.
The Portuguese also appeared to be ignorant of the Ming dynasty’s concept of the world order and their system of tributary trade and diplomacy. Even if they had understood, it was doubtful whether they would be prepared to accept their allotted place within it.3_15
The first embassy group led by Thome Pires did not conform to Chinese expectations of outward displays of humility and inferiority.3_16
Their documents for presentation to the Court were poorly drafted and inappropriately signed by the Viceroy of Goa and not the king of Portugal, as Court protocol demanded.3_17
Furthermore, there was consternation among Court officials when they learned that the Portuguese were not interested in presenting tributes but in trade.3_18
There was an element of truth in the assertion that the Portuguese did not consider themselves inferior to the Chinese. Judging by their conquests thus far, in Africa, Persia, India, and Malacca, they had every reason to feel otherwise.
Despite the initial setbacks, the Portuguese were able to exploit the fault lines in the power structure along the China coast and succeeded in carving a niche for themselves in China, just as they had done elsewhere.3_19
In China, as K.C. Fok observed, the Portuguese were fortunate to have arrived at Canton where the local authorities were more lax about trade regulations and more willing to do business with foreigners due to the economic benefits they could derived from it.3_20 When their position in the province became untenable due to imperial edicts banning them, they found co-operation for their clandestine trade further north in the provinces of Fujian and Zhejiang.
If Canton had been geographically closer to Goa, the Portuguese perhaps might have been willing and able to apply additional resources to establish a foothold like it did in Malacca. In China, following the early failures to establish official relations, it was abandoned to the private traders. These traders were generally more willing to compromise so as not to cause trouble for themselves. They had travelled far and taken great risks to build up sufficient capital to trade on their own account, so it was not in their interest to be provocative or territorial. Eventually, against great odds, they succeeded in gaining permission to settle in Macau.
Part of the vast Portuguese presence in Asia
By the time the settlement emerged at Macau, the Portuguese empire was already well established. Some scholars consider it misleading to describe it as an empire in the formal sense because of the lack of territorial and political hegemony across such a big stretch of water. According to Villiers, it was best defined as “an enormous commercial network connecting various points at which trading posts (feitorias), fortified strongholds (fortalezas) or, more rarely, fully fledged urban settlements with their own institutions of municipal government (cidades) had been established.”3_21Across such a vast network, the territories were administered and protected with varying degrees of effectiveness by the Portuguese Crown or on its behalf. In its heyday, the Portuguese empire consisted of approximately fifty such territories, ranging from major settlements like Macau to small river outposts such as Sena on the Zambesi River (in Africa), and large areas such as in Colombo and Goa. They did not include the numerous unofficial settlements that were known to exist in different corners of Portuguese Asia away from the administrative centre of Goa.3_22 The co-existence of official and unofficial settlements in close proximity to each other was a feature of Portuguese Asia. These unofficial settlements were founded by Portuguese private traders who believed that they should be allowed to pursue private trade and seek their fortune outside of the Crown’s trade monopoly. Some of these settlements were neither small nor insignificant with some containing about two to three hundred Portuguese.3_23 Some had settlers who were influential not only with the settler elite in the official settlements but also directly with Lisbon.3_24> This loose collection of territories and settlements from Mozambique in East Africa to Macau and Timor was named Estado da India with the administrative capital based at Goa in India.3_25
Macau’s “golden century” (1550s to 1640s)
The first century of the Macau settlement was a prosperous period that had been called the “golden century”. Macau could be said to have “struck gold” when it had virtual monopoly on the supply of Chinese silk to the Japanese market in the mid-sixteenth century. Many writers claimed that this trade was the foundation of Macau’s wealth. It so impressed an Italian visitor in 1638 that he was moved to remark that Macau could “justly be considered as the best, strongest and most profitable of the Portuguese possessions in the Indies – I having visited the majority of them.” 3_26 This period of prosperity was characterised by the phenomenal growth in settlement, unsettled relations with China, the rise and fall of the Japanese trade and the rise of Dutch power in the Far East which brought about the demise of Portuguese influence in South and Southeast Asia.
This period was characterised by the rapid growth of the settlement and its governing institutions. In 1586 its significance was recognised by the Crown through granting it the status of a city entitled to its own administrative body, the Senate, which was run by the local merchants presided over by a Captain (appointed by Goa) or in his absence the local Bishop.
During this period, their relationship with China was not always smooth. The building of the barrier gate across the narrow isthmus was seen by some as extending de facto recognition to the Portuguese occupation of Macau.3_27 However, many viewed it as a coercive action that allowed the Chinese to open and shut the gate at will, cutting off supplies of fresh food and labour. It proved so effective in bringing Macau to heel during the early centuries that the Macaenses became known for their compliant and co-operative attitude towards the Chinese.
The latter half of the century saw the emergence of Dutch power in the Far East. The Dutch had used its base in Formosa (Taiwan) to supply Chinese goods to Japan in competition to the Macaenses. Not content with competing on quality and price, the Dutch sought to attack Macau shipping disrupting the supply of goods and capturing their cargoes. In the 1620s and 1630s the Dutch launched a series of attacks on Macau as well as Malacca and Goa and succeeded in cutting Macau off from its vital link to Europe.
Rise and demise of the Japan trade
However the most significant feature of this period for Macau was the rise and demise of the Japan trade because its wealth built and sustained Macau for over seven decades. Many writers believed the expulsion of the Jesuits and the Macaense traders from Japan was a loss from which Macau never fully recovered. G. Elison attributed the root cause of the expulsion to the Jesuits’ meddling in the internal politics of Japan.3_28
In 1609, the number of Japanese Christians under the Jesuit umbrella was estimated at 222,000. Following the general persecution of Christians, many fled to Macau. A series of anti-foreign edicts, begun in 1633, restricted Japanese trade and travel overseas, the banning of trade with the Portuguese and expulsion of all Jesuits followers in 1639. The following year, Macau sent another delegation and sixty-one merchants and seamen were executed. Thirteen men were left alive to take the news back to Macau. Japan was left to the Dutch and Chinese merchants who were warned not to provide passage to any missionaries in disguise.3_29 In subsequent years, another two groups were sent from Macau in an attempt to resurrect the trade but both were sent back unreceived.3_30
The numbers of Japanese Christians that fled to Macau were sufficiently visible in 1606 to arouse strong anti-Portuguese and anti-Japanese feeling among the Canton authorities who feared an invasion by a combined Portuguese and Japanese force. This fear was fanned by Chinese rumourmongers who pointed to the presence in Macau of Japanese mercenaries and artisans working on the façade of St Paul’s Church and the sea walls. Some Chinese believed the sea walls were intended as additional fortresses. The work on the façade of St Paul’s Church had begun in 1602 but was not finished until 1640. In that year, Macau proudly boasted its defence capability to the Portuguese King, which included seventy large cannons mounted in four Royal fortresses, metal foundries and gunpowder mills. Macaenses were also confident of marshalling two thousand good musketeers into battle when the need arose.3_31 According to Monsignor Manuel Teixeira the ruins today are “a relic of that glorious past, … that filled an important part in Macau’s days of prosperity.”3_32
Some might be excused in believing that following the loss of the Japan trade in 1639, Macau subsisted in abject poverty. Apparently that was the picture the Macaense settlers would like to present to the Portuguese Crown but it was far from correct. By 1642, Macau had managed to develop and maintained trading links to other areas, principally Manila, Indochina, Timor and Macassar. Despite the grim prospects, people continued to come from Europe and India to settle, attracted not only by the ready supply of marriage candidates in the form of rich heiresses but also as a convenient refuge from the Inquisition then sweeping through Europe. Many rich wealthy new Christians of Jewish background were said to have found a safe haven in Macau.3_33
The place had a cosmopolitan flavour. Boxer quoted from various eyewitness accounts to describe the succession of festivities in 1642 to celebrate the restoration of the Portuguese Crown, which lasted for ten weeks. These parades were supported by the local Chinese and Japanese communities. There was a military parade and a lantern procession in which the participants wore national costumes. The black slaves had their procession in colourful outfits while the “local fidalgos vied with each other in the profusion of jewellery and gala clothing”. Boxer concluded that it was “not easy to reconcile the lavish display of wealth, which these costly clothes and accoutrements represent, with the loud lamentations of grinding poverty which the Senate of Macao addressed with such monotonous regularity to the King.”3_34
Century of belt-tightening and decline (1650s to 1750s)
A few weeks after these celebrations, Malacca fell to the Dutch cutting Macau off from its links with Goa and Europe. Following a souring of relations with Spanish-controlled Manila, Macau by the mid-1650s had been relegated to doing marginal business with low profits “competing with Asian merchants … for shares of Asian markets for Asian goods.”3_35 Dutch aggression heralded a century of decline for the Macaense settlers in Macau. Exacerbated by the wars over dynastic succession in China, Macau’s population declined steadily. During the period, the arrival of the British and other foreign traders and China’s implementation of the single-port trade system were flickering lights that guided Macau and the Macaenses through the periods of depression and despair.
Between the 1650s and 1670s, the dynastic wars between the declining Mings and the conquering Qings threatened Macau’s existence even though the Macaenses discreetly supported both sides of the conflict. The succession struggle made trade, what was left of it, impossible due to the Qing policy of forceful evacuation of coastal settlements. The exemption for Macau to be excluded from the general evacuation was seen as the outcome of successful lobbying by the Beijing Jesuits.
Elsewhere in the Portuguese empire, the Dutch blockade of Goa and their attack on Portuguese ships had taken its toll. In 1641, the Dutch captured Malacca and the Moluccan spice trade. The loss of Malacca virtually made the adjacent waterways impassable for Portuguese shipping unless they were very small vessels, or disguised as local indigenous shipping or English ships under charter to Portuguese interests.
The use of English ships provided some respite for Macau’s trade. As early as 1635, the Portuguese viceroy Linhares had seized an opportunity to sign a truce with the English East India Company and small scale trade resumed between Goa and Macau using English ships. Although the Dutch did not attack English ships, it did continue its attacks and blockades against Portuguese territories.
Peace with the Dutch did not come until 1663 by which time Cochin, Malacca, Ceylon had fallen to the Dutch.3_36 By then, Portuguese India had also lost most of its citadels on the southern coast of Malabar, not only to the Dutch but also to hostile local rulers and the pirates of Malabar. Coupled with the succession wars between remnants of the Ming forces and the new Qing dynasty, the Macaenses in Macau succumbed to a period of lingering poverty and civil anarchy.3_37 As trade declined, the Senate of Macau was unable to raise sufficient income to cover its operating expenses and had to resort to borrowing from other Asian rulers to finance its obligations.3_38
Arrival of the British, 1635
The first British ship, the London, arrived in Macau in 1635 under charter to the Portuguese authorities in Goa. For allowing the British to come and land, Macau incurred the wrath of the Chinese and was fined. When they refused to pay, all Chinese were ordered out and an embargo was imposed at the barrier gate. Two years later, another four English ships under the command of Captain John Weddell arrived for their first trading voyage. Impatient to wait for permission to proceed, they forced their way up the Pearl River meeting strong opposition along the way. They were forced back and although allowed to do some trade in Macau the voyage was not a success.3_39 It would be several decades before the English were allowed into Canton again. Meanwhile, the English traded where they could, especially in Taiwan and in Fujian province until it was abandoned due to attacks by the Qings against the remnants of the Ming forces there.
An important aspect of the visit of Captain Weddell’s fleet was the presence of Peter Mundy. Mundy provided us with a description of Macaense society and wrote glowingly about the “pretty features and complexion” of the Eurasian daughters of the Macaense settlers and their expensive costumes and clothing.3_40 Mundy also depicted the distinct dress of the Macaense women when they ventured outside. His drawing of the dress, believed to be of Malay origin, was seized upon by some as a significant point in the debate over the ethnic origins of the early Macaense community.3_41
During this period, a major development occurred that had serious ramifications for the Macaenses. Following the defeat of the Mings, the Qing Emperor Kangxi (r1661 – 1722) lifted the ban on foreign trade in 1685. He ordered the opening of customs houses in four coastal provinces including Guangdong. This Imperial Edict was seen as an outcome of lobbying by the head of the Beijing Jesuits Father Ferdinand Verbiest who wanted more French priests to come directly to China without having to go through Lisbon or Macau.3_42 This edict caused trade to bypass Macau although it remained a frequent port of call for English and French ships on their way to Canton, Ningpo and Amoy. From 1700 to 1750 there was a steady decline in Macau’s trade except for a brief period of prosperity between 1719 and 1725. The economic hardship caused an initial decline in the Macaense population as many Macaenses sought opportunities elsewhere, creating a shortage of suitably qualified persons for important positions of the various colonial institutions. The shortage of men during the eighteenth century gave Macau a reputation as “a city of women” because out of the total Christian population of 19,500 from 150 Portuguese families, over eighty percent (16,000) were women.3_43
The opening of these ports also had undesirable social ramifications as European traders and adventurers flocked to them. Alarmed at the behaviour of the Europeans at these ports, the Qings feared that social upheaval would result from the disorderly conduct of the foreign sailors.3_44 The Court feared for dynastic security, that those unruly little ports were becoming like Macau.3_45 These concerns, coupled with the earnest petitions from the Canton authorities, prompted a return to the one-port system of trade in 1759 for Canton’s business had declined due to competition, predominantly from Ningbo.
Before the decision was made, two opportunities were offered to Macau to become the sole port for foreign trade but the Senate in Macau, under the control of the Macaenses traders, was unable to gain simultaneous acceptance of the idea by the Bishop of Macau and the Viceroy of Goa.3_46
The one-port system of trade forced foreign traders in Canton to reside in a special enclave for the duration of the trading season. They had to comply with various regulations designed to restrict their interactions with the surrounding populace and to prevent permanent settlement. These regulations were to have profound practical implications for the Macaenses in Macau for the following decades.
Century of rejuvenation (1750s to 1842)
The return to the one-port system of trade with its attendant regulations favoured the Macaenses in Macau as well as restoring Canton as the premier port, even though its charges were higher than others and it had a reputation as “tradition-bound and corruption-ridden”.3_47@47 Canton had, for centuries, been a major centre for China’s foreign trade, especially with the countries of Southeast Asia. Through Canton, the system of tributary trade entered China and proceeded north via the internal carriageway of the Grand Canal. Canton and Macau experienced economic rejuvenation and in the process regained their pre-eminent place as the main interchange for China’s relations with the Western powers. It remained so until the outbreak of the Opium War (1839-1842).
The Canton factory system.
The system by which foreigners were allowed to trade and reside in Canton had evolved over the years. By the 1730s, foreign trading companies were permitted to leave a few men behind in Canton after the trading season had ended. As trade grew, warehouses and living quarters were built within the cramped waterfront area and rented out to different foreign companies by select Chinese merchants known as the hong. Under Emperor Qianlong (r 1736-1795), the system was refined with highly restrictive regulations aimed at close supervision of trade and preventing permanent settlement. In particular, it imposed two requirements: compulsory departure at the end of each trading season and the prohibition of foreign women. These conditions shaped the nature of Macau’s existence for the next century since those who had wives and children with them in China must leave them at Macau. In Canton, Macaense men made their careers by assisting the newcomers with their business dealings and in Macau, their families provided lodging and rental properties for them and their companies.
Many trading companies, private traders and adventurers of various nationalities flocked to the China coast, but it was the British that made the most impact. The British East India Company concentrated mainly on tea for Europe while British private traders, some of whom were former company employees, were particularly entrenched in handling Asian products such as Indian cotton, pepper and opium in competition to the Macaense traders. These two British groups had close ties through their informal banking arrangements, with the companies acting as agents for handling the excess currency (silver) for the private traders. Tensions between the two groups were not uncommon particularly when the private trade grew to account for one third of all foreign shipping to Canton in the mid-1770s. To seek protection from the British East India Company, the defacto British authority on the China coast, certain British private traders ingeniously obtained appointments as consular representatives or became citizens of other European nations. The British trader, Daniel Beale obtained appointment as the Prussian Consul and flew the Prussian flag in Canton in 1787. In reality his business was trading in opium. His partner J. H. Cox was forced to leave Canton by the British hierarchy but later returned as a Swedish citizen. Another trader David Reid took out Danish nationality while others came under the protection of Portugal, Poland and the Republic of Genoa. As official representatives of these various countries, they descended upon Macau at the close of the trading season with due pomp and ceremony adding to its cosmopolitan flavour.3_48
Consequences for Macau and the Macaenses
Macau became rejuvenated as the Macaenses adapted themselves to service the needs of newcomers from other nations. Foreign merchants took to Macau to establish their summer residences when the trading season ended. The trading companies did not establish offices in Macau until 1761 when French and Dutch trading companies came, followed closely by the Danish and Swedish companies. Not until 1773 did the British East India Company establish itself in Macau and rented the first of several premises.3_49 The Americans arrived in 1784.
The Macau Senate, controlled by the Macaenses, was successful in obtaining permission from Goa to allow other nationalities to trade and reside in Macau much to the annoyance of the religious authorities who were concerned with the onset of moral laxity. The Macaenses were allowed to rent flats to foreigners and act as intermediaries between the Europeans and the Chinese however there was little social contact between the Macaenses and the foreigners – demarcated as they were by race, language and religion.3_50 This lack of social interaction was to become a familiar feature of the Macaense communities in Hong Kong and Shanghai in the early days, eventhough language had ceased to be an issue by then.
As the British settlers arrived with their wives, the social life and demographics of Macau changed dramatically. In Macau in 1830, foreign white females outnumbered foreign white males by the order of two to one.3_51 By the 1830s, there were already major independent traders such as Jardine Matheson, American traders like Russell & Co. and Dent & Co who later played a major role in the founding of the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank.3_52 According to Coates, these sets of circumstances opened the way to an era of prosperity for the Portuguese settlement, becoming a cosmopolitan centre – in effect “the outpost of all Europe in China”.3_53
By the time of the Opium War (1839-1842), the foreign enclave in Canton consisted of thirteen rows of buildings, rented from Chinese merchants licensed by the provincial government to deal with foreigners. In these thirteen buildings, they ate, lived and stored their merchandise for trade. Into this small area crowded 307 foreigners: Macaenses, British, Americans, French, Austrians, Dutch, Spaniards, Swiss, Danes, Indians and Parsees.3_54
The foreign community had many facilities there. They published their own weekly newspapers. There were two hotels, a small chapel with seating capacity for one hundred persons, a doctor, medical dispensary and a twice-weekly mail service to Macau. Sometimes a band on board a visiting ship provided the occasional Western music and entertainment to supplement those that were readily available from its Chinese surroundings.3_55
Despite all these facilities, the British in the main found life in Canton too restrictive, frustrating and insecure. Others believed the British were generally exaggerating the difficulties. One American William C. Hunter wrote that despite the regulations, they could do almost anything they wished except to bring foreign women into the enclave.3_56 Another young American prepared himself for a long stay by having amongst his personal inventory: thirty knives and forks, thirty glasses and decanters, shaving kit and mixed colognes, mirror, soap and candles, hat and spyglass, framed pictures, a gun and sword, 542 bottles of wine and fifty pounds of cigars.3_57 It appeared that life in the Canton factories was a matter of adapting oneself to the peculiar environment and surrounding oneself with as much home comfort as possible.
Macaense influences were pervasive in Canton. The brightly coloured head scarves worn by some women on the boats soliciting for laundry and other services, reminded the foreign men very much of Macau.3_58 Macau was their main link to the world beyond, the only reliable link besides their company ships. Pervasive, too, was the daily grappling with pidgin English, a hybrid language consisting of Portuguese, Indian, English and various Chinese dialects, which was shared by nearly all who lived and worked in the foreign enclave.3_59
The dominant foreign traders were the British, especially the British East India Company. At the peak of its power and influence in the 1810s and 1820s, the company went about its business with great zeal and dedication. In the Canton factories, they had a dozen or so young men from England studying the Chinese language under Robert Morrison, who had studied Chinese in Macau and translated the Bible into Chinese there. Through these linguists, the company had hoped to understand Chinese Governmental regulations more adequately and to translate English documents into Chinese. On their premises in Canton they had a library of 4,000 books, many of them in Chinese.3_60 As a result of the debate over free trade, the British government terminated the company’s monopoly in 1834 thereby intensifying the competitiveness among the China traders.
Such was the atmosphere in Canton around the time of the Opium War (1839 – 1842). With minimal foreign supervision and rising tensions between the traders and the Chinese authorities over the importation of opium and other aggravations, Canton became the battleground for the fighting between the Chinese forces and the British who were supported a fleet of ships sent by respective governments.
It was generally accepted that although the Macaenses sympathised with the British, they nevertheless wished to appear neutral. In reality, within the confines of Macau, they actively supported the British. As the relationship between the British and Chinese deteriorated over the suppression of the opium trade, the Macaenses provided a place for some British traders to continue their business and a haven for British personnel and their property. The Macaenses served the British in various capacities, as clerks and copyists, interpreters and translators.3_61 As hostilities escalated, the Chinese stopped the supply of food to British residences in Macau and ordered the withdrawal of their Chinese servants. In such an eventuality, the Macaenses made sure that the British homes and British ships were able to obtain the necessary provisions to survive. Without Chinese servants, the Macaenses helped out domestically as well.3_62 Although the Opium War never really came to Macau, its impact was felt deeply.
The Opium War 1839-1842 (impact on Macau)
Confronted with the end of the one-port system of trade by which the Macaenses derived a reasonably secured existence as landlords, service providers and employees, the aftermath of the Opium War began a period of painful adjustment as foreign companies deserted Macau for other ports. Many Macaense families were faced with the dilemma of what to do; whether to stay or to follow. For some the new multiple-port system represented growth opportunities, but for many it was also a matter of survival as unemployment and lack of prospects loomed for those who remained. Like their forefathers, many Macaenses made themselves mobile and faced the uncertainties for the sake of themselves and their families.
The period between 1839 and 1848 was grim. “Macao, a piece of flotsam” was how one anonymous writer described the place:
No longer ships crowd her harbour – no more is there a brisk trade in her marts; her day as an honest trader is gone and the reason for her existence has long since ceased. … Macao deserted by legitimate commerce, has become the home of gambling, opium, and prostitution. Upon these vices Macao flourishes.3_63
The Opium War marked the turning point in China’s relations with the West as the balance of military might tilted heavily against her and the Western powers increasingly ganged up against her over trading and territorial rights. The Treaty of Nanjing that ended the war in 1842 ushered in this new period of Western dominance in China. This period, the “treaty century”, lasted approximately one hundred years, which many Chinese called a century of foreign imperialism and national humiliation. Its impact on China was so traumatic that the effects were felt until the end of the twentieth century. Specifically Hong Kong was ceded to the British as part of the reparations extracted from China. The treaty also provided for other Chinese ports to be opened to foreign trade. In the process, it triggered a scramble by other Western powers to conclude their own treaties with China, including the United States, France, Germany, Portugal and Japan. These various treaties, called the “unequal treaties” by the Chinese, provided the framework for western interaction with China over the next century.
The twentieth century hegemony of the United States in the Asia-Pacific region could be said to have its origins in the aftermath of the Treaty of Nanjing. Buoyed by the success of Commodore Perry in forcing the opening of Japan, the United States appeared to embark on “an exercise in imperial adventure” in order to prevent a carve up of China by the other nations, principally Great Britain, France and Germany.3_64 More importantly, the United States was responsible for that peculiar feature of treaty-port life: the principle of extra-territoriality. The Sino-U.S. treaty of Wangxia of July 1844 contained a special clause providing for American consular jurisdiction over its citizens in any part of China, a privilege that was later assumed by all foreign nations in China. Among the implications that flowed from the principle of extra-territoriality was the notion that foreigners were not subject to Chinese laws; that they could only be tried in their own courts by their own consuls according to the laws of their own country. They could land and stationed troops at the foreign settlements inside the treaty ports. If they were so inclined, as at Shanghai, they could implement de facto self government not only from the Chinese authorities but also from their own home governments to a certain extent.
Conclusion
The fatal official Portuguese mission to China led by Thome Pires in 1517, their deaths in custody, followed by the subsequent expulsion of the Portuguese ships and the ban against Portuguese traders, were not auspicious beginnings for Sino-Portuguese relations. From such shaky foundations and decades of informal settlement on the China coast, the Portuguese eventually were allowed to settle in Macau. It might seemed mere tokenism or plain expedience that China allowed Portugal to be the last European power to yield its administration of a Chinese territory; however it could also be viewed as an honour accorded to Portugal and specifically to Macau, in recognition of its successful and unobtrusive co-existence over such a long period of time.
The arrival of the Portuguese ushered in a new period in East-West relations. It had been observed that informal contacts had existed between Europe and China since the days of the Roman Empire and its Chinese counterpart, the Han Dynasty (202 BC – AD 220), but those contacts were sporadic and did not bring about the monumental changes that resulted from sustained impact. These changes only occurred with the arrival of the Portuguese who paved the way for other European powers in later centuries. Because of Macau and the Macaenses and the varied influences that came in their wake, China was to change like never before.3_65
There were many clichés and stereotype images of Macau but none more enduring than the phrase “East meets West”. Jack Braga was fond of that phrase during his journalistic days. Amongst his papers at the National Library of Australia, he scribbled what appeared to be the beginning of an article:
At Macao, East has met West for four hundred years, in spite of what Kipling says, and has China not had the better of the bargain? ‘In Macao, one finds Portugal drugged, asleep in China’s arms’, wrote some woman not long ago. An unkind cut that, but oh! How true!3_66
At different stages during the first three centuries, the Macaense community displayed entrepreneurial skills as risk takers and risk managers. Initially they invested heavily in voyages from China to Japan and elsewhere. Without any formal agreement, they built grand edifices and infrastructure knowing they were always at the mercy and whim of the local Chinese authorities. Utilising their cultural skills, they dealt with the Chinese with tact and sensitivity such that during the first two centuries, the Chinese would deal with other Westerners only with the Macaenses as intermediaries. They formed alliances with the local provincial authorities to procure Chinese goods and sold those goods in Japan in partnership with the Jesuits and with the blessings of the feudal lords. The Macaenses were astute to interpret the winds of change. At the dawn of each new era, whether it was the demise of the Portuguese empire, the fall of the Ming dynasty or the emergence of the English as the major PoWer, in order to survive, the Macaense community had to adapt themselves to new sets of circumstances even if it meant learning new skills or relocating to new places. These characteristics became even more important in the treaty century, the focus for our next two chapters.