The contributors to this volume provide new analyses of historical trade networks surrounding China and Southeast Asia through the investigation of a single commodity. Inspired by the scholarship of Arjun Appadurai and Igor Kopytoff and in response to previous scholarship in the areas of both Chinese commerce and Chinese involvement in Southeast Asia, the editors of Chinese Circulations: Capital, Commodities, and Networks in Southeast Asia have endeavored to highlight commodities themselves, that is, to focus on their biographies and social histories. While much previous scholarship on commodities has tended to privilege human agents and institutions (e.g., coolies, merchants, migrants, monarch(ie)s, monopolies, etc.), this volume by contrast focuses on the physical objects that constituted—and permitted, in the first place, the existence of—such trade networks and diplomatic relationships. Chinese Circulations thus offers a new perspective on the study of the Chinese (and trade) in Southeast Asia by emphasizing the “total trajectory” (p. 2) of each commodity. Every facet of a commodity is examined: its production; the resources necessary for its production; its distribution, circulation, and consumption; and its value and reception. Moreover, the editors aimed to trace commodities over the longue durée.
This collection is comprised of twenty essays. Each essay highlights one particular commodity, region, and time period. The volume is a product of two workshops held in 2005 and 2007 at the Center for Asian-Pacific Area Studies at the Academia Sinica, Taiwan.
A variety of commodities are investigated. Five essays focus on consumable commodities: bird's nests (Bien Chiang), fish (Nola Cooke), opium (Carl Trocki), pepper (Takeshi Hamashita), and rice (Wu Xiao An). Another five focus on metals and minerals: coins (Li Tana), copper (C. Patterson Giersch), jade (Wen-Chin Chang), gems (Sun Laichen), and tin (Anthony Reid). Three essays look at items of extravagance, including those made valuable due to their scarcity: luxury goods (Masuda Erika), timber (Kevin Woods), and tortoiseshell (Heather Sutherland). Textiles are covered in one essay (Kwee Hui Kian), and another two essays trace Chinese texts, namely, printed books (Lucille Chia) and Bibles (Jean DeBernardi). Lastly, four essays explore a class or type of commodity: capital (Man-houng Lin), junks (Leonard Blussé), labor (Adam McKeown), and marine goods (Eric Tagliacozzo).
The book is fairly balanced geographically, albeit Indonesia predominates. Pan-Southeast Asia and/or (South) China as a whole is covered in six essays. Another dozen essays are split evenly between mainland Southeast Asia (namely Burma, Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam) and the archipelagoes (Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines). Another two essays have littoral coverage: Southeast Asia's coastal region and the South China Sea. Temporally, the essays include the fourteenth century to the present, but place heaviest emphasis on the period of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Chinese Circulations is divided into five sections, arranged chronologically, except for the first section, entitled “Theoretical/Longue Durée.” It is intended to cover the majority of time periods and regions presented in this volume. Each of the four essays of section one features a theoretical shift from previous scholarship. Reid highlights the importance of Chinese metalwork technology in Southeast Asia since antiquity. Giersch challenges the usefulness of “macroregions” in understanding societal transformations by taking into consideration interregional “human agency” in shaping patterns of trade (pp. 37–39). McKeown expounds upon the conception of commodity by addressing labor, both as slavery and service. Finally, Trocki illustrates the significance of the opium trade and how its consumption, monopolization, and capital led to the financing of all other prime commodities (many mentioned in this volume), and indirectly helped to establish the economy of Southeast Asia.
While the editors’ tall order to provide a “total trajectory” approach over the longue durée is a welcome idea, many essays did not conduct this type of investigation, focusing instead on trade history rather than on individual commodities. One reason could be due to the issue of definition. Labeling Chinese capital or junk cargoes as commodity seems like a bit of a stretch. What is a commodity? Are all commodities treated equal?
Several exceptional essays do provide a thorough longue durée analysis however: Chiang on bird's nests (who, along with McKeown, is the only contributor to cite Appadurai) and Sutherland and Woods on tortoiseshell and timber. The latter two authors use a commodity chain analysis, the “sequence of transactions moving goods from producers to consumers” (p. 173). Such analyses also highlight inequalities, as Woods has demonstrated of the political ecology surrounding conflict timber.
Despite the fact that not all essays provide a comprehensive analysis of a single commodity, more importantly, each essay underscores the significance of the circulation of commodities. By tracing circulation patterns, each essay in its own way contributes to a broader and clearer understanding of the complexities and pluralities of Chinese trade interactions. An investigation of circulation, as defined by Giersch, yields to a new understanding of “forces that change a society” (p. 39).
Overall, Chinese Circulations: Capital, Commodities, and Networks in Southeast Asia achieves its stated goal of examining commodities surrounding China and Southeast Asia over the longue durée. It includes a variety of images, maps, and intricate data tables (on Burmese gems, coins, junk cargoes, and Ryukyu ships), and original documents were consulted, including the Dai Nam Thuc Luc Tien Bien (Nyuyen Chronicle), the Lidai Baoan (Ryukyuan manuscripts), and Thai temple wall engravings. This volume is recommended to scholars and students interested in trade, interregional networks, and material culture of the region.
