The Opening of Ports and the Transformation of the Trading Order in Vietnam in the Late 19th Century

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 22K20054
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: 0103:History, archaeology, museology, and related fields
• Research Institution: Tohoku Gakuin University
• Principal Investigator: TAGA Yoshihiro 東北学院大学, 文学部, 講師 (20963391)
• Project Period (FY): 2022-08-31 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 阮朝 / 開港 / 交易秩序 / アジア間交易

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study analyzes the changes that the opening of the ports in the 1870s brought about in the Vietnamese trading order based on unpublished documents held in the archives of both Vietnam and France. The results reveal that the dominance of the Chinese in foreign trade remained strong after the opening of the ports and that France strongly interfered with conventional trade at non-opened ports to concentrate foreign trade at the open ports. In addition, we were also able to shed light on the revenue and expenditure of the maritime customs and the existence of Vietnamese Christians involved in the operation of the customs offices. Furthermore, the fact that Japanese copper was imported to Haiphong shows that the port's opening was also linked to the revitalization of the inter-Asian trade.

Free Research Field

東南アジア史

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究は、従来ほとんど研究されてこなかった近代ベトナムにおける開港の問題を、未公刊史料から実証的に検討した点に大きな学術的意義がある。漢文とフランス語の文書を対照させるマルチアーカイブ・マルチリンガルな分析手法は、世界的に画期的なものと言えよう。また華人の交易活動、海関の設置、アジア間貿易の活性化といった視点から、ベトナムの開港を比較史のより広い文脈に位置付けることができた。これにより、本研究は狭義のベトナム史のみならず、アジア経済史、グローバル・ヒストリーの面でも大きな社会的意義を持つものとなった。