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Flourishing Overseas Trade at Quanzhou under the Yuan

Type Event Region Asia Time 1303–1305

Around 1303, Quanzhou (Zayton), one of the Yuan dynasty's most important foreign trade ports, reached its heyday under the Maritime Trade Office and …

Timeline

  1. 1303Quanzhou Maritime Trade Office · FujianThe Quanzhou Maritime Trade Office was responsible for inspecting foreign merchant vessels, collecting customs duties, and supervising trade. The Yuan continued and refined the Song dynasty's maritime trade system, providing foreign merchants with relatively convenient customs clearance and trading conditions, attracting merchant ships from many countries.
  2. 1303–1305Quanzhou Port (Zayton) · FujianMerchant ships from Persia, Arabia, India, Champa, Java, and elsewhere frequently docked at Quanzhou, importing spices, gems, and medicines, and exporting porcelain, silk, tea, and other goods. Trading houses lined the port and foreign communities settled there, presenting a highly internationalized trading scene.
  3. 1304–1305Sea route from Quanzhou to the Indian Ocean · Indian OceanQuanzhou merchant ships and foreign merchant fleets traveled via the South China Sea and the Strait of Malacca to India, the Persian Gulf, and even the East African coast, making the Yuan an important pole in the global maritime trade system of the late Middle Ages. Western travelers such as Marco Polo also recorded the prosperity of Zayton.

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