Ming Fujian Junks and Commodity Trade Routes

Timeline

1. c. 1100–1405Shipyards of Quanzhou and Fuzhou · FujianBuilding on shipbuilding skills accumulated by Fujian craftsmen during the Song and Yuan, the early Ming saw the structural standardization of large ocean-going wooden sailing ships (Fuchuan): V-shaped keels, multiple watertight compartments, lug sails, and broad cargo holds. Such hulls were highly wind-resistant and carried large cargoes, able to sail safely between East and Southeast Asian ports on the monsoons.
2. 1405–1433Longjiang Shipyard, Nanjing · JiangsuDuring the Yongle and Xuande reigns, the eunuch Zheng He led an unprecedentedly large treasure fleet on seven western voyages; the largest treasure ships measured about 125 meters in length. The fleet traveled through Southeast Asia, Sri Lanka, India, and the Persian Gulf as far as East Africa, bringing Ming trade porcelain, silk, and copper coins into the Indian Ocean trade sphere while returning with spices, treasures, and tribute goods, reaching the peak of Ming official long-distance maritime trade.
3. 1530–1600Yuegang (Haicheng, Zhangzhou) · FujianAfter the wakō pirate scourge of the Jiajing reign, in the first year of Longqing (1567) the Ming court opened Yuegang in Zhangzhou as the sole legal export port, legalizing private merchant trade. Fujian merchants sailed Fuchuan in large numbers to Manila to exchange for Spanish American silver and to Japan to transport raw silk, forming a multilateral trade network linking both ends of the Pacific.
4. 1620–1644Taiwan Strait and the Penghu Islands · Taiwan StraitFrom the 1621 to the 1630s, Zheng Zhilong (Iquan) rose to power in the Taiwan Strait, defeating the Dutch East India Company and other pirate forces and controlling the trade routes from Japan and the Ryukyus through Taiwan to Southeast Asia, collecting protection fees from passing merchant ships each year and monopolizing passage rights. The Fujian merchant fleet, centered on the Fuchuan, carried silk and porcelain bound for Manila as well as raw silk and copper ingots for Japan, forming the most important link in Pacific trade.