Southeast Asia in the age of Commer

Southeast Asia in the age of Commerce 1450-1680, Vol.2Reid, Anthony, Southeast Asia in the age of Commerce 1450-1680, Volume Two, Expansion and Crisis. Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1993.Anthony Reid’s two-volume series of ‘Southeast Asia in the Age of commerce’ is a significant contribution to the field of Southeast Asian studies, and Indian Ocean studies in a larger extend. If the volume I deals with the “deep-seated structures of history” by investigating the physical, material, cultural, and social structure of the whole region, the second volume provides numerous economic, political, as well as military events that create the “surface excitement”[1] in a period as he defines as ‘Age of commerce’. In Reid’s book, Southeast Asian region, as a coherent entity, was put into a global context, in which the growth of demands in major market of Europe, South Asia and Northeast Asia became the external factors for the trade boom in Southeast Asia, consequently led to major changes in all aspects of life in the region.According to A.Reid, commerce has been always play a considerable part to Southeast Asia due to its geographical position connecting China – one of the largest international markets, with India, Middle East and Europe. Southeast Asia – the ‘land below the wind’ also produces a number of high-demand commodities supplying for international market, i.e spices, pepper, clove, nutmeg, sandalwood, camphor, and lacquer. [2] The period from fifteenth to seventeenth centuries, however, witnessed the unprecedented expansion of maritime trade in the region, or a ‘peculiarly dominated by commerce’ in Southeast Asia. The rising of trade in this period, the author suggests, is attributed to two major factors: Firstly, Southeast Asia – like numbers of other regions, was affected profoundly from the boom of trade during the ‘long sixteenth century’, in which high-valued items originated from Southeast Asia played a crucial part; [3] and secondly, Southeast Asia merchants, rulers, cities and states took advantages effectively and played a central part in the trade that flowed from and through this region. A number of regional trading ports, such as Pegu, Ayuthay, Hoi An, Melaka, etc… reached their apogee in this period, and served as prominent entrepôts in East-West maritime commercial network. [4]In A.Reid’s view, the years around 1400 could be seen as the moment of trade take-off in Southeast Asia, and Zheng He’s maritime expedition in early fifteenth century marked the beginning of Southeast Asia’s ‘age of commerce’[5]. After these trading missions, Chinese traders largely and permanently appeared in almost of Southeast Asian trading ports, and contributed significantly to the prosperity of these commerce hubs[6]. The profits gain from the tribute voyages to Chinese court did encourage regional kingdoms to get involve profoundly in this tributary system. [7] Besides China – the traditional market of the region, early fifteenth century also observed the demand for Southeast Asian produce of new market – European, Ryukyu and Japan. The age of commerce in Southeast Asia, as Reid observes, reaches its peak in the period from 1600 to 1630. The development of maritime trade during this period led to profound and momentous changes in all parts of Southeast Asian region. There was a “Religious revolution” in the region during this period, embodies in the Islamic conversion in almost of Malayu world, the spread of Christianity in Filippin, Eastern Indonesia and Vietnam; the changing of Theravada Buddhism towards ‘rational’, universalist and moralist. [8] As a main consequence of trade boom, a large number of new cities were established and developed; the region experienced a period of high urbanization, even higher than the colonial period. [9] Numbers of more centralized states were formed during the ‘Age of commerce’, such as Laos, Aceh, Banten, Makassar. The age of commerce in Southeast Asia, however, came to an end coincidentally with the European’s Seventeenth century crisis.In A.Reid’s book, the European sources, including Dutch and Portuguese travel memoirs, play a dominant role in reconstructing the history of the region. However, though these resources are certainly important, researchers also need to use them critically. Westerners, when writing about a new land, they definitely wrote from their conventional viewpoint – European culture. Besides, European adventurers used to visit one or several specific locations, and then they saw as universal feature of the entire region, which normally lead to misunderstanding. One important thing, that European astronauts tend to exaggerate what they encountered in reality with the aim of stimulating the curiosity of readers in Europe, and also to get the further supports from the Royal Court for their next adventures. Regarding to this issue, Professor Barbara Andaya questions the reliability of sources are used in Reid’s book. She wonders, “is Reid, in effe