PARSIS IN THE CHINA TRADE中國貿易中的巴斯人
This article reexamines the Parsis’ role in the China trade within the broader context of Sino-Indian relations, arguing that Parsis from Bombay and the west coast of India occupied a more consequential position in modern exchanges with China than is typically acknowledged. It situates Parsi commerc...
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| Published in: | Review of Culture |
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| Format: | Articles |
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Instituto Cultural de Macau
April 2004
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| Online Access: | https://www.icm.gov.mo/rc/viewer/pdfViewerParts/40010/3854 |
| Summary: | This article reexamines the Parsis’ role in the China trade within the broader context of Sino-Indian relations, arguing that Parsis from Bombay and the west coast of India occupied a more consequential position in modern exchanges with China than is typically acknowledged. It situates Parsi commercial activity within the long-standing India–China trading networks that linked the Gujarat-based Parsi diaspora to the Pearl River Delta and to Hong Kong, thereby moving beyond a narrow focus on opium. Employing a historical-analytic approach that synthesizes primary records, trading networks, and existing scholarship, the study traces the evolution of Parsis’ engagement from early maritime commerce through the Ming-era restrictions to the late-seventeenth-century revival of direct Sino-Indian trade, highlighting the centrality of Gujarat as the Parsis’ settlement region.
Key findings indicate that Parsis’ economic interactions with China encompassed a wide range of commodities—gold, tea, porcelain, silver, pepper, and other goods—alongside their well-documented involvement in opium, thereby complicating simple narratives of colonial or pharmacopoeial commerce. Their relations with British and Chinese actors were multifaceted, featuring collaboration as well as competition, friendship as well as antagonism. The article also demonstrates the Parsis’ tangible influence on regional urban development and institutions in places like Hong Kong (evidenced by figures such as H. N. Mody and the University of Hong Kong).
Ultimately, the study contributes to Macao’s cultural minorities by illustrating how minority trading communities shaped the China trade’s networks, practices, and legacies beyond reductive historiographies. |
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| ISSN: | 1682-1106 |