China has supervised to manage the entry and exit of people and cargoes in a way of setting up officials in charge of the border and major transportation points of land and water by following the political and military needs. For the sake of social stability and effective governance of minorities, policies and laws were set up and managed in a case of strict punishment imposed on the violation. On the southeast coast, the maritime customs were set up to control then entry and exit on a long coastline. Since then, as the public trade, being represented by the tribute trade was conducted and out of the scope of the tribute trade or transported prohibited items secretly was called the smuggling trade. After the Tang Dynasty, the establishment of 市舶司 emphasized the financial aspects such as tax revenue and market stability. Foreign trade through officials has been significant as a great portion of the state’s finances in the Song Dynasty. As such, governments in history restricted the scope of the public trade and prohibited the smuggle trade while it prevailed widely because of actual needs and guaranteed many benefits despite high risks. In particular, as the smuggling trade in the coastal areas was hard to control due to relating to the livelihoods of coastal residents unlike the border area in the land, the authorities adjusted its policies frequently in a way of toleration and regulation. While the smuggling trade has positive aspects such as increasing tax revenues, revitalizing the domestic market and maintaining the livelihood of the people, it has proposed the problems of social instability such as bureaucratic corruption and domination of merchants following many benefits.
In the Ming Dynasty, the smuggling trade has changed greatly in its characters and scale from the previous era. The founder of the Ming Dynasty proclaimed a maritime policy for a political purpose and conducted maritime defense actively to establish a new order in the coastal waters. Later, the public trade through the tributes was only permitted seemingly in the Southeast coast. As the commodity economy in the inland market such as Gangnam was developed a breakthrough was required, but when the livelihood of the coastal residents was threatened by the ban on maritime policy, they rushed into the smuggling trade by the violation of the law and accumulated enormous commercial energy. Thus, the large-scale of the smuggling trade developed before and after the middle of the Ming Dynasty was an expression of accumulated social resources, not temporary or accidental, and reflected the process of expanding of the Chinese market from inside to outside. The coastal residents under the protection of 土豪 worked in various names such as pirates, sea marauders, 販海之徒 and private merchants, especially when the white silver the Portuguese brought triggered to make the smuggle trade to a peak. After numerous discussions through trials and errors, the opening of the small port of 月港 in Quanzhou(泉州) finally took a new turn. The smuggling trade in this era was an important channel to connect the Chinese economy to the world, and the government, the people and the pirates who participated in the process were seeking confrontation and cooperation in sharp positions. In modern times, the smuggling trade has expanded into a form of illegal economic actions across borders, carrying gold, silver, money and other prohibited items without law abidance.
This examines the process in developing foreign trade in history and the aspects of the smuggling trade in the era through different positions of those who participated in the smuggling trade in the southeast coast in the Ming Dynasty.