Foreign Trade

Geographical Connections: Zhangzhou Prefecture, Longxi, Haicheng (Yuegang), Zhangpu, Jiulong River Basin, Xiangcheng District, Xiamen Bay. 35%. That’s the percentage of Taiwan’s Han population with ancestral roots in Zhangzhou. One out of every three Taiwanese people traces their family tree back to this small city in southern Fujian. I found this number while flipping through the Selections from Zhangzhou Chronicles in the Taiwan Records. Honestly, at first I wasn’t surprised — Hokkien people crossing the strait to Taiwan is common knowledge, right? ...

Did you know a Chinese county was doing global business 450 years ago? I opened the Zhangzhou Prefecture Chronicle of 1573 AD (1st year of Wanli), and found something that stopped me. This 32-volume local gazetteer reads like a WTO trade report. It meticulously records production capacity and export data for raw silk, ceramics, and sugar. It even breaks down the tax revenue. And all of it centers on one place: Zhangzhou. ...