XI. "Mountain of Gold and Sea of Pearls, the Southern Treasury of the Emperor"

In late Ming and early Qing dynasty, Qu Dajun, a Cantonese, once exclaimed,"Mountain of gold and the sea of pearls in Guangdong, the southern treasury of the Emperor, were admired by everyone. Guangdong has nearly every kind of food and valuables that the world has, while the rest of the world may not own so many varieties as those in Guangdong."

"Mountain of gold and sea of pearls, the southern treasury of the Emperor"is often quoted by contemporary scholars and is used as evidence of the prosperity and wealth of Guangzhou in the Qing dynasty. In fact, as early as the Southern Song dynasty,this saying already existed.In Records of Overseas Travels,Ye Tinggui wrote,"According to Records of Maritime Trade,the profit of maritime trade is too much to be counted. They are really mountains of gold and seas of pearls, the southern treasury of the Emperor."

In fact, this description did not exaggerate the profits made from Guangzhou overseas trade and the contributions to the nation's finance in the Ming and Qing dynasties. Since the middle of the Ming dynasty, with the transformation of overseas trade, the establishment of Macau as a commercial port and the establishment of the "Model of Guangzhong", China's overseas trade has continued to increase in Guangzhou.

In 1682, the 23rd year of Kangxi, the reclamation of Taiwan was accomplished, and the Emperor declared the goal of increasing overseas trade in the following year—to that end, customs controls were developed in Guangdong, Fujian, Zhejiang and Jiangsu as the prime institutions of overseas trade. In 1757, the 22nd year of Qianlong, the Qing court designated Guangzhou as the only port permitted to trade with the West. The number of foreign ships travelling to and from Guangzhou consequently soared and gross import and export tariffs soared concomitantly.

From the 22nd to the 39th year of Qianlong, an average of 21.6 European ships came to Guangzhou every year. In the 40th year of Qianlong (1775), after the British ships came to China, the number of foreign vessels entering Guangzhou increased gradually, with an annual average of 57.5 from the 50th to 60th year of Qianlong (1785-1795). In 1764, the 29th year of Qianlong, the gross import and export value of Guangzhou summed up to 5, 545, 847 taels of silver. In 1792, the number rose to 12, 560, 177 taels. From 1830 to 1833, the 10th to 13th year of Daoguang, this number went up to 22, 636, 249 taels. The gross value of foreign trade increased immensely.

In Jiaqing's reign, the ships coming to Guangzhou increased further. From 1796 to 1820, the number of Western ships arriving in Guangzhou averaged 73.2 a year. From 1821 to 1830, the number grew remarkably. During June 1836 (the 16th year of Daoguang) and May 1837 (the 17th year), the number of foreign ships coming through Guangzhou reached 213.

The establishment of the Maritime Trade Supervisorate and the customs offices with their vertical management and monopoly of overseas trade brought in enormous tariff revenues and became the prime fiscal source of the Ming and Qing governments—Guangzhou was indeed "southern treasury of the Emperor".