Nguyen Cochinchina - Southern Vietnam in the seventeeth and eighteenth centuries

Context

“In the 17th century, Vietnam was divided between the Trinh lords to the north and the Nguyen lords to the south. The northern section was called Tonkin by Europeans, and the southern part called Cochinchina by most Europeans and Quinam by the Dutch . Cochinchina means southern region and the name is used to describe southern regions of Vietnam” (Wikipedia). The capital for Cochinchina was at Saigon. Southern Vietnam was divided into three parts during the French colonial period, Cochinchina, Annam and Tonkin. During the civil war the Chinese gave the Lê Dynasty and the Mac Dynasty rights to parts of land. The Lê rule ruled the southern part of Vietnam and the Mac Dynasty ruled the Northern part of Vietnam. In 1592 Trinh Tung and the Trinh army (Trinh lords) took over the Mac Dynasty in the North and in 1667 the Mac Dynasty was completely conquered by Trinh Tac. In the next few years the Nguyen fought in the civil war with the Trinh lords in the north. Near the end of the war Nguyen started focusing on taking over the south, building up their military force to do so. As Nguyen grew stronger with the help of their army in the south, they experienced a lot of changes with their government as the rule increased in the taxation system. Nguyen later had some success trading with foreign merchants, having Japan to be one of their important traders. They had some struggles with coinage and later decided to make their own. Their struggle with coinage caused them to go into inflation. Their misruling also caused them to go into poverty and famine. All of this would eventually bring the Tay son rebellion (Wikipedia).

Text

In Nguyen Cochinchina the author focuses on the rise of the Nguyen kingdom. Li Tana talks about the expansion of the south and the economic, social, and cultural features of Dang Trong. Vietnam in the seventeenth and eighteenth century was basically about resisting Northern China and expanding Southern China. The North was well established and had a strong state in which most of the land was controlled by the Trinh. The Trinh controlled more land than the Nguyen; about three to four times more than Nguyen. The Trinh controlled the Vietnamese and the Nguyen kingdom controlled the lands of Champa. The Nguyen had experienced seven campaigns by the Trinh and survived each of them. Not only did they survive these campaigns, but they also pushed their borders further south. Their political powers started increasing and they successfully challenged the North. The expansion of the south brought differences to China being two different kinds of Vietnamese making them distinct and equal. Vietnam was securing it’s independence from China. These changes made great differences in the Vietnam culture.
One of the reasons for the expansion towards the south from the Thanh Nghe region was famine and war. Large numbers of people had fled to the south. The migration would occur often and not all at once. The Vietnamese wanted peace and security that the Nguyen rule and Dang Trong offered and this encouraged them to migrate. But the newcomers to the south were often the minority of the land since there were a lot of non-Vietnamese people in Dang Trong. Dang Trong was populated with Chams, and other indigenous people. These people were the main sources of slavery in Dong Nai, and they also supported Tay Son. The Nguyen rule had affected the Vietnamese in ways such as armed forces used for the war with the Trinh and evolution of the fiscal system.
The main Nguyen power and principle was the army. During their many battles, their survival was due to their artillery military unit. Their army was the reason for the continued success in the war against the Lê/Trinh north. As time pressed on there were other changes in the Nguyen government, their kingdom became a civil type of government, people began seeing changes in the taxation system. The main tax was the head tax. This tax was worse in the seventeenth century than it was in the eighteenth century. The results in the taxation didn’t help the Nguyen government. In 1770 the government tried to raise taxes targeting the protection to their own income and interests and taking as much as they could from the people. The raising of taxes could have been the reason of the Tay Son rebellion that later brought down the Nguyen kingdom.
Nguyen was also involved in trading with foreign merchants. Their trading allowed people like the Japanese and the Red Seal merchants to buy Southeast Asian goods easily. The culture was another reason that trading was good. They had a lot of similarities with the people that made them feel comfortable to be around. Nguyen became Japan’s most important trading partner. The red seal trading with Japan helped the Nguyen economy, giving them access to buy expensive arms to fight against the North. “A separate Vietnamese state rested directly on its successful commercial and economic development in these crucial decades.” Trade helped develop the state and was one of the key factors that kept it running.
In the past Nguyen had no desire to create their own currency, but that changed in the eighteenth century when the Nguyen ruler Nguyen Phuc Tru tried the first coinage to meet the country’s needs for currency. Making coins became a struggle when the price of copper went up in China and Japan limited copper exports which created an urgent demand in Cochinchina for coins. Nguyen Phuc Khoat decided to make zinc coins instead to meet the demand for coins in Cochinchina. The quantity was 70 percent less than what the Dutch had been bringing in. In the eighteenth century all of the casting for coins had let them to inflation due to the weight and amount of coins. This led Nguyen to the decision of making their own coinage. Due to Nguyen’s vulnerability, their money supply struggled, which eventually ruined Dang Trong’s trade with foreign merchants.

Subtext

Edited by Nola Cooke and Li Tana. Water Frontier. 1st ed.
Rowman & Littlefield Publisher, Inc.

In this book the author partly talks about the junk trade between South China and Nguyen Vietnam in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. The author mentions that the Chinese had a very active role in the junk trade with China and the ports of Southeast Asia. China also did a great deal of trading with Cochinchina. There were seven ports that were involved in the junk trading with China and Cochinchina. Those ports were Suzhou, Ningbo, Xiamen, Zhanglin, Guangzhou, Hainan Island and Macao. The junk trade was very important to the trading system. It “acted as an external component of this integrated trade system”. This trading system increased the commercial networks, commercial exchanges and the economic development for China and Cochinchina.

Bruce M. Lockhart, review, Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, Vol. 44, No. 4 (2001), pp. 610-612

This author reviews Li Tana’s book Nguyen Cochinchina. He basically summarizes what the Li writes about. This was the beginning of how Cochinchina took over the south; the issues Nguyen had with their government and the trading system with foreign merchants. He expresses that Li Tana had done a great job with describing the vital importance of trade and her discussion on the Tay son rebellion.