Maritime politics changed over time, and so did local perceptions and activities. People involved in maritime commerce had to react to changes in government decrees or instructions. This volume introduces political decisions and their background, agents involved into maritime trade – from private merchants over pirates to government institutions, including military – and practical questions of seafaring (diets, navigation maps, etc.) and diplomacy, but also looks into archaeological evidence and local perceptions of the maritime world, covering the period from ca. 900 to 1800. Contributors are: Angela Schottenhammer, Kimura Jun, Mark Staniforth, Li Man, John Chaffee, Ma Guang, Elke Papelitzky, Mathieu Torck, Xu Zhexin, Cheng Weichung, Leonard Blussé, Ubaldo Iaccarino, Cai Xiangyu (Ellen), Wim De Winter, and Patrizia Carioti.

Table of Contents:
List of Figures and Tables Introduction: Seafaring, Trade, and Knowledge Transfer: Maritime Politics and Commerce in Early Middle Period to Early Modern China  Angela Schottenhammer 1 Maritime Archaeological Evidence for Trade in the Early and Medieval South China Sea and Political Events in Vietnam  Kimura Jun 木村淳 and Mark Staniforth 2 Southern Han’s “Bad Money” in the Java Sea: Possible Reasons for the Southward Flow of Money in the Early Tenth Century  Li Man 李漫 3 Yuan Maritime Activities and the Role of Knowledge  John Chaffee 4 The Wokou 倭寇 Problem in Yuan China, 1300s–1360s  Ma Guang 馬光 5 Seafaring Knowledge of Ming Literati: the Scholarly Dissemination of Sailing Route Descriptions  Elke Papelitzky 6 Diet, Health and Sanitation in the Military and Naval World of Sixteenth-century China: an Analysis of Qi Jiguang’s Military Manuals  Mathieu Torck 7 The Environment, Perceptions, and Publication of Medical Texts in Fujian during the Ming Period (1368 to 1644)  Xu Zhexin 徐喆昕 8 VOC Mariners’ Nautical Investigations and Hydrographical Charting of the Chinese Coast between 1647 and 1668  Cheng Weichung 鄭維中 9 The Japanese Missing Link and the Establishment of Dutch-Vietnamese Relations  Leonard Blussé 10 The Sino-Japanese Trade in the Philippines between the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries  Ubaldo Iaccarino 11 Negotiations over the Translation of the Dutch Letter of Credence to the Qianlong Emperor in 1794  Ellen Xiangyu Cai 蔡香玉 12 Comparing the Ostend Company’s Worlds  the Formation of the GIC’s Trade Communities through Intercultural Interactions in Eighteenth-Century China and Bengal  Wim De Winter 13 The Founding of the Nagasaki Tōjin Yashiki 長崎唐人屋敷 in 1689 in Light of Early Tokugawa Foreign Policy  Patrizia Carioti Index