The Impact of the Opening of the Port of Saigon on Cochinchina's Economy

Abstract

Looking into the structure of export in Cochinchina in the 1860's just after the years of the opening of the port of Saigon, we find two interesting points that can't be explained in the framework of any economic history theory.1. The sum of rice export was about 60-80% of total.2. The main orientation of rice export was not toward Western countries, but semi-colonized country China, and from the 70s on, three colonized Southeast Asian countries of the Netherlands India, the Straits Settlements, and the Philippines became the secondary important markets of the rice of Cochinchina.We may say monoculture was neither the result of the opening of the port, nor was immediately created by French colonization. These facts suggest us that the proto-type of rice monoculture had already existed before the opening of the port, and that the economic relations of Intra-asian countries were very important in the pre-modern world.From the end of the Ming dynasty (the first half of 16th century), commercial agriculture began to develop in China, especially in the southern provinces like Canton, Fukien. Farmers abandoned rice culture to specialise in producing tea and silkworms. They, of necessity, depended on rice supply from not only other internal regions but also foreign countries. Although China did not wholly rely on foreign rice, the drain of rice from Vietnam impacted seriously on the Vietnamese food situation. So emperors of the Nguyen dynasty restricted or prohibited the export of rice from ‘Namky’ (the area later called Cochinchina). But the control was not so completely exercised that not a little rice was sold to Chinese merchants. Thus, rice became really produced as an export commodity by village authorities who had accumulated a lot of land.In 1860, on the free-trade principle, Admiral Page proclaimed merchantships of any nationality could have free access to the port of Salgon. As a result, even rice export could become legally carried out and pre-modern protectionism was replaced by a free-market mechanism. Under the French rule, internal commerce also came to be open to men of all nationalities. Chinese merchants could engage in all kinds of business without restriction. They got immediately informations on markets of all over the world by utilizing the newly-built network of telegraph, and chartered European and American steamers. The Bank of Indochina, established in 1875 as a central bank of Cochinchina, offered them the speedy and secure method of foreign exchange. In this way, Chinese merchants virtually monopolized the commerce of Cochinchina, and rural economy of Cochinchina was integrated into the world economy by them.As trade of Cochinchina developed, the two points as stated above grew clearer. Cochinchina's economy came to present a typical rice monoculture, and the commerce with China and three South Asian countries increased. The increasing rice supply from Cochinchina contributed to the specialization of industry and the development of export of silk and tea toward Western countries in China. In the economic relation, Cochinchina became as if a part of China's provinces. In the same way, three South Asian countries, that introduced many Chinese labours, could also turn out to specialize in producing primary products such as sugar, rubber, and tin. These rice-imported countries, however, did not completely abandon rice culture, so the demand of rice from them depended on each domestic crop. For this reason, it was necessary for Chinese merchants to keep world-wide rice markets in case of good crop in those Asian countries.