Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
anyone on the scene in Hirado and could do nothing against Li's estate. The VOC
was there, however, and saw matters with a clearer eye. The Dutch factor repor-
ted to his superiors that Li left nothing to cover his enormous debts, and that the
English would not recover a penny of a debt he estimated as high as 70,000 taels.
That was probably a tenfold exaggeration, designed to feed the Dutch penchant for
makingtheEnglishlookasbadaspossible.Thefactwasthattheventurehadfailed
financially. No more funds would be poured down that hole.
**
This is not, however, the end of the China Captain's story. Li did leave a legacy,
not in the form of silver ingots but in the idea that there was profit to be made by
controlling the trade around the South China Sea. So long as the Ming dynasty did
notassertanysortofdominionbeyonditsimmediatecoastalwaters,andsolongas
European power was not in a position to monopolise the trade, the ocean was wide
open for whoever had the best ships, goods, weapons and knowledge of where and
how to trade. The China Captain was not able to pull these strands of trade into
a single system, but from among the ranks of the young men who flocked to Li's
ships for work and adventure there arose one who did.
Zheng Zhilong was a handsome young Catholic convert who came over to Na-
gasaki from Macao on a ship owned by his uncle. Zheng caught the eye of the
ageing Li Dan so powerfully that Zheng's earliest biographer suggests the youth
becameLi'sloverbeforebecominghistrustedprotégé.Giventhewidespreadprac-
tice of homosexual relations among the Fujian elite, it is a plausible explanation
for why Li singled Zheng out from among the many young men working for
him. Whatever the dimensions of their relationship, Zheng won Li's trust, worked
closely with him in his negotiations with the Dutch and at the age of twenty-one
took over the tatters of his boss's maritime empire when Li died.
By working with the Dutch and operating his own networks from Manila to
Japan, Zheng Zhilong came to control much of the trade operating around the
South China Sea. He stopped short of establishing his own political regime, espe-
cially whentheMingemperor offeredtobuyhimout,effectively sidelining himas
acompetitortopower.In1646,however,ZhengdefectedtotheManchus,whohad
conquered China two years earlier, and he lived out the rest of his life in Beijing as
awell-rewardedhostageofthenewQingdynastyuntilhewasexecutedin1661for
therebellion ledbyZhengChenggong,hissonbyaNagasakiwoman.Thesonhad
takenhisfather'splaceatseaandattainedsuchsupremacyonthewaterthathewas
strong enough to launch a campaign against the new Qing. Driving the Dutch from
Taiwan in 1661, Zheng founded a kingdom that he called Dong Ning ('Eastern
Search WWH ::
Custom Search