An early Age of Commerce in Southeast Asia, 900-1300 CE.(Report)

1. Introduction to the issue

One of the most influential theses in Southeast Asian history in recent decades has been that put forward by Anthony Reid in his Southeast Asia in the Age of Commerce. (1) In this work, Reid suggests that the age of commerce had its roots in changes which occurred during the fifteenth century. The commercial boom and the emergence of port cities as hubs of commerce, (2) he avers, spurred the political, social and economic changes which marked the Age of Commerce in the region, extending from the fifteenth to the seventeenth century. He points to changes in the spice and aromatic wood trade, a trade boom beginning some time around 1400, and new systems of cash-cropping across the archipelago. (3) With the booming maritime trade came the emergence of the Southeast Asian junk as well as new navigational techniques. Increased commercialisation and the growth of cosmopolitan urban centres, usually port cities, were accompanied by the demand for more money and the emergence of new common means of exchange. This brought demand for more sophisticated financial systems (4) and promoted the emergence of mercantile elites. (5) Other social manifestations of the Age of Commerce as depicted by Reid included a religious revolution, with the introduction of Islam and Christianity in the region, (6) and a military revolution with new war technologies aiding in the strengthening of new regimes. (7)

But how new were the changes described in Reid's Age of Commerce? Can we trace their roots back even further into the Southeast Asian past? Or can we even posit an Early Age of Commerce where external changes stimulated a burgeoning maritime trade in the region, which in turn gave rise to social and economic changes in the Southeast Asian polities and societies themselves? This paper will argue that the four centuries from circa 900 to 1300 CE can be seen as an 'Early Age of Commerce' (8) in Southeast Asia. The thesis is that the collocation of a number of changes external to what is commonly referred to as Southeast Asia, impacted the region and provided an environment where maritime trade boomed, and that this trade boom induced political, social and economic changes throughout the region. It is thus proposed that the period from 900 to 1300 be considered the Early Age of Commerce in Southeast Asian history.

2. The major external factors affecting Southeast Asia 900-1300 CE

2.1. Financial and trade policies under the Song and Yuan dynasties in China

The first series of changes to be examined is those which occurred in the polities and societies of China over this period. The northern and southern Song dynasties (960-1279), which existed for more than three of the four centuries examined here, constituted a period of great commercial and industrial growth in China, so much so that the changes which occurred during this period have been referred to as the 'medieval economic revolution'. (9) The period saw expanded money supply, creation of bills of exchange, new forms of credit and paper money, as well as new foreign trade policies. (10) In the 1060s, as a result of Wang An-shi's reforms, (11) the Song state pursued an expansionary monetary policy and in the 1070s and 1080s, state mints were producing 6 billion copper cash annually, the highest level at any time in Chinese history. The changes that most affected Southeast Asia were those tied to financial and trade policies, the two aspects being intimately linked.

2.1.1. Financial policies in China