1655年的繁華之城

1655年的繁華之城

A CITY OF PROSPERITY IN 1655

On June 19, 1655, a 16-strong crew arrived at the south coast of China after two months' sailing from Batavia, now Indonesia's capital Jakarta.The delegation was comprised of Dutch envoys and representatives of the Dutch East India Company such as Pieter de Goyer and Jacob Keyzer.This was the fi rst Dutch mission to visit China.

The Qing government accommodated the delegation at Huaiyuan Courier Station in Guangzhou and arranged for them to go to Beijing the following year.John Nieuhof, the steward of the mission, took notes of his voyage and made many illustrations along the way.His work was made into prints and published as a collection on returning back to his home country.They became a valuable source of literature for Europeans to understand China visually for the fi rst time.

“Map of Canton” was a print made during the time when the Dutch delegation passed by Guangzhou 350 years ago.This panoramic view of Guangzhou has enabled us to have an understanding of the look and layout of the city at the time.What was marked “tower” on the map was the Zhenhai Tower on Yuexiu Hill - a famous landmark in the city.The “gate facing the fi eld” referred to the North Gate, today's west gate of Yuexiu Park.In another panoramic map of Guangzhou, one can see a number of foreign trade vessels of various sizes on the Pearl River, which offers a glimpse into the city's prosperous trade at the time.

Guangzhou, China's south gateway, is the oldest and longest running port-city throughout China.In the Ming Dynasty when the ban on maritime trade was constantly switching between on and off, the municipal maritime affairs bureau in many cities frequently closed, except Guangzhou.Cantonese Customs was set up in the Qing Dynasty when the ban was lifted.

In the 22nd year of Emperor Qianlong's reign (1757), Guangzhou became the one and only commercial port that was open to foreign countries.Products of all kinds over the Middle Kingdom were shipped to Guangzhou ready to be exported.These products came from provinces both close-by and afar, such as tea from Fujian, raw silk, silk products and green tea from Zhejiang, porcelain from Jiangxi, herbs and leather products from Shandong and Hebei, brass from Shaanxi, and mercury and tobacco from Gansu.Among them, tea and silk made up the largest percentage.The prosperity trade brought promoted the economic development of Guangzhou and made Cantonese customs tax one of the major sources of revenue for the Qing government, as Mr.Qu Dajun, a famous scholar and poet in the late Ming and early Qing, described in his poem, “Of fi cials and businessmen swarm onto foreign vessels as the city's gates are wide open to overseas countries.Cantonese satin is crowned to be the best while money piles up at the Thirteen Factories”.

1655年6月19日，荷蘭政府使節及荷蘭東印度公司成員豪伊爾、凱瑟爾等16人從巴達維亞出發，航行兩個月后抵達中國海岸。這是荷蘭首批赴華使團。

清政府安排使團下榻廣州懷遠驛，翌年進京。使團管事約翰·尼霍夫將沿途所見事物記載下來并繪制了大量畫稿，回國后制成版畫和游記出版，成為西方人第一次直觀地了解中國的重要材料。

《廣州城地圖》便是350年前荷蘭使團途經廣州時繪制的版畫。通過這張全景圖，可以了解當時廣州城的樣貌和建筑分布情況。地圖中標示的“塔”，即是越秀山上的鎮海樓，在當時是廣州的城標。“朝田野的城門”就是大北門，也就是越秀公園如今的西門。在另一張廣州城全景圖中，則可見到珠江上停泊著許多大大小小的外國商船，廣州當時繁盛的商貿景象可見一斑。

乾隆二十二年（1757年），廣州成為中國獨一無二對外開放的通商口岸，全國各地的貨物都從四面八方匯集到廣州出口，近如福建的茶葉，浙江的生絲和絲織品、綠茶，江西的瓷器；遠至山東和河北的藥材、皮貨，陜西的黃銅，甘肅的水銀、煙草等都運來廣州出口。其中尤以茶葉和生絲為大宗。對外貿易的繁盛，促進了廣州地區經濟的發展，粵海關的稅收也成為清政府收入的重要來源。正如屈大均所言：“洋船爭出是官商，十字門開向二洋，五絲八絲廣緞好，銀錢堆滿十三行。”

Canton1840 is an initiator of mobile museums.Mr.Wen Shi, owner of the Canton1840 mobile museum, has been collecting forty thousand items representing Lingnan region culture and European culture in over forty years.(WeChat: canton1840)

文仕文化博物檔案館是“近代海絲文化流動博物館”概念的創導者。館長文仕先生歷經40多年對珠江嶺南地域文化及歐洲百年文化的搜集，收藏了近40000件博物館級珍貴史料文物。（官微canton1840）