accounting records for chinese trade ships

[kaigou]

Really! I'm seeking any non-fiction/history works that include baseline monetary data for chinese trading ships. Preferably in the mid-Ming dynasty, but I'll settle for Yuan if there's nothing on the early to middle Ming. (Cut-off is about 1600 CE, though Ming ended a little later than that.) So far, I've found plenty about the trade itself, and the politics, but what I can't find is data that would answer questions like:

-- how much would the average sailor make, in whatever length of time (per trip, month, annual)?
-- what were the wholesale costs for various goods (silk, umbrellas, rice, lumber, etc) versus the retail prices at market?
-- what was an average cost to trim out a junk, employ the sailors, and make a trip?

If I could find one set of answers, I could possibly extrapolate from there. I've dug through google books for the really esoteric university press books, like Cushman's Fields from the Sea: Chinese Junk Trade With Siam During the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries which is two hundred years too late, but is a great example of the gap. Cushman actually calculates the wholesale cost, portage taxes, brokerage taxes, and retail profit to determine a ship's per-trip profit... but doesn't say a thing about operating costs. So while 7,000 baht might sound impressive, maybe it's not, if staffing and operational costs came to 6,999 baht! (For a list of the various other titles, see the post that resulted in me being sent here.)

Anyway, I know it's a long shot, but I'm hoping someone here might have an idea of where to look. Also, if book-suggestions aren't available in English, I can handle Mandarin or French, too. TIA!

Comments

[dhae_knight_1]

I base this on absolutely nothing, but I could easily imagine that sailors would be paid based on the income; in essense get percentages of the profit.

I know that during the Napoleonic wars (I know, different culture *and* the wrong era), sailors were paid a fixed percentage of whatever prizes they took, based on their rank and seniority.

Also, I'm thinking that running costs of a sailing ship is extremely fluent; if you run into a cyclone one year and has to replace a mast, broken timbers and several sails it would be expensive; if, on another year you have smooth sailing, there would be next to no running cost, save that of provisions for however many crew you have.

And, finally, I'm guessing prices would be equally fluent, depending on weather, harvest, demand and supply. As well as local political situations, bandits, pirates, and the capability of the tradesman.

[kaigou]

The fluidity of costs is definitely true, but lacking any kind of baseline, I don't have any idea of guesses up or down. I mean, in the early Ming, 1 tael would be a laborer's income for the entire month, but given the severe inflation by later Ming, would that still be true? If I knew what a decently profitable trip made (including operating costs for successful trip) then I could guess that greater profit would be X while catastrophic failures would mean costs of Y.

One thing I do know is that by the mid-1500s, both East and West had cottoned onto the notion of insurance, which basically means making whomever purchased space (or outright chartered the entire ship) paying an additional fee that went towards possible loss. Non-refundable, and much like paying for travel insurance when you take a plane, these days. But still, without knowing some idea of how much the overall cost of chartering was, it's hard to guess what "10% to 15% insurance fee" might've amounted to. Which is kind of the problem I'm having, in all directions. Not knowing a baseline, I have no idea what constitutes "greater" or "lesser" for fluctuations of any kind.