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

[holyschist]

Hmmmm. I remember a while back coming across a translation of a couple chapters of the Yuan shih that dealt with trade goods and may have had some values (although what type, I'm not sure)--I don't know how much if any of the Ming shih has been published in any of those languages, but it might be worth trying to hunt down something like that. (If you're not aware, these are dynasty chronicles, assembled about the previous dynasty from umpty bureaucratic records, and they contain vast quantities of assorted minutiae, although they tend not to be commonly translated.)

I'll see if I can find the reference for the Yuan shih chapters.

[kaigou]

ohoho that would be awesome! thank you!