Nguyen Thi During The Reign Of Vietnam's Foreign Trade Management (1600-1862)

The management of the foreign trade in Vietnam which was controlled by Nguyen from 1600 to 1862 can be divided into three parts according to different historical periods:The first period is from 1600 to 1802.In this period, foreign trade can be considered the key factor for the Nguyen family in the South to contend with Trinh family in the North, to some degree. So the management of the foreign trade in the South which was ruled by Nguyen family was very scrupulous. Due to the prosperity of foreign trade in this period, income coming from foreign trade constituted important component of taxation. The main function of the management system was to carry out the policy of overseas trade, to both attract foreign tradesmen and create the wealth as well. Its purpose was not only to manage tax revenues through this kind of organization, but also to expand its politics influence by the means of contacting with foreign merchant ships and getting in touch with various countries in order to benefit the economic development of dang trung . In this period, open foreign trade policy made overseas as trade prosperous rapidly. In the meaning while, there were a whole set of systems and operation way in management. All of these had promoted the development of overseas trade at that time. But it was not perfect enough, there were a lot of drawbacks.The second period is from 1802 to 1840. During this course that Southern Vietnam ruled by Nguyen, the government encouraged foreigners to go to Vietnam to trade in order for the supplementary civil country to buy the foreign weapons and ships. The foreign trade was very active. After Nguyen Dynasty established, rulers of Nguyen Dynasty inherited previous tradition of foreign trade which allowed the domestic and international businessman to carry on legal trade to some extent. This period was summit of Nguyen Dynasty when every kind of systems had been completed day by day. Overseas trade management system had been improved. Special management trade organizations were set up and administration behaviors were rational. It was becoming more diversified and steadily that the ship tax was collected. It had certain flexibility.The third period is from 1840 to 1862.At this time, Sino-British the Opium War (1840-1842) erupted. So far, China began its being colonized and the semi-colony course. After 1840, the western colonists poured into China and forced China to sign treaty which entrusted them a lot of commercial privilege legally. The western colonists had set up a lot of financial institutions during this period to monopolize the foreign trade of China. What's more, they turned the export surplus into import surplus through illegal opium trade. The main foreign trade partners of China were the Western powers after this time. The foreign trade between the countries in Southeast Asia and China dropped suddenly. Among the foreign trade partners of Vietnam, China was the most important one. If foreign trade of China changed a little, Vietnamese would be affected heavily. After 1840, the Sino-Vietnam volume of trade dropped rapidly. Vietnamese rulers attached great importance to this trading partner of China. In last stage of the Nguyen Dynasty, the trade with China became more important to take economy aspect as well as political aspect into consideration. After this time, invasion of France opened gate of Vietnam, and customs system was controlled by the Frenchman gradually, as a result Yamen which was in charge of the foreign trade had been transformed into modern customs system increasingly. Two kinds of different foreign trade management organizations functioned simultaneously which caused managing confusion to some degree.