Tuesday, January 08, 2019

Guangzhou

Guangzhou has a 2,200 year history as a Silk Road port. What we think of as "The Age of Discovery" is analogous to an undergraduate University student discovering a philosopher or book they like, and thinking no one else has (literally) every read it. Cities and Ports are always evolving. Domestic (Chinese) migrants from other provinces make up about 40% of Guangzhou's 14-25 million strong population (depending on where you mark the city's edge). Until the Opium Wars forced the opening of other points, it was a single point of entry for most foreign traders. "Canton" derived from Cantão, which was a muddling Portuguese pronunciation of Guangdong (The Province which Guangzhou is the Capital of). Muslim conquests sacked and held the city for a century from 758. Following that, foreign trade came in an out of favour depending on the Emperor. Legal Trade was often restricted to tribute delegations. Eventually, around the 17th century, when the Portuguese became regulars, they were permitted to warehouse their goods at Macau instead of Guangzhou itself. Trade increased under the Canton System as the city gradually became a centre of Global Trade. 



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