白銀從何而來？——明代中期的對外貿易與白銀流入

從明代中期，白銀經濟不斷擴大。那麼，白銀究竟是如何得到供給的呢？明朝的史料中，能為此問題提供線索的史料缺乏。但是，到訪中國或亞洲海域的西方人留下的紀錄中，留有若干相關資訊。例如，穆斯林商人阿里．阿克伯．契達伊（Ali Akbar Khata’i）撰寫的《中國誌》（Khataynameh）裡，涉及當時北京等地白銀流通實態的記事。本文以《中國誌》為線索，綜合利用進入亞洲海域的葡萄牙人所留紀錄，以及《朝鮮王朝實錄》等東亞資料，對明代中期流入中國的白銀之整體動向試做若干考察。這一時期，雖然中國白銀反而流向了麻六甲，中國產品在亞歐大陸西部的輸出擴大，白銀東流應該確實也波及到了中國。此外，在東亞地區，朝鮮和越南的白銀也主要通過朝貢使團的私貿易，大量湧入明朝。

From the mid-Ming period, the silver economy in China continued to expand steadily. So where did the silver come from? Ming historical sources are scarce on this subject. On the other hand, some relevant material remains in the records left by Western visitors. For example, Khataynameh, written by the Muslim merchant Ali Akbar Khata’i, contains descriptions of the circulation of silver at the time. In addition, some sources written by Portuguese visitors to maritime Asia and the contemporary East Asian sources also contain relevant descriptions. In this paper, I attempt to investigate the influx of silver through the Eurasian trade and East Asian tribute trade and its circulation in the mid-Ming China. During this period, despite the Chinese silver flowing from China to Malacca, with the increasing export of Chinese products to Western Eurasia, the outflow of silver from western to eastern Eurasia must have extended as far as China. In addition, in the East Asian region, a large amount of silver flowed into China, mainly through the private trade of the Korean and Vietnamese tributary embassies.