| dc.description.abstract | At the 18th and 19th century, Macau was one of the main international freight ports of china. The Canton System policy at the early Qing dynasty had established the trade status of Macau. Portugal began governing in Macau from the Ming Dynasty, and this was also regime acquiesced by Ming and Qing dynasty, when Western European countries started trading from Macau.
Since 1845, Macao’s trading pattern began to change, after China has experienced the First Opium War, the southeast coast was also slowly being opened as treaty ports to foreign countries and thus Macau’s trade status gradually replaced by Hong Kong, meanwhile, its trade pattern was also slowly changing.
During Canton customs period, the Qing government had given Macau considerable protection from (ship’s tax), commodities and trade vessels, etc which gave Portugal a monopoly of China’s foreign trade. Macau was a very busy trading port at that time and it was the only place for foreign businessmen to stay. Through trading with Guangzhou, Macau had established an irreplaceable position.
During Lappa customs period, Macau’s trading pattern started to change due to other competing ports has opened. By transporting opium through mainland, it developed a so-called ＂economic center of southwestern Guangdong＂ that is, the region transshipment port. At the same time, Macau was long affected by the two river basin (West River and Pearl River) soil siltation and other ports along the West River, making Macau gradually lost its competitiveness. | en_US |