Commercial Relations between Vietnam and Asian Countries from the Nineteenth Century to 1945

Abstract

Vietnam is a relatively small country but it has an important geo-political position bridging East Asia and Southeast Asia and opening a gate into the Southeast Asian archipelago. This particular position has favored Vietnam to develop it commercial relations with other Asian countries. The relations between Vietnam and the other Asian countries such as China, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, India, Japan and Korea were established in the ancient and medieval times, and continued to develop rapidly. In the beginning of the nineteenth century, under the Nguyen dynasty, commercial exchange activities between Vietnam and its Eastern Asian partners were partly decreased by the central government's "closed-door policy". Since the second half of the nineteenth century, under the French domination, the relationship between Vietnam and regional countries revived remarkably despite the close control of the colonial government. Using a variety of different source materials, this paper presents commercial exchange activities between Vietnam and the other Asian countries, especially those in Eastern and Southeast Asia from the middle of the nineteenth century to the middle of the twentieth century. Those activities have not only brought economic benefits to each country, contributed to establishing a large regional market but also promoted cultural exchange, increased and widened friendly relationship between Vietnam and the regional countries.

(Second part)