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various heads, including causation and factors leading to the development of such large fleets, whether the pirates were rebels or only another form of Chinese bandit (using the later 19th century North China Nien Rebellion on land for purposes of comparison), and suggesting that overcoming the pirate menace was not, in the end, a good thing for Ch'ing government or its coastal forces, owing to its contributing to the false sense of security and sufficiency that was to be shattered by the encounters with Western forces thirty years on.
There are useful appendices giving information on a small number of pirates' social backgrounds (for voluntary pirates), on the “Pirates' Declaration” of 1809 posted in Macao and Canton, on Pirate Junks, on the Pirate Surrender Document of 1810, and on Chinese Weights and Measures. The Notes at pp. 179-213 contain much extra material.
Professor Murray has given us a readable and fascinating account of a colourful period, and an insight into a group of persons who brought fear, suffering and violent death to many people.
There appears to me to have been no particular socio-economic or political reason that would either justify or extenuate the activities of these pests. The times no harder nor the government more inept or corrupt than the norm, on land or at sea, although the beneficial results of a long period of stability and prosperity were beginning to be offset by increased pressure of population. As the author says, piracy was a part of life in the "Water World”. In the Hong Kong Region, this was true up to and after the British took over the New Territories in 1899: see pp. 26-31 of my book The Rural Communities of Hong Kong, Studies and Themes (Hong Kong, Oxford University Press, 1983). In the late 18th century, as Dr. Murray states, it just so happened that larger than usual groups of pirates on the Sino-Vietnamese coast were encouraged by contesting rivalries over the Vietnamese throne, and that above average leadership was available.
The book resulted from a doctoral thesis. Dr. Murray has done a good job. Her industriousness is evident, and she has opened up a fascinating subject with asides on other major themes. If I can voice a personal "moan", it is about something for which she herself is not really responsible. I refer to the deplorable habit of giving Cantonese place
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various heads, including causation and factors leading to the development of such large fleets, whether the pirates were rebels or only another form of Chinese bandit (using the later 19th century North China Nien Rebellion on land for purposes of comparison), and suggesting that overcoming the pirate menace was not, in the end, a good thing for Ch'ing government or its coastal forces, owing to its contributing to the false sense of security and sufficiency that was to be shattered by the encounters with Western forces thirty years on.
There are useful appendices giving information on a small number of pirates' social backgrounds (for voluntary pirates), on the “Pirates' Declaration” of 1809 posted in Macao and Canton, on Pirate Junks, on the Pirate Surrender Document of 1810, and on Chinese Weights and Measures. The Notes at pp. 179-213 contain much extra material.
Professor Murray has given us a readable and fascinating account of a colourful period, and an insight into a group of persons who brought fear, suffering and violent death to many people.
There appears to me to have been no particular socio-economic or political reason that would either justify or extenuate the activities of these pests. The times no harder nor the government more inept or corrupt than the norm, on land or at sea, although the beneficial results of a long period of stability and prosperity were beginning to be offset by increased pressure of population. As the author says, piracy was a part of life in the "Water World”. In the Hong Kong Region, this was true up to and after the British took over the New Territories in 1899: see pp. 26-31 of my
book The Rural Communities of Hong Kong, Studies and Themes (Hong Kong, Oxford University Press, 1983). In the late 18th century. as Dr. Murray states, it just so happened that larger than usual groups of pirates on the Sino-Vietnamese coast were encouraged by contesting rivalries over the Vietnamese throne, and that above average leadership was available.
The book resulted from a doctoral thesis. Dr. Murray has done a good job, Her industriousness is evident, and she has opened up a fascinating subject with asides on other major themes. If I can voice a personal "moan", it is about something for which she herself is not really responsible. I refer to the deplorable habit of giving Cantonese place
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