Guǎngzhōu

The Míng reversed that openness. Their sea bans forbade private trade abroad on pain of death, and from 1384 foreigners could come only with tribute missions; yet Guǎngzhōu, left open to more of them than any other port, became once again the first port of China. When the Portuguese arrived in 1517 and began fortifying an island at the river mouth, they were driven off in battle, but by the 1550s they had won the right to trade here and to keep their goods at Macau.

The Qīng conquest fell hard on the city. After its commander went over to the Southern Míng in 1648, Shàng Kěxǐ's army besieged Guǎngzhōu for months and on taking it in 1650 killed up to 70,000 people. Trade returned once the Qīng held Taiwan, and in 1757 an edict made Guǎngzhōu the only port open to the ships of the West. Thereafter a guild of licensed Hong merchants handled nearly all of China's foreign trade, the foreign factories lined the riverfront, and tea and porcelain went out in exchange for silver.