ABSTRACT
Rapid growth of the East Asian economies in the post-war period, particularly in the last twenty years, has attracted world-wide interest and led to numerous studies of the secrets of Asian success. It is generally agreed that international trade – as a central part of export-oriented development strategies – played a crucial role in Asian development. Intra-Asian commercial networks, which had linked together the different regions of Asia for hundreds of years, were one of the foundations on which the export-oriented development strategies were built. Understanding the commercial networks that facilitated the development of intra-Asian trade is thus a key issue for those interested in Asian history, as well as for those interested in the contemporary Asian economy. 1
