ABSTRACT
The story of the Guangdong pirates epitomizes, on a broader level, the gradual triumph of ports within their province, especially in the Pearl River Delta area, over those of neighboring Fujian as China's preeminent hubs for overseas trade. The incessant warfare and constantly shifting areas of jurisdiction spawned an even greater range of independent local political actors, among them piratical groups that infested the coastline of Guangdong. From the middle of the 1660s, the Zheng organization on Taiwan took an active interest toward the Guangdong coast. Seventeenth-century piracy along the Guangdong coast arose as a result of an economic crisis that contributed to the collapse of the Ming and the ascendancy of the Manchu Qing. The Pearl River Delta became a multinational zone for illicit trade, a meeting point for Chinese, Southeast Asian, English, Dutch, and Iberian ships. Also operating in this area was Zheng Jing's main commander, Liu Guoxuan, who refused to go along with his leader to Taiwan.
