Southern Vietnam Under the Nguyen: Documents on the Economic History of Cochinchina (Dang Trong, 1602-1777)

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From about 1600 until the Tay Son rebellion of the 1770s, there were two Vietnamese states. The southern one, with its centre around modern Hue and its southern frontier ever expanding into Cambodian territory in the Mekong delta, was the more dynamic, both economically and military. Occupying as it did the strategic, harbour studded coast along which most shipping passed between China and all points south and west, it was necessarily involved in the commerce of many peoples. Since it imposed a Vietnamese civilization on a variety of Khmer and Cham peoples it was also ethnically and socially creative. Nevertheless this southern states has remained in the historical shadows. It appeared marginal and even embarrassing to Vietnamese national discourse, partly because of its very diversity. Even its names -"Dang Trong", "Cochinchina" - remain perplexing and obscure. Southern Vietnam under the Nguyen attempt for the first time to make available in English some of the key sources on the economic history of this complex region through translations from Vietnamese chronicles and from Chinese, Dutch, and French travel accounts.