Hong Kong rice merchants and Saigon's rice exports, 1870s-1920s

Abstract

The economic foundation of Cochinchina of today’s southern Vietnam was built on rice. Rice accounted for over 70 percent of total exports, half of which went to China. The income of all the inhabitants depended on the price of rice and the volume of rice exported (Shōzō 1939/1995: 87). Rice credit (also known as green rice loans), collection, transportation, wholesalers, and rice millers were structured around one goal: exporting as much rice as possible. Rice trade was thus the keystone of business and the index of prosperity of Chinese trade in Cochinchina. Show more