Notes on trade routes and mines in N Vietnam, c. 1770

Document est. 2 May 2006. Last updated: 20 Jul 2006.

The following notes have been abstracted by Dr Tana Li, Dept of Pacific and Asian History, RSPAS, ANU from
"Kien van tieu luc" [Small Collection of Things Seen and Heard], Hanoi: Su Hoc Press, 1962.
(A historical book by scholar Le Quy Don, first published in the mid 1700's).

HTML markup and partial identification of geographical locations by Dr T. Matthew Ciolek.

The Black River has 83 famous rapids and falls with the Van Bo is the most dangerous.

Hung Hoa province

p.363:

chau Mai-Son

Chau Mai-Son: 3 dong, produce copper and shi2 lu4 (thach luc). Chinese mined here and paid tax.

chau Son-la

p.364: Chau Son-la: there was a gold mine of Yet-ong in Dong Hieu-te, produced gold. Chinese opened the mine here and paid tax.

chau Chieu-tan

p.365: Chau Chieu-tan, there is a gold mine in Muong Khoa, village Nguyen Than, with a tax of 5 lang (10 quan) paid to the officer. They also had to pay taxes at two places [as Lai Chau], one in the local place and the other in Kien Thuy county in China. People have nowhere to complain. Muong trinh - Dien chien are on the edges of Chieu tan and Quang lang (Guang Ling district), there is a trade route to the countries of Lao-Lung and Bon Man, many Chinese are busy bringing out elephant tusks, rhinoceros horn, pilose antler and cinnamon.

p.366

prefecture Quang-lang

Prefecture Quang-lang, takes 26 days to get there from the capital [Thang Long/Hanoi]. This prefecture is now occupied by Kien Thuy county of China for 93 years, every year they paid 6 bars and 6 tael of silver as tax (66 taels = 132 quan). There are Chinese living there in 3 streets, Ho Quang (Hunan and Guangdong provinces) street, Quang Tay (Guangxi province) street and Khai hoa (in Yunnan) street. There are two mines of red copper and gold, the Chinese are mining there.

chau Thuy-vi

p.368: chau Thuy-vi, takes 18 days to get there (from Hanoi)...Dong Trinh-lan produces red copper, and Cam-duong and Huong son have gold sand mines, from which they would boil into bars. In Au-ha there is Nguyen-duong pass, much tax from trading salt is collected from here, each year they received 180 bars of silver.

Tuyen Quang Province

p.391:

chau Bao Lac

chau Bao Lac: the copper mine in Dong Mong village (China) bordered with the Bach-dich Pass. People in the 3 villages in Bao Lac go to the markets in China (phien cho) to trade, leave in the morning and come back in the evening. 1 duck 6 tien (mach), 1 chicken 1 quan, 20 can pork 3 quan,

chau Vi xuyen

Pine logging is often done by the people from the north (Chinese), then they would transport it to Khe Thieu street in Phuong do village, chau Vi xuyen (along the Lo river?). There the timber would be piled.

p.397:

there were many mines in Tuyen Quang but are in different stage of development, some were deserted but reopened, while some used to be opened but now deserted. Those mines now listed on the tax records are but silver mines and copper mines in Tu Long and Na Ngo in Vi xuyen, tin mine in Tung Bach in Chau Bao Lac, and that is all.

p.411

Xa Tu Long, rice - every market sells rice, rice is put into bamboo, every bamboo contains rice, which sells for 8-9 cash, which is enough for one meal for a person.

Salt - often sold in the location of an administration office, 1000 can sells for 32 quan (100 can = 3.2 quan) When brought to Ha Giang the price would become 50 quan, to Tu Long every can would sell for 2 tien (0.2 quan), and 100 can would sell for 20 quan. (6.25 times).

There is no forest in the village so 7 charcoal sites were opened which is 1-2 days travel from the village.

p.412

Horses - bought from the Kaihua prefecture in China, the good ones sell for 7-8 bars of silver, and the weak ones 2-3 bars. The largest ones which are as tall as elephant would sell for 40 bars.

Water buffaloes and donkeys are plenty.

p.413:

the silver and copper mines in Na-ngo is in the front of Tu Long

From the mines to Ha Giang is 5 days by horse, every horse can carry 70 can; it is 15 days by ox and every ox can carry 50 can. The officers buy the good quality copper at 20 quan per 100 can.(same price as the workers buy salt)

p.414:

There were usually 20-30 horses passing in groups and each paid 4 tien of cash; people selling salt usually went by 50-60 shoulder poles in group, 1 tien of cash each; one person could carry 30-40 taels of silver and each tael paid 7 tien of cash; silk fabric paid 1 tien of cash per bolt; one shoulder pole of sa nhan paid for 1 quan, about 5-6 quan cash per day could be received. There were markets 6 times a month, and for each 100 quan is received (2207 quan + 600 quan = 2607 quan)

The Phuong Do Pass, the tax that was received by the court was but 60 quan, while under [Hoang] Van Dong it was 2000 quan, but he only paid the tax officer 1200 quan. The tax of two Passes of Nam-ngoai and Kenh-ngoai was only 7 bars but under the local officer of Hoang Van De, there were several hundred bars.

P.415: Because mining was flourishing in this area and there were many traders going back and forth and that was why they could receive taxes as many as the above mentioned.

The two Passes of Cu and Muon also collected several hundred quan per Passes, so were the Passes of Niem Son and Thuong Lam.

because it takes a Vietnamese 4 days from Ha Giang via ?...to arrive where the mines are. Furthermore, the Nam-duong mine of the Bac-ti Pass is behind the site, one has to pass 4 mountains to get there, therefore it is not easy to know the situation for someone from outside

The Yen-quang village in Vi-xuyen chau has a mount Khau-lau which is so high that it reaches the sky. The traders (?) go up the mountain in the morning and sleep at the foothill at night.

Geographical coordinates of transport nodes, and mines in N Vietnam, c. 1770

The following is Matthew Ciolek's (RSPAS, ANU) attempt at identification of placed mentioned in the abstracted document.

Hung Hoa Province

[in today's Tinh Vinh Phu]

Tuyen Quang Province

URL http://coombs.anu.edu.au/SpecialProj/VIETSIN/vietnam-routes-mines.html