明朝澳門關稅制度考辨

After a deep investigation into the history of Macau’s customs duties system and a careful analysis of the topics on boat duties and customs duties, we found that scholars’ former contributions on Macau’s customs duties in the Ming dynasty had general shortcomings. First, they did not explain clearly the geographical difference of Ming’s customs duties and using the example of Fujian to explain Macau’s customs duties. Second, they did not carefully analyze western sources and try to find their deep meaning. Third, they investigated Macau’s customs duties in a static way and used the system in the Qing dynasty to examine the one in the Ming dynasty. Actually, in the Ming dynasty, the customs duties that the Guangdong government levied on Portuguese Merchants in Macau were goods duties rather than boat duties. The way of collecting duties had transformed form tax in kind to tax in currency. The objects of taxation were Portuguese rather than Chinese merchants.