Kango boeki

• Japanese/Chinese: 勘合貿易 (kangou boueki / kanhe maoyi)

The kangô bôeki system, or tally trade, was a system under which Muromachi Japan and Ming Dynasty China engaged in official trade.

(Origins, System of How it Worked, History)

The system came into use in 1383, to control foreign tribute trade. Each tally, or certificate, was divided in half, with the Chinese port office (shibo si) keeping one half, and a licensed foreign ship the other half. These were often faked, however.

The system finally came to an end in 1551. The Ming Court had been demanding for some years that "Japan" (Ôuchi imposter envoys dominated contact with China, so it was the Ôuchi and not the shogunate the Ming Court was actually in communication with) turn over the offenders in the 1523 Ningpo Incident (an incident in which Ôuchi and Hosokawa clan ships clashed in Ningpo harbor), and turn in all the tallies, but to no avail. Diplomatic discussion between the Ming Court, and the Ôuchi (pretending to represent the shogunate) then came to loggerheads for a time, until in 1551, Sue Harukata rose up against his lord and took control of the Ôuchi clan, marking the end of official relations between Ming China and Muromachi Japan.

References

• Hashimoto Yû. "The Information Strategy of Imposter Envoys from Northern Kyushu to Choson Korea in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries." in Angela Schottenhammer (ed.) The East Asian Mediterranean: Maritime Crossroads of Culture, Commerce and Human Migration. Harrassowitz Verlag, 2008. pp289-315.