No. 237 Maritime Archaeology in the People's Republic of China ...

government set up a corporation to assist the private traders.
The government provided ships and capital for foreign trade to
approved merchants who undertook the voyaging and trading.
The government took 70% of the profits from each voyage.
Volume and Variety of Trade
From archival research, more than 330 types of goods are known
to have been imported into Quanzhou during the Song and Yuan.
Some of the more valuable commodities were frankincense,
eaglewood (Aquilaria agallocha), cloves, musk, sandalwood,
shell-beads, hawksbill turtle shell, rhinoceros horn, ivory, agate
and coloured glass. As an example of the volume of trade,
during the year 1130 (fourth year of the southern Ming, in the
Jiang Yuan) the Shi Bo Si of Quanzhou purchased 86 780 jin
(approximately 40 000 kg) of frakincense, and in the year 1155
the goods imported from Zhang Cheng (southern Vietnam)
included 63 334 jin of aromatics and perfumes such as the
highly valuable eaglewood. Marco Polo recorded that the
volume of pepper imported into Quanzhou was one-hundred
times that sent from Alexandria to the whole of Europe.
More than sixty types of goods were exported. These included
lacquerware, silk, tea, lychees (dried?), wine, sugar, a
range of manufactured goods made from bronze, iron, gold,
silver, tin and lead. Ceramics identified as having come from
Song or Yuan kilns in the region have been found in the Philippines,
Japan, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and even Egypt.
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