ABSTRACT
Fang Hao once noted that jiao were the most popular form of merchant organization in southern Fujian and Taiwan in the late Qing era. According to surveys conducted at Chinese ports by Japanese investors in the late nineteenth century, jiao were prevalent among merchants operating out of the ports of Taiwan , as well as Xiamen , Quanzhou , Shantou and other port cities associated with the foreign trade networks maintained by merchants based in these locations.3 Jiao could be found as far as Japan , Singapore , Manila , Penang and Siam . e merchant associations known as jiao, in contrast to the huiguan, gongsuo and shangbang found in other regions, were made up of sea merchants who spoke Fujianese dialects or other related vernaculars, such as the Chaozhou dialect; one example of such an association outside Taiwan is the Xiang-Le-Xian-Shan jiao described in Choi Chi-cheung’s chapter in this volume.
