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The
Way to Decline
¡@¡@With
a nearby natural harbor which dominates the import and
export businesses in central Taiwan and t he support of
a large amount of agricultural products of the central
Taiwan , the " no sky " street has been very prosperous
. Although during the Dao-Guang period , the harbor
silted up so the cargos had to be transferred from the
outport , yet the prosperity of the " no sky " market
area had lasted for over a hundred years due to its
superior geographical position . The constantly
stretching coastline , however , gradually eliminated
the superiority of the natural harbor in Lukang . From
then on , "
flying sails in Lukang " , used to be one
of the eight famous sceneries of Changhua , has never
seen again and it also forecasted the decline of the "
no sky " market area . ¡@ |
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Sino-China War
¡@¡@ It was the
Sino-China
War in 1884 that formally announced the decline of the " no sky "
market area . Before 1884 , the number of merchant ships has dropped
drastically in Lukang harbor because the harbor has long sil ted up
. After the outbreak of China-France War , in order to obtain the
dominance of the sea , the French army blocked the coastline of
Taiwan for a long time . The blockade lasted from September , 1884
to June , 1885 , that is , almost for a year . During the period ,
because of the war , the French army bombed all ships sailing on the
Taiwan Strait , including merchant ship and civil ships . This act
caused the drastic drop of trades and affected the business
activities in Lukang largely .
After the
Sino-China War, the French
army took advantage of their victory and asked Taiwan to open more
trading harbors. After the Cing Emperor opened the trading harbors
in Ji-Long, Dan-Shuei, An-Ping, and Da-Gou (Kaohsiung), they
competed with the ¡§no sky¡¨ market area for the dominant role in
business in Taiwan. The opening of more trading harbors has
eliminated the amount of merchant ships in Lukang. It is easy to
imagine that the ¡§no sky¡¨ market area could barely maintain its
commercial function as a trading harbor depending on its outport
businesses (see Harbor).
Irreversible
Of course, the
squirearch of Lukang have tried to maintain the commercial dominance
of the ¡§no sky¡¨ market area. In 1887, a Lukang country gentleman,
Cei De-fang, has requested the governor of Taiwan,
Liu Ming-Chuan,
to build the province council in Lukang. This request, however, was
proposed at the wrong timing. If it had been proposed fifty or even
eighty years before, then it is likely to be accepted. Finally, the
request was rejected by Liu Ming-Chuan. The next year, to add
insult to injury, a riot occurred in Lukang and affected largely the
prosperity of the area. The population of Lukang also drop from
60,000 (during the Emperor Tong-Jhih reign) period to 40,000. Later, the
outbreak of Sino-China War and Japanese occupation led to the
decline of the ¡§no sky¡¨ market area.
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In sum, the two decades between 1875 and 1895 (the Jawu
War) symbolized that "No sky" street area were on the
way to decline. It was not only the condition of harbor
went worse, but the harbor was silted up that forces the
merchant in the street had to find an external harbor.
Worst of all, the ship that went to Luknag harbor became
much little in comparing with the peek period. Following
by the appearance of new competitor, " No sky" street
area went to its disappearance in Lukang historical
record.
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Decline ¡K¡n |
