Eclipsed Entrepôts of the Western Pacific

Among the great entrepots around the Pacific there were some which had such great advantages of location that for many centuries there always was a trade center somewhere in the vicinity. Others rose to prominence for a time when the political and economic conditions were right, but then were eclipsed and almost forgotten. In the 1600s Taiwan was a vortex of world trade and great power rivalry, but then became a remote frontier of the great Qing Empire. Hoi An in central Vietnam was another majo