Plunder
Trade in the South China Sea region was particularly rich. Most established foreign and national trade routes were established out of Amoy, Chaozhou, Canton, Hainan, and Ningbo. Summer and early autumn are particularly dangerous seasons because of typhoons, so most merchant and cargo ships left ports during the late winter and spring and returned in the summer and early fall. While some junks could carry over 800 tons, most averaged around 300 to 500 tons. Most exports were handicrafts such as chinaware, textiles, tiles, umbrellas, paper, and processed foods and fruits. Most imports from Southeast Asia were basic staples such as sugar, pepper, lumber, indigo, cotton, tin, hides, and rice.4
Cargo chiefly of ordinary goods such as sugar, rice, sweet potatoes, peanuts, betel nuts, pigs, salted fish, cloth, and the like. Occasionally small stashes of opium, sycee, silver dollars, and copper cash. Pirates usually kept some of the plunder – foodstuffs, fresh water, weapons, and gunpowder – most was sold to other boatmen or in markets.