“I send you enclos’d a small Box of Upland Rice, brought from Cochin China. It grows there on dry Grounds, and not in Water like the common Sort. Also a few Seeds of the Chinese Tallow Tree. They have been carefully preserv’d in bringing hither, by Mr. Ellis’s Method. I had them from him, and he tells me they are in good Condition fit to vegetate. I hope they may grow under your skilful Care. My Love to Mrs. Bartram and all yours from Your affectionate Friend
B Franklin”
How Rice Helped Introduce America to Vietnam
Combining my interest in colonial history in the 18th century, and exploring my cultural heritage as an American-born Vietnamese, I decided to explore Vietnam's history BEFORE the beginning of the 19th century. In this special exhibit, I will explore the history of Vietnam during the 17th and 18th century and connect it to America's history before, during, and after the American Revolution.
The
Trịnhs
vs.
The
Nguyễns
The rivalry between two families began in 1627 after the Lê dynasty took back control from the Mạc dynasty. Behind the Lê dynasty the Trịnh and Nguyễn families took control, with the Trịnhs occupying the North while the Nguyễns in the South. It was the fight over who was worthy to rule the whole country.
During this time Vietnam was known as "Đại Việt."
The Royal Families' Rivalries Caused Suffering of the People
During the Trịnh-Nguyễn rivalry (1627–1786), Đại Việt split into northern Tonkin (Trịnh) and southern Cochinchina (Nguyễn), causing civil war, battles, and weak central rule.
People suffered heavy taxes, famines, peasant revolts, and foreign threats like China and Europeans. The country stagnated, divided and unstable, paving the way for the Tây Sơn Rebellion, lead by the Tây Sơn Brothers.
Who Were the Tây Sơn Brothers?
Click on their images to learn about the Tây Sơn brothers:
Nguyễn Nhạc, Nguyễn Lữ, and Nguyễn Huệ
"The chief principle and main slogan of the Tây Sơn was "seize the property of the rich and distribute it to the poor." In each village the Tây Sơn controlled, oppressive landlords and scholar-officials were punished and their property redistributed. The Tây Sơn also abolished taxes, burned the tax and land registers, freed prisoners from local jails, and distributed the food from storehouses to the hungry. As the rebellion gathered momentum, it gained the support of army deserters, merchants, scholars, local officials, and bonzes."
- Ronald J. Cima, Vietnam: A Country Study (1987)
Introducing Rice to the West
During the 17th and 18th centuries, explorers, officials, merchants, and even botanists traveled around the world to establish trade with other countries. With the British East India Company, their goal was to establish trade with India and China. The real question was... how could they connect a route from India to China?
"the Madras Council considered it an ideal site to build a station along the sea-route from India to China, which they could use to control and protect the long-distance English trading network in the area. To fulfill this plan, the Madras Council needed to establish a good relationship with the native Court and therefore turned its attention to diplomatic activities. Nevertheless, the Company also went beyond what were now traditional methods of diplomacy and looked to establishing fortifications and a colony in Cochin China... English attempts to link Southern Vietnam to a more extensive network in the 1690s, were part of the EIC’s new strategy towards East Asia which involved trying to establish fortifications and colonies to control distant trade and enlarge the English position."
Ngoc Dung Tran, "Learning to trade: the English East India Company in Tonkin and Cochin-China in the seventeenth century"
With the connection with Cochinchina, it became successful for the East India Company (EIC) to travel and trade with Vietnam. It was that opportunity when English botanist and naturalist John Bradby Blake traveled to Canton with the EIC for his studies on exotic plants in the area. He was the one to send rice samples from Canton to his friend John Ellis, whom he published a pamphlet on how to take care of these special plants. It was this pamphlet Benjamin Franklin read and shared with his friends John Bartram of Philadelphia and Noble Wimberly Jones of Georgia.
A Nguyễn Lord Sought Revenge
Members of the Nguyễn royal family were gone after Nguyễn Lữ took over Gia Định (modern-day Saigon). All except for one member: 16-year-old Nguyễn Phúc Ánh. His relatives died during Nguyễn Lữ's reign in the South, so he fled further south to Hà Tiên and asked outsiders to support him to fight against the Tây Sơn brothers.
Nguyễn Huệ was able to defeat Phúc Ánh's army, causing him to flee to Siam. It was where he met French Bishop Pigneau de Behaine, who was sent as a missionary by the Paris Foreign Mission Society to southern Vietnam. Needing more support from the West, Phúc Ánh asked Pigneau to appeal to the King of France for help. He also wanted him to bring his son, Nguyễn Phúc Cảnh, with him to Paris. His son was 5 years old at the time.
On November 28, 1787, the Treaty of Versailles was signed by Pigneau and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Comte de Montmorin, representing Phúc Ánh and Louis XVI respectively. The treaty granted France Tourane (modern-day Đà Nẵng) and the island of Poulo Condor (modern-day Côn Sơn Island). This was all in exchange of King Louis XVI helping Phúc Ánh regain power in Vietnam.
Another Founding Father was Fascinated with Rice
Two days after the Treaty of Versailles was signed, Marie Charles Rosalie de Rohan Chabot, Comte de Jarnac (1740–1813) wrote a letter to Thomas Jefferson to inform him the young prince of Cochinchina (Nguyễn Phúc Cảnh) will send him at least one pound of dry rice from the area.
Why would Jefferson want rice from Cochinchina?
Jefferson was concerned about the health of his fellow southern countrymen, and wondered if dry rice could "enable us to get rid of those ponds of stagnant water so fatal to human health and life." He then read Pierre Poivre's Voyages d'un Philosophe (1769) that talked about his discoveries of food and culture in Asia and Africa. He even mentioned about the rice grown in Cochinchina that caught Jefferson's attention:
"There are different sorts of rice cultivated by the Cochin-Chinese: the LITTLE RICE, the grain of which is small, oblong, and transparent; this is by far the most delicate; it is commonly ministered to the sick: the GREAT LONG RICE is that whose shape is round: the RED RICE, so called because the grain is enclosed in a husk of a reddish colour, which sticks so closely, that is requires a very uncommon operation to divide it. These three sorts are produced in the greatest plenty, and form the chief subsistence of the inhabitants. They require water, as the grounds where they are cultivated must be overflowed.
They propagate also two other kinds of dry rice, which grow in dry soils, and, like our wheat, need no other watering but what they receive from the clouds. One of these species of rice has a grain as white as snow, which, when dressed, is of a clammy substance; they make various sorts of paste of it, such as vermicelli. Both these kinds from a considerable article in their trade with China. THey cultivate them only on the mountains and rising grounds, which they labour with the shade. They sow these grains as we do wheat, about the end of December, or beginning of January, when the rainy season ends: they are not above three months in the ground, and yield a plentiful crop."
Pierre Poivre, Voyages d'un Philosophe (1769)
Jefferson wrote a letter to his friend William Drayton of South Carolina about his excitement of rice being delivered to him. Drayton was president of the South Carolina Society for Improving Agriculture and Other Rural Concerns, and Jefferson's introduction of upland rice could makr the beginning of rice production in South Carolina and Georgia.
However, having no rice delivered yet, Jefferson send a letter to Malesherbes to send over the rice seeds to help the people of South Carolina with pestilential fevers. At the same time, he sent a letter to Benjamin Vaughan if he had any connections with anyone in Asia who could send him upland rice with the same purpose.
We Know Why Jefferson Did Not Get His Rice
Due to the financial state in France and the rise of the French Revolution, the Treaty of Versailles was not officially implemented and King Louis XVI was not able to provide aid for Pigneau and Nguyễn Phúc Ánh. Pigneau decided to get private support from French merchants, ship owners, and volunteers in Pondicherry (French India). He raised troops, ships, guns, and money on his own from these private sources to aid Phúc Ánh against the Tây Sơn brothers.
Pigneau and Phúc Ánh's son Cảnh returned to Vietnam in 1789 with experienced volunteer naval officers who would help Phúc Ánh rebuild his army: Olivierde de Puymanel, Jean-Baptiste Chaigneau, Philippe Vannier and Jean-Marie Dayot. A fortress in Gia Định (modern-day Saigon) was built, recapturing the city as part of Phúc Ánh's strategy with the French support.
Meanwhile, Nguyễn Huệ fought against and defeated the Qing forces, resulting in the last emperor of the dynasty, Lê Chiêu Thống, fleeing to China. This officially ended the long-lasting Lê Dynasty. Nguyễn Huệ proclaimed himself as "Quang Trung." At this point he was recognized as the "King of Annam" by the Qianlong Emperor. He also established the capital Phú Xuân (modern-day Huế) and made Vietnamese the official language for the country.
But things took a turn when Quang Trung died in 1792, leaving his 10-year-old son Nguyễn Quang Toản as the next heir to the throne. After his succession, the Tây Sơn dynasty began to fall apart as Phúc Ánh's army began to attack. The most major battle between the Tây Sơn and the Nguyễn armies took place in Qui Nhơn from 1799-1801. The siege of Qui Nhơn was successful for the Nguyễn army. As the Tây Sơn army weakened, the Nguyễn army became victorious, and took control of Phú Xuân. As a result, Phúc Ánh declared himself as king and adopted the name "Gia Long," marking the beginning of the Nguyễn dynasty.
Conclusion
On December 1, 1808, Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter to physician Benjamin Waterhouse about receiving his upland rice from Cochinchina from Prince Cảnh. This letter was written towards the end of his second term as President:
"I was at that time (1784-1789) in France, and there happening to be there a Prince of Cochin-China, on his travels, and then returning home, I obtained his promise to send me some. I never recieved it however, & mention it only as it may have been sent, & furnished the ground for the enquiries of Dr. De Carro respecting my recieving it from China. when at Havre on my return from France, I found there Capt. Nathanl. Cutting, who was the ensuing spring to go on a voyage along the coast of Africa. I engaged him to enquire for this. he was there just after the harvest, procured & sent me a 30. gallon cask of it. it arrived in time the ensuing spring to be sown..."
After nearly 10 years of waiting, Jefferson was able to obtain the upland rice. He divided the rice to the Agricultural Society of Charleston and a few gentlemen of Georgia for their use. He even cultivated the rice at his Monticello estate.
It's too bad Jefferson didn't meet Captain Jeremiah Briggs. He sailed on The Fame to Cochinchina in January 1803 to consult trade with sugar and coffee. He arrived in Tourane where he stumbled upon the ships that belonged to the King of Cochinchina. The French commodore advised him to visit to king in the capital city in talks of trade between Vietnam and America. He left Vietnam on June 10, 1803. If Jefferson knew Captain Briggs at the time before the letter was written in 1808, he would've helped Jefferson with retrieving the rice for the people of the South sooner.
Briggs' visit to Vietnam marked the beginning of America's diplomatic relations with Vietnam. It won't be until later in the 19th century more diplomats from America would travel to Vietnam to talk relations and trade.
Bibiography
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