By Nguyen Nha, Ph.D. (translated by Le Duc)

In the era in which Vietnam was known as Dai Viet, under the rule of the Nguyen Lords in the South, there was increasingly more establishments of companies like Bac Hai, because the Nguyen Lords continuously made more discoveries of vast coral reefs in the Eastern Sea. Nevertheless, the Nguyen Lords continued to allow the Hoang Sa Company to oversee everything in order make it easier to know the exact situation in the Eastern Sea. The head of the Hoang Sa Company had to be an important mandarin, such as Thuyen Duc Hau, who was discussed by the historian Le Quy Don in his books from 1702 to 1713.

Thuyen Duc Hau was promoted to a very high position, as was Phu Nhuan Hau, who in the report dated 1.10.1803 (reign of Emperor Gia Long) was said to be charged with the task of “head overseer of the Sa Ky sea door and commander of the Hoang Sa Company.  As head overseer, Phu Nhuan Hau was charged with the task of patrolling the opening to the sea. As head controller, he was charged with the task of organizing patrol and fight illegal activities on the sea. Because Phu Nhuan Hau was given important responsibilities which he harried out credibly, he was charged with managing other companies including the Bac Hai Company. The Bac Hai Company was a semi-military company during the era of Nguyen Lord expansion.

Le Quy Don’s Phu Bien Tap Luc (Book 2) made very specific mentions of the Bac Hai Company as follows:

“The Nguyen Lords also established the Bac Hai Company. This company is not given a specific number of members. Or how many people from Tu Chinh village and from Canh Dung village who are chosen to be part of the Bac hai Company. Whoever volunteers to go will be given documents and instructions for their work.”

“Whoever is installed as member of the Bac Hai Company are exempted from sưu [a kind of fee] or miscellaneous fees such as check points or ferry.”

Members of the company set out by boat to the Bac Hai Region, the Con Lon islands in the Ha Tien region in order to search for and gather [various marine products].”

This means that organizationally, there is no determined number of trips or number of members in the Bac Hai Company, but depends on the need and the ability of the people from Tu Chinh (Binh Thuan) or Canh Duong, who volunteer and obtain papers to go.

The privileges are the same as other companies, which is exemption from the sưu fee as well as miscellaneous fees such as ferry and checkpoint tolls. There is no mention of tax exemption. Private and fishing boats were used. The region of activity was in the South, in the Spratly archipelago, as well as in Con Lon, Ha Tien.

In the south of the Eastern Sea, nowadays, there are few big storms; the level of danger is lower, making the number of sunken vessels low. Therefore, few treasures from sunken vessels are gathered. Instead, the work concentrates on catching fish and other products in the sea.

The Bac Hai Company continued to be mentioned in other later historical documents (19^th century). According to the 1844 Dai Nam Thuc Luc Tien Bien, the Bac Hai Company recruited villagers from Binh Thuan, Tu Chinh, or Canh Duong villages, who were instructed to take small boats out to Bac Hai to gather products, under the oversee of the Hoang Sa Company.

In Dai nam Nhat Thong Chi (Book 6), Quang Ngai Province, completed in 1882, it is written: “The Bac Hai Company went to Con Lon islands to gather sea products under the oversee of the Hoang Sa Company.” There isn’t any documents that indicate whether the Hoang Sa or the Bac Hai Companies went out of existence first. We are only sure that the Bac Hai Company was set up after the Hoang Sa Company, and before 1776, which is the date of Le Quy Don’s historical work Phu Bien Tap Luc.

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