Merchant Captain Hong walked up to the bow and looked about him. Except for a line of coconut trees about twenty yards inland, the beach of white sand was desolate. The condition here was not as bad as he had imagined the night before when the pitching sea had thrown them off course and stranded them. His first-mate, Lee, had reported that part of the hull of the junk boat was cracked but appeared repairable.
Pang, the ship's cook, came to stand beside him and said, "Good news, Captain. The waters had not flooded our galley, so we have more than enough food supply to last us for another two months."
A warm feeling filled the merchant's belly. Though being stranded meant that he could not be in to Singapore as per scheduled, the beach there looked so untouched and the air so clean that he did not mind. He decided that a little holiday for both him and his men was not such a bad thing.
The following morning, however, he changed his mind. The sentries on duty had neither heard nor seen the approach of a body of fifty strange men who now encircled the ship with spears pointing upwards. Standing tall feathers grew out of their heads, black teeth snarled between their lips, and tasseled loin-cloth hung down to their ankles. Immediately, Captain Hong ordered his men to bring out ten jars of Chinese rice wine and lower them down to the sand below.
From the gunwale, the Captain called out in Malay, "Greetings brave warriors. Forgive me for intruding upon your land without permission, but the storm has pushed my ship too close to shore and now it is stranded in the sand. I hope you will allow us to stay until we can repair our vessel and let the high tide take us back to sea again."
The oldest Iban warrior with the thickest forest of feathers on his head planted his spear in the sand and replied in the same language. "You and your men may stay, as long as you promise not to harm or steal from my people."
As he spoke, a cloud of swiflets flew overhead like a spiraling whirlwind.
Captain Hong looked up, and true to his merchant pedigree, said, "No, I do not wish to do any mischief in your land. But I would like to trade."
"Trade, what is that?" said the chief who was known as Tuai Ladong to his people.
"It is the act of exchanging something that is yours for something that is mine."
"Yes, I know that. We sometimes exchange rice for iron. Do you want rice?"
"Oh no," Captain Hong said. "We have enough rice to take us to our destination. We have some cloth in the ship that we can trade for the nests of those birds flying above our heads."
Ladong's eyes widened, then he turned to his men and translated the business proposal. The roar of laughter that issued made Captain Hong's smile warmer because it meant that bird's nest was useless to these people thus indicating that he could get more for each yard of silk.
Captain Hong decided that it was a good time to meet the natives face to face, so he climbed down a rope ladder and smiled wide with shoulders stooped low and hands clasped together as he took a seat on a freshly chopped coconut log which Tuai Ladong indicated to him.
Then his nephew and a handful of the bravest men clambered down to the beach after they have lowered a dozen rolls of brightly colored silk for the natives' inspection.
Discussion began on how much nest should be brought in for a yard of silk. Some men complained that the work was too hard but were scoffed off by heartier, younger men who boasted that they could pluck and carry a thirty-kilogram-load of bird's nest back down to the beach within two days. Finally it was agreed that one yard of silk cloth would be traded for ten kilogram of nest.
Then Captain Hong proceeded to drink with the Ibans until dawn. His nephew, Hong the Younger, made sure that the crew did not join them, lest their employer's negotiated rates be compromised.
Note:
Before trade can be conducted, there must be a perception of value for the two products about to be exchanged. In a free market, this value is established by negotiation. "Fair" value, however, can only be realized if both sides have enough information about each others' needs.
In the above case, the Chinese merchant perceived that the Ibans appreciated cloth by the length of their loincloth. He also noted their distain of the product he asked for in return. He could start with an offer to pay for their effort alone, but there was always the danger of the head-hunters finding out about the international value of bird's nest from other merchants so he must try to find a balance. Hong wanted a long-term relationship with the natives because the squall of swiflets that flocked above his head numbered in the thousands, and he knew that if he was fair with them, and they learned to trust him, they could all become rich together.