The Pearl River Estuary has historically been a major channel for maritime trade between China and the world. Port cities centered on Guangzhou and Macau emerged in the Ming and Qing Dynasties and became a maritime hub and trade center connecting the Ming and Qing empires to the world. In 1684，one year after it unified Taiwan with the mainland，the Qing government established “Yueh Hai-kuan”（Canton Maritime Customs）in Guangdong area. The first voyage of L’Amphitrite，a French merchant ship，to China in 1698 marked the first Sino-French trade. In this paper，based on L’Amphitrite’s voyage to Macao，Whampoa，Canton city，etc.，the author mainly explores Yueh Hai-kuan’s administration on foreign trade and analyzes its historical position in the Pearl River Estuary in the early and middle Qing Dynasty.