Ming Dynasty Trade
Andrew Paul Stokes
June 5, 2011
Ming Dynasty Economy
It’s growth and it’s decline.
By Andrew Paul Stokes
Beijing Union University
1|P a ge
Andrew Paul Stokes
June 5, 2011
Ming Dynasty Economy
The Ming Dynasty
The economy of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) of China was the largest in the world at the time. It is regarded as one of China 's three golden ages (the other two being the Han and Tang dynasties), the Ming is also the dynasty where the first sprouts of Chinese capitalism can be seen. The economic growth so evident under the Ming Dynasty continued under the Qing Dynasty, up until the time of the Opium War in the 1840s. During this time, China’s domestic economy was a dynamic, commercialising economy, and in some ways, even an industrialising economy. The Ming Dynasty, “one of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history” 1, was the last native imperial dynasty in Chinese history, sandwiched between the two dynasties of foreign origin, Yuan and Qing. The Ming stand as the last attempt to hold Chinese government in native hands and the last dynasty run by ethnic Hans. As China was humiliated and oppressed by the rule of the Mongols, the Ming Dynasty rose up out of a peasant rebellion led by Zhu Yuanzhang to preside over the greatest economic and social revolution in China before the modern period. Trade was allowed between China and nations in the west, cash crops were more frequently grown, specialised industries were founded, and the economic growth caused by the privatisation of state industries resulted in a prosperous period that exceeded that of the earlier Song Dynasty. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, shortly before the Manchus overthrew the Ming and established the Qing Dynasty, China’s economy was a period of expansion. New markets were being founded, and merchants were extending their businesses across provincial lines and even into the South China Sea.
Establishment of the Ming under the
June 5, 2011
Ming Dynasty Economy
It’s growth and it’s decline.
By Andrew Paul Stokes
Beijing Union University
1|P a ge
Andrew Paul Stokes
June 5, 2011
Ming Dynasty Economy
The Ming Dynasty
The economy of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) of China was the largest in the world at the time. It is regarded as one of China 's three golden ages (the other two being the Han and Tang dynasties), the Ming is also the dynasty where the first sprouts of Chinese capitalism can be seen. The economic growth so evident under the Ming Dynasty continued under the Qing Dynasty, up until the time of the Opium War in the 1840s. During this time, China’s domestic economy was a dynamic, commercialising economy, and in some ways, even an industrialising economy. The Ming Dynasty, “one of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history” 1, was the last native imperial dynasty in Chinese history, sandwiched between the two dynasties of foreign origin, Yuan and Qing. The Ming stand as the last attempt to hold Chinese government in native hands and the last dynasty run by ethnic Hans. As China was humiliated and oppressed by the rule of the Mongols, the Ming Dynasty rose up out of a peasant rebellion led by Zhu Yuanzhang to preside over the greatest economic and social revolution in China before the modern period. Trade was allowed between China and nations in the west, cash crops were more frequently grown, specialised industries were founded, and the economic growth caused by the privatisation of state industries resulted in a prosperous period that exceeded that of the earlier Song Dynasty. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, shortly before the Manchus overthrew the Ming and established the Qing Dynasty, China’s economy was a period of expansion. New markets were being founded, and merchants were extending their businesses across provincial lines and even into the South China Sea.
Establishment of the Ming under the
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