Ming dynasty was overrun in 1644 by the Jurchen people,
the Manchus of inner Asia, who created the Qing dynasty. A
period of intense political instability then ensued. The Qings
engaged in mass expropriation of property and assets. In
the 1690s, T’ang Chen, a retired Chinese scholar and
failed merchant, wrote:
More than fifty years have passed since the
founding of the Ch’ing [Qing] dynasty, and the
empire grows poorer each day. Farmers are
destitute, artisans are destitute, merchants
are destitute, and officials too are destitute.
Grain is cheap, yet it is hard to eat one’s fill.
Cloth is cheap, yet it is hard to cover one’s
skin. Boatloads of goods travel from one
marketplace to another, but the cargoes must
be sold at a loss. Officials upon leaving their
posts discover they have no wherewithal to
support their households. Indeed the four
occupations are all impoverished.
In 1661 the emperor Kangxi ordered that all people living
along the coast from Vietnam to Chekiang—essentially the
entire southern coast, once the most commercially active
part of China—should move seventeen miles inland. The
coast was patrolled by troops to enforce the measure, and
until 1693 there was a ban on shipping everywhere on the
coast. This ban was periodically reimposed in the
eighteenth century, effectively stunting the emergence of
Chinese overseas trade. Though some did develop, few
were willing to invest when the emperor could suddenly
change his mind and ban trade, making investments in
ships, equipment, and trading relations worthless or even
worse.
The reasoning of the Ming and Qing states for opposing
international trade is by now familiar: the fear of creative
destruction. The leaders’ primary aim was political stability.
International trade was potentially destabilizing as
merchants were enriched and emboldened, as they were in
England during the era of Atlantic expansion. This was not
just what the rulers believed during the Ming and Qing
dynasties, but also the attitude of the rulers of the Song