China in World History by Ropp Paul S

Author:Ropp, Paul S.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 2010-06-30T16:00:00+00:00

Unfortunately, none of the succeeding Ming emperors were very effective political or military leaders. In one famous case, the Wanli Emperor spent much of his nearly fifty-year reign, from 1572 to 1620, in a mental and political tug-of-war with his Confucian officials. After his officials would not allow him to elevate the consort he loved most to the position of empress because he already had an empress, he refused for two decades to hold court, read official documents, or make decisions about government policy. His officials and eunuchs were forced to carry on a charade of normality while the emperor devoted himself to the pleasures of private life in the palace. Meanwhile, increasing factionalism in the bureaucracy was accompanied by sometimes lethal power struggles between Confucian bureaucrats and palace eunuchs, who grew in numbers and influence in the middle and late Ming. By the end of the dynasty, the government supported perhaps 100,000 eunuchs and another 100,000 members of the extended imperial family.

In a pattern not unlike the Song period, the political problems of the Ming did not prevent a second commercial revolution from transforming Chinese society. During the Ming period, more land came under cultivation in southwest China, and by the late sixteenth century, new crops from the Americas—tobacco, corn, peanuts, tomatoes, sweet red peppers, potatoes, and sweet potatoes—were all introduced into China. These crops could often be grown on hilly or sandy soil not previously farmed. They helped produce another dramatic burst of population growth in the late Ming and entire Qing period. Interregional trade grew steadily, and as merchants accumulated significant wealth, they began to challenge, in practice if not yet in theory, the traditional Confucian prejudice against merchants.

The southern lower Yangzi valley region around Nanjing, Suzhou, and Hangzhou became by far the most prosperous area in China. Cotton production grew dramatically during the Ming. Farmers increasingly specialized in cash crops such as fruits, vegetables, rice, wheat, sugar, cotton, tea, and tobacco, and silver became the main medium of exchange in the economy. Vast quantities of silver flowed into China from Japan and, from 1570 onward, from the Spanish production of silver in Peru and Mexico. The Spanish took silver to Manila, where they bought Chinese products, especially silk and porcelain. The export trade grew rapidly as the world began to discover the attractions of Chinese silks, tea, and porcelain. The imperial kilns at the southern town of Jingdezhen came in the Ming to employ more than 10,000 workers. Using a special clay from that area and firing pieces at temperatures exceeding 1,300 degrees Centigrade, they produced elegant blue and white porcelain wares that have been world famous ever since.

By the late Ming, China was widely seen as the most prosperous country on earth. Some economic historians have estimated that three-fourths of all the silver produced in the New World from 1500 to 1800 found its way to China, because the Chinese economy was the most highly developed in the world and its products were better and cheaper than those of any other country.

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