Silver: the Fall of the Ming Dynasty

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The main argument made in the article, International Bullion Flows and the Chinese Economy circa 1530-1650 by William Atwell, is that during the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, an influx in the demand of silver and foreign demand of Chinese goods led to the fall of the Ming dynasty. Chinese merchants traded for large quantities of silver. It started off as simple supply and demand. However, as the supply stopped rising, the demand kept rising causing inflation in China. By looking at charts that show the relationship between the year and the amount of silver imported, I will be able to support my belief that major factors to the fall of the Ming dynasty was the collapse of foreign trade and the over-dependency on silver as monetary funding. In the fourteenth and fifteenth century China had become dependent on precious metals as they started using them for monetary use. They were able to mine their own copper and silver for so long but even that soon turned scarce. The merchants of China were smart though and knew they needed to find a way to get silver. Throughout the sixteenth century substantial deposits of silver were found in Japan. This silver was quickly found in the hands of Japanese merchants which would soon be traded with China. Illegal trading amongst the Southern Chinese merchants and Japan started around the middle of the sixteenth century. This would be named the Sino-Japanese trade. The Ming government tried to control trade amongst the Japanese however, noticed smuggling along the coast, forcing the Ming dynasty to prohibit trade between the two countries. That did not stop Chinese merchants and by the 1540’s they were seen trading Chinese goods for silver at ports in southern Japan. It is impossible to determine how much silver was traded between these countries as much of the trading was done illegally. Evidence shows that

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