This week reading ‘A Ming Official on the decline and fall of the Dynasty’ which was edited by Janet Chen, Pei-Kai Cheng and Michael Lestz, with Jonathan Spence I was able to get an economic perspective on the decline of the Ming Dynasty. It was in last week’s summary notes I learned about the ending of the Ming dynasty and the issues that the empire saw in its ‘final moments’. These issues included the increased levels of corruption in the government due to Chongzhen’s little active involvement in it, the weakening of the military, the increasing power of bandits and the spread of their influence as well as the problems that the empire was having with disease, famine and so on. Predominantly the lens that we saw these issues through, in last weeks readings, was quite general and merely introduced these problems and explained how it was that the emperor tried to combat them; increasing taxes, minimizing those parts of the empire that the military was actively protecting and so on. This week however my understanding of these problems was complimented with Song Yingxing’s account of particularly the economic ‘chaos’ present during this period. More specifically it is through Yingxing’s account that I was better able to understand this collapse from the perspective of one of the economy’s biggest players, merchants.
Merchants, from what we read in Yingxing’s account pulled in quite large profits. These profits however began to disappear as the emperor, to combat his own lack of money, increased taxes substantially. Yingxing explains the difference in profits to be between the amounts of 930,000 taels to a million and five hundred taels. (Jonathan.D, 2014) This coupled with a deteriorating network for salt at the time and increasing effects of bandit influence meant that approximately half of the once profitable merchant class was poor and in debt. In addition to this, the merchant’s inability to pay taxes meant that many of their families were arrested to force them to pay. (Jonathan.D, 2014) Reading about the deteriorating nature of the Ming dynasty it is fascinating to get this more narrowed view of one of the economies biggest players as when looking at civilizations like this one it is often the case that we only look at the more board factors that led to their downfall.
In addition to this another aspect of this excerpt that I found intriguing in these last moments of the Ming dynasty is the optimistic lens that Yingxing started his writing with as he mentions the “Heavenly mathematics of division and multiplication” and how it is in times of stability that chaos is soon to ensue and vice versa. (Jonathan.D, 2014) This caught my eye as we know from last week’s reading that being an official during this time, which he was, was becoming increasingly dangerous due to the eunuchs increasing corruption and interest in politics.
Sources:
“A Ming Official on the Decline and Fall of the Dynasty”. In The Search for Modern China: A Documentary Collection. Third edition. Edited by Janet Chen, Pei-Kai Cheng and Michael Lestz, with Jonathan Spence, 4-6. New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 2014.
