Message from rstrong

[Anonymous]

I've just taught section 19.2 from "World History: Patterns of Interaction" which focuses on the Ming and Qing dynasties. We focused on Confucian values and contact with the West. To complement this, I used the following extract from the Ebrey sourcebook:

Zang Han “Essay on Merchants” (1511-1593) Chinese Civilization: A Sourcebook. Patricia Ebrey. New York: The Free Press. 1993. 216-220.

As to the foreign trade on the northwestern frontier and the foreign sea trade in the southeast, if we compare their advantages and disadvantages with respect to our nation’s wealth and the people’s well-being, we will discover that they are as different as black and white. But those who are in charge of state economic matters know only the benefits of the Northwest trade, ignoring the benefits of the sea trade. How can they be so blind?

In the early years of the frontier trade, China traded sackcloth and copper cash to the foreigners. Now we use silk and gold but the foreigners repay us only with thin horses. When we exchanged sackcloth and copper cash for their thin horses, the advantage of the trade was still with China and our national wealth was not endangered. But now we give away gold and silk, and the gold, at least, will never come back to us, once it flows into foreign lands. Moreover, to use the silk that China needs for people’s clothing to exchange for useless, inferior horses is clearly unwise.

Foreigners are recalcitrant and their greed knows no bounds. At the present time our nation spends over one million cash yearly from our treasury on those foreigners; still we cannot rid ourselves of their demands. What is more, the greedy heart is unpredictable. If one day these foreigners break the treaties and invade our frontiers, who will be able to defend us against them? I do not think our present trade with them will ensure us with a century of peace.

As to the foreigners in the southeast, their goods are useful to us just as ours are to them. To use what one has to exchange for what one does not have is what trade is all about. Moreover, these foreigners trade with China under the name of tributary contributions. That means China’s authority is established, and the foreigners are submissive. Even if the gifts we grant them are great and the tribute they send us is small, our expense is still less than one ten-thousandth of the benefit we gain from trading with them...

1. What is the difference between the northwest trade and the southeast trade?

2. Why does Zang Han find the northwest trade less acceptable?

3. Who were the Ming trading with on their northwest border?

4. If the northwest trade is so unprofitable, why would China continue to engage in it?

5. How does the attitude of the author reflect the attitudes of the Ming Dynasty?

6. How does the attitude of the author compare with that of the Yuan Dynasty toward trade?

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The point of the questions above is to get the students to think about the relationship between the the Ming dynasty, the preceding Yuan dynasty, and the later Qing Dynasty, particularly as far as trade and Confucian values are concerned.