Silver and the Fall of the Ming:A Reassessment

Abstract

Historians of pie-modern Europe have found concepts such as “Renaissance,” “Crisis” and “Enlightenment” useful for portraying the dominant features of an age. The attempt to link the Political instability of mid-seventeenth century Europe to social and economic factors continues, yet without any clear consensus emerging. Chinese scholars have also remarked on the importance of silver in Ming China and on the dramatic increase in imports of the metal from the mid-sixteenth century onwards. Liang Fangzhong was one of a group of young scholars who in the 1930s began to concentrate more upon social and economic questions in Chinese history. Silver had been used both as a monetary medium and as a store of wealth in China at least since the beginning of the imperial epoch, so this remark of the Jesuit Father Du Halde is perhaps not surprising. Counterfeiting and the consequent devaluation of the copper coinage were indeed serious problems, particularly towards the end of the Ming dynasty.