The Study On The Trade Between China And The Philippines In Ming Dynasty

In sixteenth and seventeenth century, great changes had taken place in European society, such as the open of new routes, the overseas colonizes, the Renaissance, the religion reform and so on, which started the process of Modernization. At the same time, China was in the rule of the late Ming Dynasty, once prosperous, but hard to make a big breakthrough. The coming of westerners opened the door for direct communications between two civilizations—the East and the West, which made fierce impact on traditional society. In 1571, the Spain occupied the Philippines, then the trade between China and the Philippines was developed rapidly, distinctively compared to the early Ming Dynasty. In Ming Dynasty, the trade between China and the Philippines was the most important part of the relations between the two countries, which also has great significance to studying the society of Ming dynasty.In the earlier Ming Dynasty, the trade between China and the Philippines is traditional tribute trade. The Ming Dynasty carried out the policy of maritime prohibition, banning private overseas trade, so tribute trade got a rapid development with the support of government. In YongLe period, tribute trade achieved its highest point,for example,SuLu and others countries established good relations with Ming Dynasty, which greatly strengthened bilateral politic and economic relations.But tribute trade abided by the rule of "Giving more and Getting less",which violated the basic economic rule and preferred politics to economy, so it lacked the lasting development power. After the YongLe period, the trade between China and the Philippines fell into stopping condition. Meantime, private overseas trade also existed in Southeast coast, only to difficultly develop in the winter of maritime prohibition.In the late Ming Dynasty, the trade between China and the Philippines turned out to be a prosperous scene. After the Spain occupied the Philippines, the trade between China and the Philippines acutally changed into the trade between China and the Spain. Compared to the earlier, the trade between China and the Philippines of this period mainly is private overseas trade, showing the charactes of big scale,high level,profound influence and so on. Galleon Trade in Pacific Ocean even expanded the trade between China and the Philippines to America and Europe, so the market of the late Ming Dynasty had got in touch with world market. Abundant America silver flowed into China through the Philippines, which accelerated the process of silver currency in the late Ming Dynasty, also promoted the development of commodity economy in the Southeast, and in some degree helped to generate China's Earliest Seeds of Capitalism.Traditional Chinese society was greatly affected by western world in the late Ming Dynasty, which made China face new challenge ,but also acquire new chance of development. The coming of westerners actually brought colonizing threat to China, Macao and Taiwan being occupied one after another by westerners, overseas Chinese merchants being slaughtered by westerners ; but on the other hand , "Western learning introduced into China " also made China generate some new changes in economic and cultural field, even gave China the possibility to realize social transformation.However, it was a pity that China couldn't grasp the chance to develop herself into modern society rapidly like the West,for some interior political and cultural factors. Studying the trade between China and the Philippines in the Ming Dynasty just provides us a new perspective to review the development of the Ming Dynasty society.