It should be said that it is unreasonable to forcibly clasp the pot of the ming dynasty's demise on Zhang Juzheng's head. Zhang Juzheng's Wanli New Deal enabled the Ming Empire to continue its life. Relying on Zhang Juzheng's accumulation, coupled with the Wanli Emperor's way of making money and engaging in mining supervision and taxation, the Ming Dynasty had this financial strength and won the three major levies of Wanli.
If We must find Zhang Juzheng's fault in the matter of the fall of the Ming Dynasty, then we can only start with a whipping method. What does a whip mean? It is to add up all kinds of peasant burdens to a merger of the same kind and settle it with silver.
The problem is silver, China is a country that lacks silver, since silver is not enough, why would it be settled with silver? The most fundamental reason is that the Western countries have entered the age of great navigation, and with Columbus's discovery of the North American continent, European and American colonists have flocked to enter the virgin land of the Americas. Thus, a large number of American silver was discovered.
It was at this time that Emperor Jiajing of the Ming Dynasty died and his son Longqing came to power. One of his key policies was to end the enforcement of sea bans and to open up and trade in the oceans of nations. The Spaniards, Dutch and Japanese all joined the Ming trade, and a large number of Ming dynasty products were sold overseas.
In China's self-sufficient economic model, there are not many commodities that need to be imported, so China occupies the position of trade surplus, and a huge amount of silver flows into China, which lays the foundation for Zhang Juzheng to successfully implement a whip law.
But this also means that China's economic security is heavily dependent on maritime trade with foreign countries, and once the amount of maritime trade drops sharply, there will be a serious crisis.
Beginning in 1620, a 30-year-long war broke out in Europe, and all the countries that originally traded with the Ming Dynasty were involved in this protracted war. As a result, the silver flow was cut off, and there was no silver inflow in the Ming Dynasty, which plunged the country into a huge crisis.
The first crisis appeared in the Shengdou xiaomin, the people had no money, because there was no silver, the various materials produced by the people could not be turned into money. As a result, the purchasing power of the market has shrunk, and for the country, it is unable to receive enough taxes, and the state has no money, so naturally it can only default on military salaries.
Thus, a terrible vicious circle arose, in which the common people were strapped for cash, the army was seriously underpaid, and the phenomenon of officers eating empty salaries was extremely serious. The equipment renewal of the troops slowed down, the maintenance was unfavorable, and the army was seriously lacking in training, which also explained why the Ming army using firearms could not defeat the Manchu Qing Eight Banners with strong bows and crossbows.
So if we must let the fall of the Ming Dynasty have a little relationship with Zhang Juzheng, I think there is only one point.