Today in the history of Sasha.
Author: Sasha
This article is Sasha original and is not reprinted by any media
Did Daming lose money or make money in the seven trips to the West? On January 19, 1431, Zheng He made his seventh (and last) voyage to the West.
Why did Zheng He go to the West to earn back a lot of gold and silver jewelry with Chinese goods, but instead make Daming poor?
Daming did not become poorer, on the contrary, he became much richer.
China in the Ming Dynasty was the world's most powerful economic entity and a commercial entity.
From the opening of the Sino-European sea route in the 1550s to the fall of the Ming Dynasty in 1644, China maintained a huge trade surplus for one century, which is extremely rare in the history of world trade.
Chinese goods are very competitive and even monopolized in the world.
The data said: As far as textile production is concerned, China is the origin of hemp fiber, and has accumulated rich production technologies for more than a thousand years, and bleaching technologies such as "half-immersion and half-drying" of hemp wisps and sulfur fumigation are at the world's leading level at that time. Chinese raw silk products can withstand the sea breeze and do not change color, European silk product style, weaving, pattern design, printing and dyeing technology are all influenced and inspired by China, what's more, Britain did not weave better quality linen until after 1690.
For Chinese silk goods, foreign merchants are even more amazed, "all kinds of silk goods shipped from China, white is the most popular, its white is as white as snow, and no product in Europe can compare with Chinese silk goods."
Look, Daming is so awesome.
The high quality and low price of goods are an important reason why China has achieved a trade surplus with Europe for 100 years.
Zheng He and his descendants obtained a large amount of silver after opening the shipping route, which was also a decisive factor in trade hegemony.
Research by Portuguese scholar Margarens Godinho shows that the vast majority of Japan's silver production and half of the world's silver in the Americas flowed into China.
The amount of silver in Daming has soared, but it still cannot match the demand for silver. Prices in China remained low, and the purchasing power of silver was twice that of the Song Dynasty.
As a result, the export price of Chinese goods is lower and has a great price advantage.
The information reads:
The prices of China's major bulk export commodities in the international market are compared with similar foreign products as follows:
Silk fabrics: the price of Chinese silk fabrics in the Mexican market is one-third of similar products in Spain, one-ninth in Peru, one-third of similar products in the Netherlands in Southeast Asia, and one-quarter of European products in Europe;
Hemp fabrics: European hemp fabrics in the Mexican market are 8 times more expensive than similar products in China;
Copper and iron products: The price of Chinese iron nails in the Philippine market is a quarter of that of Spanish products, so the Peruvian governor Cañete sent a ship to the Philippines in 1590 to buy Chinese copper and iron products, and a Spanialt, Vera, once suggested buying cheap Chinese copper cannons in the Philippines and shipping them to Mexico and Peru;
Raw silk: In 1621, the Dutch East India Company purchased a batch of Taiwanese raw silk, and the gross profit margin reached 320% after shipping it to the European market;
Meat, vegetables, fruits: A Spanish priest Martin Delada marveled at the price of meat, vegetables, and fruits in China, as if they were penny...
Western Europe urgently needs high-quality and inexpensive Chinese goods, and spices, medicinal herbs, tea, porcelain, silk and other goods are very popular with Europeans. After years of war and natural disasters, Europe had limited access to exporting goods sold to the East, and had to be paid for in cash, the precious metal silver. They had to bring large amounts of silver to China to buy goods and sell them back to China for dumping. The so-called razed ships "carried very few goods, most of them were pan silver".
Zheng He's seven trips to the West did cost a huge amount of money, which overwhelmed Daming's economy.
In addition to opening up trade routes, Zheng He went to the West to promote the prestige of the Ming Dynasty.
Therefore, Zheng He's fleet was very large, with more than 240 ships and 27,400 crew members.
The fleet needs 27 tons of food, 71 tons of drinking water, and 14 tons of vegetables and fruits to sail every day, which together is more than 100 tons.
The scale of Zheng He's fleet was unimaginable to European explorers.
Whether it was Columbus or Magellan, the fleet was not large.
Columbus discovered the New World with only 3 ships and 87 crew members.
The price was that Zheng He's seven trips to the West were huge, totaling 6 million taels of silver, which was not a small amount for Daming's finances.
However, the significance of Zheng He's voyage to the West was significant, opening many routes that did not exist before, greatly facilitating official trade.
In the era of Zhu Yuanzhang, because of the existence of the Northern Yuan and the chaos in the sea frontier, Lao Zhu implemented the ban on the sea.
The essence of the sea ban is to prohibit civilian maritime trade and prevent rebels at sea from being financed.
In Zhu Di's era, non-governmental maritime trade was also not allowed, but vigorously developed national maritime trade.
Zheng He's visit to the West with the nature of the Daming state was actually a way to open up China's national trade.
According to scholars' estimates, the trade benefits brought by Zheng He's voyage to the West were at least 200,000 taels of gold and tens of millions of taels of silver, which was more than ten times the income of the Song and Yuan dynasties.
It's making money, not losing money!
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