The Qing Dynasty's "closed country" led to China's transformation from advanced to backward, so that it was passively beaten at the end of the dynasty, and later generations often criticized it for closing an era.
But in fact, the Ming Dynasty was also a closed era, and the intensity was more than that of the Qing Dynasty, and the 200-year-old maritime ban policy was unprecedented, so why did the Ming Dynasty implement the maritime ban policy?
In the early days of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered the implementation of a maritime ban policy, which mainly included prohibiting merchants from doing business overseas, and also did not allow foreign merchants to do business in China, and only tributary trade became the only legal way to conduct maritime activities.
And the reason why he did this, in fact, there are many reasons, the Ming Dynasty at the beginning of the previous dynasty system, the implementation of the government-led trade policy, but after a period of implementation, Zhu Yuanzhang found that he continued to lose money, and the treasury began to be empty.
This made the financial burden of the Ming Dynasty heavier and heavier, so Zhu Yuanzhang changed the strategy of national development and began to pay attention to the development of agriculture, and commerce did not occupy the mainstream.
And when Zhu Yuanzhang was competing for the world, Zhang Shicheng, one of his biggest opponents, once received the help of foreign trade businessmen, which made Zhu Yuanzhang hate foreign trade very much, and another opponent, Chen Youliang, had a strong naval army, which caused heavy losses to Zhu Yuanzhang.
The sum of these things made Zhu Yuanzhang have a natural fear of water activities, and now that he has a reason, he naturally wants to quickly extinguish sea activities.
Moreover, during this period, the Japanese began to rise, they organized fleets, from the sea to the coastal areas of China, to harass and rob, Zhu Yuanzhang in order to maintain national stability and border security, promulgated a strict maritime ban policy.
In addition, during the Hongwu period, maritime trade gave rise to the problem of internal and external collusion, and the occurrence of Hu Weiyong's case further deepened Zhu Yuanzhang's vigilance against maritime threats.
During the Yongle period, Zhu Di inherited and strengthened the maritime ban policy, prohibiting private sea vessels from sailing, and even taking extreme measures against businessmen living overseas, showing the firmness of his precautionary intentions.
Although Zheng He's voyage to the West during the Yongle period demonstrated the diplomatic demeanor of the Ming Dynasty, private navigation was still strictly prohibited, and the maritime ban policy was not relaxed.
Subsequently, the frequent incursions of the Japanese invaders exacerbated the tension in the coastal areas and further tightened the maritime ban policy, a measure that curbed foreign aggression to a certain extent, but also seriously affected the exchange and development between China and foreign countries.
It was not until the Longqing period that the Ming Dynasty government gradually relaxed the sea ban and allowed the private sector to participate in international trade, known as the "Longqing Switch" in history, which greatly promoted the vigorous development of Sino-foreign trade and opened a new era of Ming Dynasty and the world.
In the development of history, the Ming Dynasty's maritime ban policy has experienced many ups and downs, from the strict sea ban in the Hongwu period, to the relative relaxation of Zheng He's voyage to the West during the Yongle period, and then to the re-tightening from Hongxi to Hongzhi, and the high-pressure policy in the Jiajing period, and finally the transition to the opening up after the opening up of Longqing, this series of policy changes affected the historical trend of the Ming Dynasty.
The design and implementation of these policies was the judgment of the rulers of the Ming Dynasty on the national security situation, as well as the consideration of maritime power and international trade.
