How many tributary states did the Ming Dynasty have, and there were 148 of them. Is this an honorable thing? Many people use this to exaggerate, saying that the Ming Dynasty is the coming of all nations and the world is submissive. In the late Ming Dynasty, the Italian missionary Matteo Ricci came to China, and after examining the so-called tributary system, he said that "it is not the world that pays tribute to China, but China pays tribute to the world." What does this mean?
First of all, in order to create the illusion of "all nations coming to the dynasty", the Ming Dynasty banned non-governmental trade and implemented the policy of sea prohibition. One of the purposes of the policy of sea prohibition was to monopolize trade by the authorities and force foreigners to carry out tributary trade with China; secondly, it was to implement a policy of "thin and thick exchanges", which meant that as long as they came to pay tribute, the Ming Dynasty would certainly give large-scale rewards. Therefore, the tributary trade is not profitable, but loses money. Third, the fleets that traded with China in the future were recorded as tributes, so that among the 148 tributary states of the Ming Dynasty, the Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese and other colonial powers at that time were included. Fourth, Zheng He's fleet was sent to the West, publicizing the ming dynasty's national prestige everywhere, and then taking the initiative to carry out tributary trade with various countries, and the Ming Dynasty gained a reputation and the neighboring countries gained money.
African countries pay tribute to the "unicorn."
But the result of this tributary trade was that the financial pressure of the Ming Dynasty was too great. The Ming Dynasty was not allowed to reward a large amount of gold and silver to neighboring countries in the tributary trade, so the early Ming Dynasty prohibited the circulation of silver in the country. During the Yongle period, the tributary state reached its peak, and the supply of silver was insufficient, so silver mines were excavated throughout the country and Chinese silver was given to foreign countries. However, the revenue of the Ming Dynasty was not rich, its commercial income was only one-sixth of that of the Song Dynasty, and 90% of the country's finances came from agricultural taxes. In order to support expenditure, the Ming Dynasty increased the collection of taxes, while issuing paper money and copper coins on a large scale, leading to inflation. During the Xuande period, the price of rice, cotton cloth and other materials rose 50 times compared with the Hongwu years, and the price of cloth rose by more than 300 times. Inflation has severely hit the development of industry and commerce and has also seriously damaged the interests of ordinary people. Just as the attendant Zou Jiao Shangshu said: "Money is forbidden since the past, and now it is the world's possession to go with it, which can be described as inappropriate."
We can illustrate this problem by a few examples of tributary trade. The first example is the change of the civil fort. The Weyrat Mongols were already powerful by the time of Emperor Ming Yingzong, and almost unified the Mongol tribes. First, in order to obtain more economic benefits in the Ming Dynasty, he frequently "paid tribute" to the Ming Dynasty, and after 1439, the tribute envoys of Walla came to Beijing every year reached more than 2,000 people. The Ming Dynasty spent a lot of money on Wallachia, and the Annual Supply Fee for "Tribute Envoys" in the Datong region alone amounted to 300,000 taels. In 1449, the ming dynasty also came to pay tribute, and the Ming Dynasty this time subtracted four-fifths of the horse price, which meant that 80% less reward was given. Advantage was also angry and began to attack Datong, Ming Yingzong led 500,000 elites to fight, the result was that the entire army was destroyed, and Ming Yingzong was captured.
The second example is the Battle of Japan for Tribute. At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang sent people to Japan to ask for a visit to the Dynasty, but japan refused. However, in 1401, Japan was unified, and its Muromachi shogunate considered that Japan had been in war for a long time, the economy was withering, and it needed a lot of funds, so it decided to "pay tribute" to the Ming Dynasty and used the Ming Dynasty as a cash machine. In the Warring States period of Japan, the major warlords began to compete for the monopoly of tribute to the Ming Dynasty. In 1523, two major Japanese warlords arrived in Ningbo with tribute vouchers, and the Ming Dynasty received them. As a result, in order to compete for trade rights against the Ming Dynasty, two warlords killed in Ningbo, and one of the warlords burned and plundered all the way in Ningbo, and his pursuing Beiwu commander Liu Jin and Qianhu Zhang pinched to death. This is the famous "Battle of Tribute". Since then, the Ming Dynasty has banned trade with Japan.
The third example is the mutual market. After the Tumubao Rebellion, the tributary trade between the Ming Dynasty and the Mongols was interrupted, and the Mongols repeatedly attacked Datong, causing the Ming Dynasty to be exhausted. During the reign of Uttar Khan, southern Mongolia rose to prominence, and he invaded Datong 45 times. In 1550, when The Khan attacked Datong, Qiu Luan, the commander-in-chief of the Datong army in Xuanfu Province, chose to bribe the Khan with a large amount of money, and the content of the bribe was not to make the Khan retreat, but to let him attack other regions. Soon after, Uttar Khan went directly to attack Beijing, triggering the famous "Gengzhi Change". In the face of the Mongol attack, the forbidden army in Beijing was afraid to fight. What is even more ridiculous is that the commander of the Forbidden Army in Beijing also disguised himself as a Mongol army and went to the countryside to rob. In order to let the Khan evacuate Beijing, the Jiajing Emperor hurriedly sent a large amount of "leather coins and pearls" to the Khan to beg for peace with the Khan, and let him burn and loot in Beijing, and finally returned after killing him. This is the very absurd "change of Gengji" in history. Later, in order to prevent the Attack of the Khan, the Ming Dynasty agreed to resume the tributary trade, and paid a large amount of "Year Coin" to the Khan every year, similar to the Northern Song Dynasty's "Year Coin". In this way, peace was restored, and this matter was called the "Mutual Market".
The Change of Gengji
The fourth thing was that the Jurchens attacked the Ming Dynasty. At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, in order to appease the Jurchens, they carried out tributary trade with the Jurchens, and the Jurchens received many benefits. In 1464, the Ming Dynasty imposed a limit on the number of Jurchen tributes in Haixi and Jianzhou, which caused dissatisfaction among the Jurchen ministries. So the Jianzhou Ministry began to "plunder" Liaodong. Since then, the war between the Ming Dynasty and the Jurchens has been carried out intermittently. In the 60 years after the two conquests during the Chenghua period, the Jurchens of Jianzhou once again submitted to the Ming Dynasty, resumed tributary trade with the Ming Dynasty, and accepted the Ming Dynasty's canonization. During these 60 years, the economy of the founding state began to recover. During the Jiajing period, the relationship between the Jurchens and the Ming Dynasty became tense again, also because the Jurchens' "tributes" were hindered. Beginning in 1542, the Jurchens of Jianzhou continued to invade Liaodong. In order to organize the Jurchens, the Ming Dynasty built a border wall in Liaodong.
From the above 4 examples, we can see how much the surrounding peoples and countries want to pay tribute to the Ming Dynasty. Not only that, but even the Portuguese wanted to come. In 1511, portugal destroyed the kingdom of Malacca, cutting off china-Indian Ocean communication, but the Ming Dynasty was unaware of this. So Portuguese merchants pretended to be Muslim merchants to come to China to pay tribute, but the Ming Dynasty found that they were not Muslims, so they refused, and later Jiajing ordered the expulsion of the Portuguese. As a result, Portuguese merchant ships occupied Tuen Mun Island, the Ming Dynasty sent 4,000 sailors to fight, and finally Portugal lost 3 ships, which was half of the total; later there was a 6 Portuguese ships vs. 96 Ming navy's Battle of Xicao Bay, Portugal lost 2 more ships. After two major wars, the Portuguese merchants believed that 6 merchant ships could not conquer the Ming Empire, so they chose to bribe the Ming eunuchs, and as a result, they got Macau.
After reading these things in the Ming Dynasty, I really think that the Ming Dynasty was a dynasty of great dukes and selflessness, and it would rather starve to death Chinese than feed foreigners; it would rather oppress its own people and be arbitrary than curry favor with foreigners. Where in the world can you find a second such dynasty?