Page 16

The Formation of the Modern East Asian Economy
      Ming naval prestige attained unprecedented heights with Zheng He's seven voyages to as far as Aden and the eastern coast of Africa between 1405 and 1436. What distinguished Zheng He's fleets from earlier Song and Yuan diplomatic voyages was their size. The largest of his fleets included 62 big ships and 200 small ships manned by 37,000 officers and sailors. The biggest boat was five times as long as this Oriental Studies building, twice as wide, and from keel to top of the central mast, twice as high. It had nine masts, three levels within the hull of the ship for storage and living, and a wooden rudder twice the size of this room. I have chosen this building for comparison, not just because you know and can feel its dimensions, but its dimensions are roughly the same as that of the boat Casco da Gama sailed to Calicut in 1498. So great was the difference between the Chinese phoenix and the European sparrow.

      But the Ming court's support for its navy lasted only until 1435, when it stopped these voyages and devoted its attention to the land-based problems of its northern frontier. The precise reasons for the making and adherence to this decision remain unclear. But I suspect they lay in strategic considerations, especially as the newly established capital of Beijing was situated close to the northern border and soon afterward suffered a foreign siege. Whatever the reasons, Ming naval power, but for a brief revival in the mid-sixteenth century, would suffer a serious decline, allowing piracy to flourish along its coasts right up to the mid-seventeenth century.

      The fate of Ming private merchant fleets and even private navies, better known as pirates, was meant to be the reverse. In 1371, the government declared that all trade with foreigners should occur within the parameters of its tribute system, whereby all trading foreign states accepted Ming suzerainty (*) and hegemony. Korea, Vietnam, and much of southeast Asia accepted these terms for trade, as did Japan for the only time in its history under the guidance of the Ashkiga shogun Yoshimatsu. From 1404 to 1410, six highly profitable tribute fleets sailed from Japan to China, only to be stopped in 1410 when the new shogun rejected his father's policies. In 1430, this regime recommenced diplomatic and trading ties with China, so that overall Japan sent 19 tribute and diplomatic missions to Ming China

     In addition, in 1371 the government issued a ban on Chinese traveling abroad and on their private trade with foreign merchants. It is this ban which needs serious reconsideration, since its mere issuance has been widely interpreted as its actual enforcement. Yet the soldiers stationed along a Chinese coastline some 1300 miles long were too few, their pay too low, and their weaponry too low-grade to enforce this ban effectively outside of the major ports.

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