A Study Of The Research Results Of Foreign Silver Import In The Late Ming Dynasty

Since the middle of Ming Dynasty,a large amount of foreign silver has been imported into China,which has become an important factor in Chinese own historical development and changes.It has accelerated the process of Chinese transformation from the monetary and financial system based on material objects and labor force to the monetary and financial system based on silver currency.To a large extent,this transformation has become the development trend of Chinese society and even the national system in the late Ming Dynasty.It is an important driving force for the great changes of the society.In order to demonstrate and evaluate the influence of foreign silver on Chinese history and the relationship between Chinese history and world history in the 16 th and 17 th centuries,Chinese and foreign academic circles have conducted a lot of research on the amount of foreign silver imported into China since the 1920 s and 1930 s.Although there is consensus,there are great differences in the estimation of the amount of foreign silver imported.The reason is not only related to the collection and analysis of historical data in the empirical sense,but also related to the theory and method of research.This paper sorts out,compares and reanalyzes various related research results,in order to contribute to the methodological reflection of related research and the gradual convergence of consensus.This study is divided into three parts according to the time of the researchers,in order to clarify the overall process and trend of the research on the estimation of foreign silver import in the late Ming Dynasty.The first chapter is a summary of the previous studies on the estimation of foreign silver input in the late Ming Dynasty.From the late1920 s to the 1960 s,the early researchers mainly focused on the estimation of silver input from western America,and dug deep into the historical data of the Philippines.However,the use of Japanese silver historical data is relatively simple,and the estimation is relatively simple;the second chapter is the carding and summary of the mid-term research on the estimation of foreign silver import in the late Ming Dynasty.From the 1960 s to the 1980 s,researchers dug deep into the historical data of Japanese silver exported from Japan in the 16 th and 17 th centuries,and improved the estimation of the total amount of Japanese silver imported in the late Ming Dynasty.The third chapter is the summary of the research on the estimation of foreign silver input in the late Ming Dynasty.Since the 1980 s,researchers have integrated and estimated the research results of the previous and mid-term researchers.Due to the different integration ideas and methods,many estimation results have been obtained.In summary,this paper proposes to use the trade data of countries in the 16 th and17th centuries for estimation,because this estimation method is relatively conservative and the error value is relatively small.At the same time,from the summary of the estimated results of the researchers,this paper proposes that the amount of foreign silver input in the late Ming Dynasty should not be more than 178 million to 208 million taels.