text / Naran on history
from the perspective of a modern person, the Qing Dynasty had a long-term trade surplus and the world wealth (silver) continued to flow into China. Isn't it a good thing for China, which can not only stimulate economic growth and increase the income of the people and the imperial court, At the same time, it can occupy a large market share in the world, build a self-interest trade system and improve the national popularity and influence. Why should the perfect old man who is greedy for false fame give up such a great opportunity to become famous
in fact, the rulers of the Qing Dynasty did not think about integrating into the world system. After a long-term balance of advantages and disadvantages, the think tank of the Qing Dynasty finally gave a highly consistent answer, and economic interests must be subordinated to political interests
first of all, from the economic level, the self-sufficient natural economy of the Qing Dynasty fundamentally determined that the Qing Dynasty had little or no dependence on foreign trade. On the contrary, foreign countries had a large demand for tea, silk and other commodities of the Qing Dynasty, which led to the dominance of the seller's market of the Qing Dynasty in world trade.
as a country with a traditional small-scale peasant economy, the Qing Dynasty only relied on the internal circulation, with the help of the huge domestic population base and the vast territory of tens of millions of square kilometers, which was enough to make the feudal system economy stable and far-reaching. If it exported domestic goods excessively for profit, it would also cause the imbalance between supply and demand in the domestic internal market, which had a negative effect on the domestic economy. The development of commodity economy would also shake the national agriculture, which is simply The gains outweigh the losses
secondly, politically, it is to prevent Chinese and foreign anti Qing forces from colluding with the mainland to shake the rule of the Qing Dynasty.
the direct reason for the sea ban in both the Ming Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty lies in the serious banditry along the southeast coast. The pirates who fled and fought from time to time came a wave of killing and stealing goods, which gave the rulers a headache and greatly increased the cost of management. In a rage, the rulers stopped playing with eagles and catching chickens with them and decided to close the sea ban, which solved the problem of piracy simply and rudely once and for all. After the founding of the Qing Dynasty, the Qing Dynasty also faced the same problems as the Ming Dynasty Piracy was a nuisance, and the anti Qing and Ming restoration forces overseas in the early Qing Dynasty were also very active. The implementation of the sea ban policy will inevitably compress and even stifle overseas trade
from the military level, the invasion of Chinese territory by western colonists also caused alarm and bad impression on the Qing Dynasty.
for example, the Dutch came all the way to invade Taiwan, and the Tsarist Russians were ready to move on the northeast border of China, which aroused the vigilance of the Qing Dynasty to the western countries and believed that the external environment was not stable enough. At that time, China's coastal defense awareness was weak, the navy was not strong, and its awareness of the sea was very scarce. Once it fought with foreigners at sea, let alone the victory or defeat, the economic loss of the war alone would far exceed the benefits of foreign trade Moreover, after the war of pacifying Jinchuan and Jinchuan, Qianlong repeatedly stressed to stop the hundred year foreign expansion strategy of the Qing Dynasty and instead operate at home. He was committed to digesting class and ethnic contradictions, so he had no intention and was unable to engage in overseas trade
finally, from the perspective of ideology, China has a strong concept of Hua Yi since ancient times. In addition, the Qing Dynasty was a dominant country in East Asia, with 19 dependent countries alone. Under the background of strong national strength in the prosperous era of Kang and Qian dynasties, it was indeed a small European country with small population. The deep-rooted concept of Hua Yi made the rulers of the Qing Dynasty disdain to trade with western countries.
nevertheless, the Qing Dynasty retained a port in Guangzhou for foreign trade, which not only did not affect the balance of domestic supply and demand, but also facilitated centralized management, reflected the magnanimity of the emperor to all countries, and made some extra money to subsidize the court expenses. At that time, it was a more reasonable arrangement.
of course, if the rulers of the Qing Dynasty can foresee the backwardness and being beaten in the future, they must regret not deeply blending with the West. Unfortunately, Zhuge Liang did not have the opportunity to do things.