The Paradoxical Effect of Silver in the Economies of Ming and Qing China

Through delineating the process of Western silver's flow into the east in the Ming and Qing dynasties, Andre Gunder Frank and Kenneth Pomeranz attempted to demonstrate that China held a dominant position in the world economy until the mid-eighteenth century. This viewpoint helped subvert the prevalent Eurocentric myth and provided a new framework and angle for people's rethinking of world history. The inflow of a large quantity of silver into China since the mid-Ming dynasty indeed expanded the capacity of the Chinese economic system, boosted production and trade, and revitalized the already dormant social economy. However, this was achieved at the cost of natural and human resources. Silver accelerated the speed of the Chinese economic wheel, but it failed to open up new horizons for economic development. Instead, the entire society fell into the "pitfall of high equilibrium" due to excessive consumption of resources. Thus, while casting off an old myth, Frank and Pomeranz have forged a new myth, namely, the "great divergence" with the premise of an "integrated global economy."