6.29 The far east: a.d. 1501 to 1600

The far east

Back to The Far East: A.D. 1401 to 1500

China and manchuria (continued ming dynasty)

The virulent form of syphilis, supposedly generated by the interaction of Columbus' men and the Caribbean Indians, reached China about 1505. (Ref. 140 , 260 ) The population about 1580 has been estimated at 130,000,000, although drastic reduction occurred at the end of the century by plague. New crops, including sorghum, sweet potato, maize, peanuts and Irish potatoes were helping to feed the people. Commerce was stimulated by silver from the new world, received in payment for extensive Chinese exports of tea, silk and ceramics. By 1600 the state had converted almost all its revenues to money in the form of silver. (Ref. 140 , 8 , 101 ) In contrast to the West, China had no gradual rise of bourgeoisie as the nature of the state almost prohibited this. A temporary exception might have occurred at the end of this century in the development of the large iron works near Peking and the private porcelain work shops of King-to-chen and the silk trade of Su-Chu. This all stopped with the Manchu conquest in the next century. (Ref. 260 )

Throughout its history China has usually had a command economy with prices and production centrally and rigidly controlled in one way or another

During the Ming Dynasty, about 1517, the Portuguese arrived at Canton with their guns. Being little better than pirates the Chinese treated them as such, although the foreigners did give some aid against other pirates. The Chinese thus finally rewarded them in 1557 by allowing them to settle Macao and to govern it. The Portuguese proceeded to build great opium factories employing men, women and children, all of which brought millions of dollars yearly to the Portuguese provincial government. They were followed by the Spanish, who after taking the Philippines, moved over to take the Chinese island of Formosa after 1571. The Dutch came still later.

It was probably in this century that the compilation of the Great Herbal in 52 volumes, with information about 1,200 herbs, was completed - an authoritative work in China still today. There are many medical adaptations from Chinese medicine in the western world, including iron for anemia, castor oil, lanolin, camphor, chaulmoogra oil, ephedra vulgaris and a method of inoculation with small pox matter for immunization against that disease