"The Lifeblood of the World"and"The Decentralization of Economic Power"——The Shaping of Economic Organizations by the Shift of Economic Space in the Ming and Qing Dynasties
Since the medieval period,China's economic spatial pattern has significantly changed for several times,shaping the flow of resources and their organizational forms in different periods.A pivotal point was the"silverization"of finance since the mid-Ming Dynasty.This transition signified the replacement of fiscal transfers by trade and finance,transforming the"lifeblood"of material flows between the economic hinterland in South China and the military and administrative consumption in North China into long-distance trade and capital flows between North and South China.The development of border areas and foreign trade in the Qing Dynasty further expanded this into an intertwining network.Driven by the spatial re-allocation of resources and factors,various forms of interaction and combination emerged between political and economic powers,thereby shaping the evolution of economic organizations,particularly offering opportunities for the growth of market organizations.A typical representation was that the stability of local monetary order became more reliant on the market-driven currency circulation,displaying a trend of"decentralization of economic power",and profoundly reflecting the epochal changes and the evolutionary path of the Ming and Qing Dynasties in China that differed from the mercantilist countries of the same era.
economy in the Ming and Qing Dynastieseconomic spaceeconomic organizationmarkets in the Ming and Qing Dynastiescurrency circulation
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