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==Demographic & Economic Expansion==
==Demographic & Economic Expansion==
While the [[Song Dynasty]] is often credited with seeing the emergence of many proto-modern economic institutions, including banking, paper money, and extensive interconnected domestic commercial networks, it was in the Ming period that these advances spread more completely throughout the country. Song agricultural advances, including new strains of rice, combined with the expansion of lands under cultivation, contributed to a considerable increase in agricultural production throughout much of the country. This boost in the food supply, combined with commercial growth, fueled a considerable expansion of population, which in turn further fueled commercial and urban growth. These in turn led to an increased need for administrative organization both in the cities and the provinces, and so the scholar-bureaucrat class grew in numbers and importance. By the end of the Ming period, the ''jìnshì'' degree, held only those who had passed the top levels of the [[Chinese imperial examinations|civil examinations]], became quite standard for anyone claiming elite status, while the social value or status of the degrees held by those who passed only regional and provincial exams decreased considerably.
While the [[Song Dynasty]] is often credited with seeing the emergence of many proto-modern economic institutions, including banking, paper money, and extensive interconnected domestic commercial networks, it was in the Ming period that these advances spread more completely throughout the country. Following the [[Han Dynasty]] and the Song, the Ming is often said to represent China's third commercial revolution, bringing considerable expansion of cities, and of the use and flow of metal coinage.
Areas of northern China which became relatively depopulated during the period of Mongol rule were resettled during the Ming, and the [[Grand Canal]] was reopened in [[1415]], reconnecting a vital trade route between north and south.
The economic growth of the Ming period was fueled in part by considerable influxes of silver, from domestic mines opened in the southwest, and from mines overseas, chiefly in Japan and South America. Beginning in the late 16th century, Spanish galleons in particular journeyed between China, [[Manila]] in the Spanish Philippines, Acapulco in Nueva España (Mexico), and elsewhere in the Spanish Empire, bringing silver from South America into China, and Chinese porcelains and silks to the Americas and Europe.
Song agricultural advances, including new strains of rice, combined with the expansion of lands under cultivation, contributed to a considerable increase in agricultural production throughout much of the country. This boost in the food supply, combined with commercial growth, fueled a considerable expansion of population, which in turn further fueled commercial and urban growth. These in turn led to an increased need for administrative organization both in the cities and the provinces, and so the scholar-bureaucrat class grew in numbers and importance. By the end of the Ming period, the ''jìnshì'' degree, held only those who had passed the top levels of the [[Chinese imperial examinations|civil examinations]], became quite standard for anyone claiming elite status, while the social value or status of the degrees held by those who passed only regional and provincial exams decreased considerably.
Areas of northern China which became relatively depopulated during the period of Mongol rule were resettled during the Ming, and the [[Grand Canal]] was reopened in [[1415]], reconnecting a vital trade route between north and south. Expanded Chinese settlement of certain upland areas of the southwest led to conflicts with the [[Miao people]], while many Chinese also began settling on the island of [[Taiwan]] and in various parts of Southeast Asia.<ref>Craig, 101.</ref>
The lower Yangzi region surrounding the cities of [[Hangzhou]] and [[Suzhou]] (and modern-day [[Shanghai]]) became increasingly densely populated and commercialized over the course of the Ming period. Ninety percent of agricultural land in that region came to be owned by absentee landlords, who rented out the land to tenant farmers, and who came to chiefly grow cash crops such as cotton and silk. Textile merchants in the cities began to organize and oversee entire streams of production, from the tenant farmers producing raw materials, to workshops in rural areas and provincial cities & towns spinning thread and weaving and dyeing fabric, to their own storefronts in the big cities. While rural areas and big cities (Beijing, Hangzhou, Canton) saw considerable growth over the course of the Ming period, it was these provincial cities which saw the most urban expansion. Even so, regional economic activity remained far stronger than national networks<ref>By contrast, Edo period Japan saw considerable national integration, with goods from all regions passing through [[Edo]] and [[Osaka]], and making their way throughout the country.</ref>
The tax system was streamlined in the 16th century, in what was known as the [[Single Whip Reform]]. Thirty or forty separate land taxes were combined into a single tax obligation, no longer paid in kind (i.e. in grain, or other products), but in silver. Farmers were expected to sell their agricultural products at market to earn the coin necessary to pay their taxes.
==Foreign Relations==
==Foreign Relations==
