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There has always been a social stigma attached to the merchant class. It all started with Confucian who regarded the merchants as exploitative of the artisan and worker classes. As a result, being a merchant is frowned upon in Confucian Chinese society. Overseas trade is prohibited by the Ming and Qing authorities by the means of Haijin (Sea bans). In the Ming Dynasty, this is to prevent piracy by the wokou (Japanese pirates) on coastal states. In the Qing dynasty, this is to prevent the ethnic Chinese from immigrating away from China. Chinese merchants used to travel all the way to Egypt to sell their wares. As you can see, the sea bans have a significant impact on the sea-going Chinese merchant community, many of them took to illegal activities, piracy etc. Despite this, the merchant class still flourished overall and the sprouts of Capitalism are planted, which most Chinese historians agree.

Famines cost by the Little Ice age during that time created problems for the merchants, especially when the farmers and peasants rebelled and pillaged the townships and cities.

Internal turmoil, following the fall of Ming in 1644 and the Manchu invasion did not bring the Chinese merchants much prosperity and in fact set them back for a long long time.

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12y ago

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