Miracle or Mirage? Foreign Silver, China's Economy and Globalization From the Sixteenth to the Nineteenth Centuries

Abstract. Ming–Qing China has been seen as positioned at the very centre of the process of early globalization partly due to China's huge appetite for foreign silver for its own commercialization. The findings of this study challenge this view head on by showing that not only did China not import and use nearly as much foreign silver as commonly imagined, silver moved into and also out of China. It served at best as a secondary currency and often worked on a barter basis. The sector which retained the lion's share was the pawnshop for short‐term credit mainly for consumption.