Hongwu Emperor – First Ming emperor, his name, Hongwu related to his martial nature. He conquered China from the previous Yuan dynasty and forced the Mongols out. Middle of the 14th century, 1350ISH. He was born a peasant. Buddhist monks but was not Buddhist, but was sympathetic towards Buddhists. Revamped the Confusian examination system. New irrigation and land granting to peasants. Transported people from the south to repopulate the north. Centralized power.Drew up a legal code. Confucian principal of merchants being paracitic. Farmers were key.

Huizhou merchants – became stronger and rose up the social ladder, so to speak. Huizhou located between north and south became a hub for goods passing between north and south and so gradually, landowners began to dabble in business. Pawning and the salt trade were particularly important and profitable. Land became less important and commerce flourished despite officially being looked down on. This trade also improved communication and transportation as goods were taken from one place to the other.

commutation of grain tax to silver - with agriculture surpluses and the extensive waterway transportation infrastructure, trading the surplus grain became commonplace and gradually, all this trading made substituting silver as payment for taxes rather than the actual grain – in this way, the value of the grain was virtually translated into its silver value which was more practical and more commercially flexible.

new proposals of Qiu Jin – demonstrate an increased concern and interest in regulating commerce, with textile and maritime trade booming. Free up the markets, author of “Expositions on the great learning” defining markets as exchanges of surpluses and lacks. He did not believe, unlike others, that this exchange threatened the poor and that commerce linked communities together. He maintained that commerce was key