RAS Summer School 2026: Currents of the Ming: Commercial and Intellectual Exchanges in a Globalizing World

Long before the modern era of globalization, the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) was actively reshaping the world economy, intellectual landscapes, and the natural environment. The RAS Summer School invites you to look beyond emperors and armies to discover how merchants, missionaries, and mariners connected China to the globe. This four-part series explores the massive "inflows and outflows" of silver, exotic spices, revolutionary ideas, and botanical imports that transformed the Ming dynasty and laid the foundations of our modern, interconnected world.

Part 3: The Silver Flood and the Sweet Potato When the Ming dynasty finally lifted its maritime ban in 1567, it sparked a global economic revolution driven by a single metal: silver. Discover how the relentless European demand for Chinese porcelain and silk drained global silver reserves and gave rise to booming, unregulated private markets. More profoundly, we will examine the hidden ecological cost of this new global network, tracking how the arrival of New World crops like the sweet potato are theorized to have triggered a massive population boom, pushed migrant farmers into pristine mountain forests, and fundamentally altered the Chinese landscape forever.