In order to expand trade and enhance national prestige, Zheng He made a lot of profits in the early stage of his voyage to the West. According to Ming Hui Dian, the blue and white porcelain plates brought by Zheng He can sell 500 yuan each and 300 yuan bowls in Nanyang, but the cost is only a few dozen yuan. In Sumatra, 65,438+000 Jin of pepper is only worth 65,438+0 taels of silver. When it was brought back to the Ming Dynasty, it could be sold for 10 to 20 taels per catty. The difference between the two is more than 1000 times. During the Yongle period, Zheng He's voyages to the West were profitable, which could make up for the fiscal deficit in large quantities.

Ming dynasty paper money is one of the currencies used in the exchanges between Ming dynasty and southeast Asian countries.

There is also a by-product of the voyage to the west, that is, pepper. Previously, pepper was regarded as a medicinal material. Because the voyage brought back a lot of peppers, it became a condiment. Pepper was "forcibly promoted". Before the Ming Dynasty, pepper was a kind of medicine, which was only used for cooking by royalty and senior officials, and was rarely written into recipes. After this round of "forced promotion", almost all recipes in the Ming Dynasty recorded Chili dishes. Because pepper has become a symbolic achievement of its foreign trade. Pepper has a big price difference and a high profit. Made a lot of money for the Emperor Group.

In the Ming dynasty, peppers were converted into official salaries, even two silver per catty 100. Officials complain, but they don't disturb the people. Qiu Zhuo, a famous minister, said: "Today, the age of the imperial court, with the pepper wood donated by foreigners, is enough for the imperial court to support the Beijing official's regular salary. However, it did not disturb the people of China, but resorted to foreign countries. It regards the previous generation as the total amount of money earned between shelves, and so on, and takes it away from the people indiscriminately, which is immoral.

To sum up, we can understand the monopoly of pepper trade as a way for the royal family to collect money in the Ming Dynasty, but it also laid a dark mine for the future political struggle. Because this interest was monopolized by the Emperor Group, other interest groups didn't get any money. Political struggle is inevitable, and the party and government of the whole Ming Dynasty are all around the struggle for interests. Emperor, civil servant, local gentry, you sing and I will appear.

The reason why the voyage to the West stopped was actually the result of political struggle. First of all, Zheng He's influence and discourse power in the Ming Dynasty was not high, even very low. The History of Ming Dynasty has a low evaluation of Zheng He, leaving only a biography of 700 words. In addition, Zheng He is a eunuch and can't get along with civilian groups. Therefore, Zheng He has no right to speak in front of civil servants. He is just an errand boy in the foreign trade of Emperor Group, not the protagonist of this power game. Compared with the influence of civilian groups and local gentry, Zheng He was really too small. Judy is a great leader. When Judy is in office, this economic pulse can be firmly controlled by him. After Judy's death, the economic pressure caused by years of war shifted to Zhu Gaochi and Zhu Zhanji. Zhu Zhanji is an ambitious man. He organized the last voyage to the West, but because he didn't make much money this last time and because of Zheng He's death, he finally stopped sailing under the pressure of all parties.