作者卜正民,是美国斯坦福大学历史系教授,加拿大多伦多大学历史系教授,北美著名的明清史专家。本书是在作者为《剑桥中国史》所撰专门章节的基础上,发展而来的,在明史研究中县有相当权威性。明朝统治中国的三百年,世界的中心仍然是在中国,而不是欧洲。不错,明中叶,欧洲已经开始了地理大发现。但是,当时的欧洲人在地球上寻找的东西除了土地外,更主要的是商业机会,而明代的商业是世界上最发达的。当时欧洲商人没有商品供给中国,除了银子。欧洲的银子被掏空,弄得贵族没有银子做餐具,还是只 The author Bu Zhengmin is a professor of history at Stanford University in the United States, a professor of history at the University of Toronto in Canada and a famous historian of Ming and Qing Dynasties in North America. This book is developed on the basis of the author’s chapters devoted to “Chinese History of Cambridge”, and is quite authoritative in the study of Ming Dynasty. The Ming dynasty ruled China for three hundred years, the center of the world is still in China, not in Europe. Yes, mid-Ming, Europe has begun a large geographical discovery. However, what Europeans at that time were looking for on Earth was more than commercial land except for land, while commerce in the Ming Dynasty was the most developed in the world. At that time, European merchants did not supply goods to China except silver. Europe’s silver was emptied, making the aristocracy did not make silverware, or only