整个世界近代史是西欧资本主义推行重商主义、殖民主义的大航海时代。而中国也从16世纪起开始逐渐衰落,并在鸦片战争中最终被西方打败,从而遭受了近百年的动荡和屈辱。为何一个在15世纪仍然是世界上最强大国家,而且在随后几个世纪中,在幅员、人口以及综合国力上仍是属世界前列的东方大国会走向衰落并最终屈服在西方国家的坚船利炮下?在本文中将对明及清前期海外贸易政策的发展演变进行分析,并指出正是由于当时政府所实行的与世界发展大势相悖的海外贸易政策,直接导致了中国的衰落。 The modern history of the entire world is the era of mercantilism and colonialism promoted by Western European capitalism. However, China also gradually declined from the 16th century onward and was eventually defeated by the West during the Opium War. As a result, China suffered nearly 100 years of turmoil and humiliation. Why one of the most powerful countries in the world in the 15th century, and in the ensuing centuries the great East powers that are still at the forefront of the world in terms of their size, population and overall national strength, will decline and eventually succumb to Western countries In this paper, we will analyze the evolution of the overseas trade policies during the Ming and early Qing dynasties and point out that it is precisely because the then foreign trade policies that the government ran counter to the trend of world development directly led to the decline of China.