Category: Lectures / Readings

During the 15th century, the commercial economy of Western Europe had started to develop rapidly, which caused a dramatically increasing demand for gold in the region.

The Silk Road was formed between 2000 AD~1000 AD and had since then been kept in use as the main channel for cultural, economic and political exchange between the eastern and the western worlds all the way until the 16th century.

Jiaozi, as the image shown, is the first paper currency in China, which represents the prosperous trade development in Song dynasty.

Transcription and translation of an illustrated late sixteenth-century spanish manuscript concerning the geography, history and ethnography of the Pacific, South-east and East Asia.

This volume examines the subject of technological development, particularly agricultural development, in order to evaluate whether China suffered all-round technological stagnation.

This paper outlines how different segments of the Grand Canal were built in the Ming and Qing periods. The Ming government decided to rebuild the canal because of the complications of long-distance trade between northern and central China during the 14th century.