China's wealthy bypass the banks

[ken]

James A. Donald wrote:

>     --
> ken wrote:
> 
>>>And when was this stagnation?
> 
> 
> R.A. Hettinga wrote:
> 
>>Two words: Ming Navy
> 
> 
> For those who need more words, the Qing Dynasty forbade 
> ownership or building of ocean going vessels, on pain of death 
> - the early equivalent of the iron curtain. 

Which was a couple of millenia *after* the distinctive Confucian 
philosophy became the official code of most  Chinese governments.
So that can't be the reason for Chinese stagnation.  QED.

(Which as TD pointed out better than I could have was short-lived 
and nowhere near as general as we used to paint it)

And it was the later Ming period - not Qing