On Thu, Feb 23, 2012 at 11:56 AM, Suresh Ramasubramanian <sur...@hserus.net> wrote: > And all the other little decadences of the mings didn't have a thing to do > with this?
Decadence rarely on its own brings an empire down, but it often precedes a fall. A new currency, whether it is silver or tea, or opium as China repeatedly discovered, can always be a cause for drastic changes in fortune. Britain ended up becoming an opium trader, and then invading China to enforce the trade because it didn't have the silver that China wanted for the tea.
