In light of the human and economic costs of enforcement, the loss of state revenue, the loss of import opportunities, and the longstanding encouragement of maritime trade by previous dynasties, the Ming dynasty's 1368-1644 prohibition of maritime trade and travel remains one of the more perplexing puzzles of Chinese history. Finding single-factor explanations based on security or political considerations to be unsatisfactory, this volume focuses on the inner dynamics of policymaking within the Ming administration and the social and economic underpinnings of power among different factions within the administration in order to provide a structural explanation of the maritime prohibition, its longevity, and its eventual abandonment. Distributed in North America by The David Brown Book Co. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)