Abstract：

In the early modern times, the status of the“South China Sea”World Trade Center was not created by the Chinese themselves, but by the“Great Navigation”of Europe. As the starting point of the Silk Road, China used to be the eastern supplier of ancient EastWest trade. In the 15 th and 16 th centuries, after the success of the“Great Navigation”, the trade objects sought by Europe actually pointed to“China”, that is, the“Cathay”at that time, but the trade routes shifted from the“Silk Road”on land to the“New Route”at sea, and the Trade Center changed from the early“Middle East”to the“South China Sea”in modern China. In the early colonial era of the 16 th and 18 th centuries, the“South China Sea”was the center of world trade, and China's“tribute trade”was the WTO rule that the world trade generally abided by. Half of the world's silver output also flowed into China's territory. Therefore, the“South China Sea”was known as the“Eastern Mediterranean”. China occupied the commanding heights of world trade in early modern times. The reason for the appearance of such a pattern in world trade lies in the fact that the European nation-states just transformed from feudal territory are still in the stage of mercantilism rather than industrialism, and their capabilities are not enough to shake the“unified”small-scale peasant economy of China.

Published on The World History Review, Issue 1, 2020.