96 THE WEALTH AND POVERTY OF NATIONSSo, after some decades of tugging and hauling, of alternating cele
bration and commemoration on the one hand, of contumely and re
pudiation on the other, the decision was taken not only to cease from
maritime exploration but to erase the very memory of what had gone
before lest later generations be tempted to renew the folly. From 1436,
requests for the assignment of new craftsmen to the shipyards were re
fused, while conversely, foreigners asking for the renewal of customary
gifts were turned down, presumably for reasons of economy. For want
of construction and repair, public and private fleets shrank. Pirates
flourished in unguarded waters (the Japanese were particularly active),
and China placed ever more reliance on inland canal transport. By
1500, anyone who built a ship of more than two masts was liable to the
death penalty, and in 1525 coastal authorities were enjoined to de
stroy all oceangoing ships and to arrest their owners. Finally in 1551,
it became a crime to go to sea on a multimasted ship, even for trade.^13
The abandonment of the program of great voyages was part of a
larger policy of closure, of retreat from the hazards and temptations of
the sea. This deliberate introversion, a major turning point in Chinese
history, could not have come at a worse time, for it not only disarmed
them in the face of rising European power but set them, complacent
and stubborn, against the lessons and novelties that European travel
ers would soon be bringing.
Why? Why did China not make that little extra effort that would
have taken it around the southern end of Africa and up into the At
lantic? Why, decades and even centuries after the arrival of European
visitors in Chinese waters, were there no Chinese vessels in the harbors
of Europe? (The first such vessel, a vehicle for diplomacy, visited Lon
don for the Great Exhibition of 1851.)
As always, there are several reasons. The result, in sociological jar
gon, is overdetermined.
To begin with, the Chinese lacked range, focus, and above all, cu
riosity. They went to show themselves, not to see and learn; to bestow
their presence, not to stay; to receive obeisance and tribute, not to
buy. They were what they were and did not have to change. They had
what they had and did not have to take or make. Unlike the Europeans,
they were not motivated by greed and passion. The Europeans had a
specific target: the wealth of the Indies. They had to get around Africa;
that was the point of the exercise. The Chinese did not have to. They
could find what they wanted in the Indian Ocean, and what they
wanted was so trivial that it was not an appetizer but a dessert.^14
At the same time, this desire to overawe meant that costs far ex-