In 1644, Beijing was in crisis. Yet trade in Jiangnan was still thriving, and silver from overseas continued to pour in. The court, however, was entirely unable to turn the wealth circulating through society into military funds, let alone restore social order.
The credit of the Ming paper currency had long since collapsed, land tax assessments were increasingly out of touch with reality, and there were also the long-term costs of the imperial clan and frontier defenses. Once the crisis erupted, years of taxes fell on the shoulders of ordinary farming households, triggering a succession of peasant uprisings.
Many factors contributed to the fall of the Ming, but the fiscal crisis linked them together and magnified them into a crisis that destroyed the dynasty completely.
At its root, the Ming had lacked a fiscal system capable of adapting to economic change ever since its founding.
