ties, the Chinese developed trade with most countries in the Far East, and both south and southeast Asia. This early foreign trade was not considered, by China's rulers of the time, to be essential to the country's economy, as the Chinese considered their country to be economically self sufficient. In fact, during the Qing Dynasty, which spanned the time period 1644 A.D. to 1911 A.D., Chinese trade with other countries was officially discouraged.4 The official discouragement on the part of the Chinese government, however, did not quell foreign
3N. T. Wang, "Executive Summary," in N. T. Wang, (Ed.)., Business With China: An International Assessment (New York: Pergamon Press, 198O), 4.
4R. L. Worden, A. M. Savada, and R. E. Dolan, China: A Country Study (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1987), 283. trade with China. A major reason why Chinese foreign trade continued to develop was the perceived potential in foreign countries of trade with China one of the same reason it continues to expand in the early 1990s.
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