On 8/6/2010 10:46 AM, Val Kraut wrote:

This is where I like to tell the story of the Ming Dynasty outlawing the
large exploration ships to keep the merchant class in place. China could
have had colonies in Europe.

That wasn't the reason they scrapped their fleet - when the worth of the
things the treasure fleet was bringing back was measured against the
cost of running it, it was a net money loser.

Pat