The first emperor of the Ming Dynasty, T'ai Tsu ..., in order to forestall the aggressive Japanese dwarfs along the coast as well as to forbid the Chinese commons to practice oversea trade, enforced the former conditional embargo by prohibiting any single plank from going to the sea. His son, Emperor Cheng Tsu..., who took a more positive and realistic attitude toward international trade, adopted the traditional tributary model which was more in tune with the vision of a world-wide Chinese Empire. He made it known to the public that those Chinese who had ever traded with foreigners would be forgiven despite their faults and should be pacified to be good citizens again. Emperor Hsuan Tsung..., changed the former jingorism into pacifist subjugation of those barbarians as his foreign policy. During the years from the Reign of Cheng-T'ung... down to the Reign of Cheng-Teh..., prohibition of transport by sea had been proclaimed repeatedly, and penalty for the civilians who ever traded with foreigners was more severe than before. Ironically, all this showed how difficult it was to carry out such prohibition. During the reign of Emperor Ying Tsung..., there were talks about relaxing such prohibition. But, due to the constant vexations from the Portuguese since their first arrival in the East and the Ningpo...Disturbance caused by the Japanese tribute-bearers, advocacy of this kind was temporarily suppressed. The conservative policy for strict blockade and embargo continued to have the upper hand. During the reign of Lung-Ching ..., the embargo was partially raised by means of collecting transport tax to allow the Chinese commons to trade overseas with all the Eastern and Western countries except Japan. This innovation was undoubtedly to go along with the public opinions, but also an inevitable consequence of the increasing and overwhelming effect of the West on the East. But such conditional foreign trade excluding Japan not only was impossible in practice, but also brought about black marketing with Japan. Since there was no effective way to prevent people from going to the sea, in spite of blockade and embargo, the endeavor to prohibit transport by sea during those two hundred years throughout the Ming Dynasty proved futile after all. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]