AHC: Surviving Ming dynasty

Maybe the Imjin War doesn't bankrupt them, concurrently maybe the Bozhou rebellion fails or gets dealt with posthaste, maybe Li Zicheng doesn't rebel because his unit actually gets the supplies they need; maybe Wu Sangui doesn't open the gates when the Manchu come knocking. The hard part though is mitigating the mass famines and starvation brought on by the Little Ice Age.
 
State backed planting of the sweet potato. IOT the crop was introduced in 1590, earlier adoption and/or government promotion would increase food supply and forestall famine. This would resolve one of two major problems, that of climate change induced food pressure on a population boom hitting Malthusian limits.

http://www.chinastudyabroad.org/indepthchina/1039-china-and-the-sweet-potato

The second problem was the collapse of global trade. The Imjin War had wiped out two of China’s largest trade partners, Korea and Japan. Simultaneously the Thirty Years War cut off the European market and access to Spanish New World silver dried up. This would be hard to manage as the Ming will have to find new markets and new commodities.
 
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State backed planting of the sweet potato. IOT the crop was introduced in 1590, earlier adopting and/or government promotion would increase food supply and forestall famine. This would resolve one of two major problems, that of climate change induced food pressure on a population boom hitting Malthusian limits.

http://www.chinastudyabroad.org/indepthchina/1039-china-and-the-sweet-potato

The second problem was the collapse of global trade. The Imjin War had wiped out two of China’s largest trade partners, Korea and Japan. Simultaneously the Thirty Years War cut off the European market and access to Spanish New World silver dried up. This would be hard to manage as the Ming will have to find new markets and new commodities.
Maybe solve the two with one stone by having surviving indigenous polities in Mexico and Peru, either independent or only under spanish influence. They get technology from european and contacts and with that they start trading with the Chinese. They have all things the chinese need (silver and the american crops) and the chinese all the technology and artisan products, and are really unlikely to send conquerors against them. Why would they?
In fact, make things easier by having the chinese discover Mexico and Peru (polinesians get to Peru and then tell the secret to chinese traders in southeast asia?). The discovery being a espontanous product of fishermen and traders instead of a mercantile mission by an european crown would be far better for Incas and Mexicas.
 
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