The Ming court, just two years after allowing landowners paying the grain tax to settle their accounts in silver instead, now decides to close all silver mines and to ban all private silver mining in Zhejiang and Fujian provinces.

This is a concerted effort to halt the increase of silver circulating into the market.

Illegally mining silver is now an offense punishable by death; although illegal mining became a dangerous affair, the high demand for illegal mining also makes it very lucrative, so many choose to defy the government and continue to mine silver.