The Main Reason for the Prosperity of Hezhou Tea-horse Trade in the Ming Dynasty

Our ancient central government traded with western minority areas,especially western Tibet by tea for horse.This way of exchange had a strong impact on the then western frontier's politics,economy and culture.Ming Dynasty was the most prosperous period of tea-horse trade in Chinese while Hezhou was the most flourishing area of the tea-horse trade in Ming Dynasty.Why is the tea-horse trade prosperous in Hezhou? This paper discusses Hezhou's special geographical location,Tibet's demand for tea and the policy that the Ming court resisted the North Yuan and western Qiang.