ABSTRACT
Border control and protection were major concerns of the early modern Eurasian empires emerging after the collapse of the Mongol imperium in Asia. Border officials struggled with the contradictions of supposedly enforcing laws that were ill suited to changing realities. In the north, that staging area was commonly the Ordos; in the southeast it was the offshore islands. The relaxation of border control by local authorities contributed in turn to further lawlessness in the form of smuggling, banditry, plundering raids, reprisals and rampages due to conflicts over trade, tribute, and other matters. The conservative Ming bureaucracy ended overseas expeditions, curbed foreign trade, curtailed the tribute system, restricted foreign contact, and eventually drew back the northern borders of the empire to the line of a reconstructed Great Wall. Border insecurity not only threatened social stability but also undermined governmental authority.
