Denis Twitchett in his study of financial administration under the T'ang describes three distinctive stages of development. In the first stage the administration remained fairly crude and unsophisticated, while the second was characterized by increasing functional specialization of the fiscal offices. During the third stage continuing institutional specialization gave rise to tensions between the new specialized authorities and the regular organs of the central government. Financial administration in the sixteenth century by contrast presents no such clear-cut divisions. The Ming administration as a whole was not dynamic enough to produce similar institutional changes.

For the sake of convenience financial management during these 100 years can be periodized as follows:

Phase one: 1501–21. At this time there was no effective leadership in Peking, a continuation of the situation prevailing in the late fifteenth century.

Phase two: 1521–41. An initial improvement in financial affairs was followed by further deterioration. For a time the accession of the Chiaching Emperor seemed to have ushered in a new era. The new monarch, who came from a lateral branch of the imperial family, had little connection with vested interests in the capital. Palace supernumeraries were dismissed en masse, the eunuchs brought under control and restraints imposed on the growth of aristocratic estates. Yet no genuine institutional reforms were undertaken and Chia-ching's record of egocentric pursuits ultimately put him in the same class as his predecessors.