How did China's emperors generally approach global trade during the early years of the ming dynasty

They had extensive exports that other nations depended on.

In the sixteenth century, the economy of the Ming dynasty was stimulated by maritime transport with Portuguese, Spanish and Dutch. China, then, became involved in a new world of goods, plants, animals and crops fed as the Colombian exchange. Major European and Japanese companies bought large quantities of silver, which then replaced copper and paper notes as a major trading currency in China.