The silver trade in the 16th to 18th centuries brought economic and social transformations around the world. The changing flow of silver during this time changed every civilization globally; The Ming empire, the Spanish and Britain were effected both economically and socially. By the early 18th century, the effects of silver trade had both changed the operation of economics and social structure. Additional documents that could have explained and supported these changes; writings from the empire of Tokugawa Japan, the indigineous workers in the Potosi mines, business owners and their change in their payments and reliance on silver for profit, and the agriculturalists that saw the influence of silver on the trade of commodities all over the globe.
In the Ming empire, the changes that they went through economically and socially were very dependent on the silver trade. As silver became a global staple for trade, the want and feeling of luxury that silver brought enabled everyone to be included in the trade(Doc 1). In China, people could use silver extravagantly or in common expenses. This increased the economic base
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Just like the other two empires, Britain was dependent on the trade of goods for silver( Doc. 4). At the beginning of the period their trade was mostly amongst themselves, but by the end they were heavily wanting in the silver trade(Doc 8).
Economically the trade of silver allowed for the shift from trade of goods to goods to goods for silver. This changed the output of silver, and the worth of goods in commodity trade. Socially the individual trade was dependent on not just payment in anyform, but by the end of the period; solely on the trade and payment of bills in silver.
The silver trade changed the economic and social structures in Spain, the Ming empire and in Britain with the english. The period from the 16th to 18th century strongly showed this change of dependence of
The British Empire was a collection of countries around the world ruled by Britain, and each of the countries had valuable resources that could be traded with Britain such as wheat from Canada and tea from India. Also, like the slave trade, many ships were needed to transport these goods, which benefited the shipbuilding industry. Furthermore, many young people from other countries in the empire such as India came to Britain to find work, sometimes on-board ships. This gave Britain many new strong workers to do important jobs such as build railway lines or work in mines. Overall, the British Empire was an important factor in the development of the British economy in the 18th century.
The time period 600 BCE – 1500 CE was bringing many new innovations to trade throughout Eurasia. The extensive Silk Road connected European countries to the far eastern Asian countries (China and India), allowing the rare goods from China to find their way to European markets. New technologies in maritime trade included the production of lateen sails and dhow’s in the Indian region of trade. These technologies allowed trade efficiency to increase allowing states merchants and governments to make more money. Religious people and Statesmen had different viewpoints on this new wealth accumulation.
With textiles from India restricted, it paved the way for Europeans to produce their own goods at competing prices with the Asians and stimulate their own economy. The Chinese, on the other hand, were receiving silver, an essential piece of their economy as it was their sole monetary form for taxes and other processes. In addition to unnecessary goods, the Spanish were experiencing increasing inflation. Tomas Mercado, a Spanish scholar, described the extent of this inflation caused by the lack of the circulation of the coins (Doc 1). The Chinese received so much silver for themselves that it could be used as ballast and the cobblestones previously used were left at the port.
Spain earned a lot through trading with China. Written by Tomás de Mercado in manual of deals and contracts, it represented that in order to but the products in China, they had to pay a high price which ruined the economy and let silver flowed out of Spanish Empire. Moreover, some of the goods that Spain bought were stones (Document 3). Besides the economy, mining silver required huge amount of labors to work extremely hard. Represent in Document 6, there were more 3000 Indian workers worked hard everyday to mine the silver.
Throughout the 1500’s to 1700’s, silver had become increasingly valued and desired by many countries. Europeans generally measured the wealth of a country by how much silver it had accumulated, as most western European countries followed mercantilist economic policies. Therefore, many countries set policies designed to control the system of silver within and around their borders. Due to this new global flow of silver, the world experienced various social and economic effects. Socially, silver promoted changes in government regulation, the ways Europeans displayed their wealth, and relationships between countries.
Another contributing factor was the accumulation of wealth, especially among the merchants involved. Empires and smaller states that directly were benefited from the trade sustained the commerce. . Also with the invention of new technology
From 1500 to 1750, silver production in the world was led by Spanish Colonial America and Tokugawa Japan. Silver trade was lead through a connection between four great continents, but there was no direct trade link between America and Asia. In that time, limits were placed on the amount of silver spent, prices increased and decreased depending on the supply of silver and silver production led to more importation and exportation of goods, as well as new ways to pay also developed due to silver production. In the 1570s, the Ming Chinese government stated that all taxes and trade fees should be paid in silver. Most silver flowed over the Pacific, out of Acapulco, to Manila, ending in China.
Benjamin Franklin said, “No nation was ever ruined by trade.” During the early modern era, technological advancements in shipbuilding and increased knowledge on wind and current patterns made global trading possible. The increased flow of trade in the 1300s through 1800s created important social relations and economic opportunities due to the increased integration of foreign people and desire to be wealthiest and most powerful, while improving government, culture, and ideas in the modern world. Global trading increased the spread of people, which also increased the spread of religion and culture.
On top of the successful farming methods that were discovered, guilds were being formed. Guilds, associations of merchants, increased the economies' wealth. The Commercial Revolution then began, reintroducing the blossoming idea of trade. Fairs were held to trade food, cloths and leather along with other common goods. Trade routes became vital to the expansion of trade, such as those that stretched from Europe to areas such as Asia and Africa in 1300 CE.
The Silk Road was a complex network of trading routes that spanned from eastern Europe to China, that allowed many goods to travel from city to city. During the Silk Road’s main prominence from around 200 B.C.E. to 1450 C.E., many changes took place - including ones that have drastically altered societies with change in both social hierarchies and major religions. However, even with the plethora of cultural changes that took place, a few aspects of the societies of the time stayed consistent, most noticeably the desire for luxury goods by the upper class. The Silk Road resulted in many changes to the social hierarchies of the time, especially in the treatment of women and merchants. In the second-wave civilizations prior to the road’s prominence, women and merchant were viewed as much lower members of society.
While some were able to benefit others did not for several reasons. Firstly, China who was a dominant power in that era had a high demand for silver. Trade between china and other countries was
Both of these contributed to a more global commerce since new crops could now be introduced to the Old World and silver was highly valued all over the world. The European settlers were aware of the aforementioned facts and took advantage of the rich lands that could be found in the Americas. They farmed extensively, and the Native American techniques for harvesting in difficult land helped them. Furthermore, knowing that South America had rich silver deposits, the mined for the valuable material to export it for profit. This remained mostly unchanged during this time since Europeans had no need to look for other sources of profit.
The increased flow of silver during the mid-16th century to the early 18th century caused social and economic effects in all regions connected with the trade by increasing the integration of Europeans in the globalization of world trade, while creating greater economic opportunities and causing growing social divisions within China. It would help to have a document from a Japanese merchant, to see if the effects of the silver trade affected the Japanese economy as much as it did the Chinese and Spanish. It would be nice to see a document from a Chinese farmer/peasant to see if the increased flow of silver affected their lifestyles as Document 3 or 5 suggests. The economic impact of the global flow of silver in Spain during this time period
The exchange offered great wealth to the New and Old Worlds and increased their quantities of resources. Also the spread of crop growing increased the demand for labor. This situation ensured the
Global commerce in the early modern era was able to transform human societies by an increase of new technologies, silver diffusion, fur trade, and slaves. The Columbian exchange allowed European societies to have a source of food after the Bubonic Plague. The trading of corn was very important because at the time, corn could only be grown in the Americas. Another item distributed from the Americas was silver. Silver spread across regions after being in the hands of the Spaniards and depleted the Spanish economy.