The flow of silver from 1500 to 1750 C.E. drastically improved the economies of Latin American nations, which in turned allowed for a global shift in currency and altered trade. Also during this time period there was also a greater desire for global expansion and imperialism, as seen when Europe expanded towards the Americas. Interconnected trade allowed for more contact between various nations, but it also supported the idea that certain nations were superior. While Latin America was the source of the economic prosperity that occurred in this time period, nations such as Europe benefited largely as well; since Spain and Portugal still had control over the areas where silver was being mined, they were able to take the rewards and distribute for their benefit.
Documents 2 and 4 describe how silver has become the leading trade object in East Asia. Document 2 is from a British merchant writing about Portuguese trade in the China, trying to express the advantage of trading in Japan for the exchange of silver. Document 4 is best understood in the context of silver mining becoming Latin America’s main source of trade and revenue. Through the production of
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Document 5 explains the labor needed to produce all the silver that leave Potosi; the purpose of the document is to show the public how, in order to have 326,000,000 silver coins produced for the economy, Indian workers must struggle every day. In document 1, the major silver mines are located largely in Spanish-owned territories and the metal is then traded to areas in England such as the Netherlands, Great Britain, Spain, and Portugal. These are some countries which benefitted the most from the flow of silver because they were able to trade in Russia, the Ottoman Empire, the East Indies, and Ming China; this is why the arrows extend from one central point, England, and go to other nations from there
After the Ottoman Turks gained control of the Middle East, trade with Asia became difficult for Europeans across land. Many European explorers began searching for sea routes to Asia to renew trade. When explorers found the Americas, they had their mind set on gold to cope with the deteriorating European economy, but upon arrival and the realization gold was minimal, explorers enslaved many Natives and put them to work to produce another metal abundant in the area - silver. At the time, they really had no idea about the global impact silver would make. The discovery of silver by the Spanish in the Americas in the period of 1550 to 1700 brought about vast changes in economic exchange and production by making the world more interconnected through
However, an imbalance of trade occurred between Asia and Europe by Asia receiving luxury goods while Europe received regular goods. It was believed that Asia had the upper-hand during the trade, due to the fact that they were receiving the gold and silver. In reality, Asia wasn’t sure on how to benefit from the luxury, and in result proved that the ones who had the upper-hand didn’t always have to be responsible of trading luxury (Doc. 8).
During the fifteenth century, one economic continuity in the Americas was the continued establishment of trade and markets throughout the area. In the Aztec empire, specifically during the fifteenth century, production of craft goods increased, which resulted in the rise of trade in the "American web". All types of trade continued to be victorious with food, ornaments, precious stones, and other popular goods moving throughout the region. Pochteca, professional merchants, were originally seen as commoners, but that seemed to change with time. Due to the flourish of trade, the professional merchants wealth in many cases exceeded that of nobles.
In Doc #6, the process to obtain the silver in Spain is to evacuate it from a very rich black flint. It takes thousands of workers and it is a very strenuous process. Spanish records show that millions of silver coins have been taken out. In Doc #7, Chinese merchants trade with Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean in order to obtain the goods they need in return for what they have. The Chinese merchants have found that when they trade with the Philippines they only return with silver coins.
With the globalization of this trade, it impacted many empires in the Americas and Afro-Eurasia. Once the global silver trade started in the sixteenth century, empires across Afro-Eurasia and the Americas were affected socially, such as Native Americans having to overwork themselves because of the Spanish desire for silver, and economically, with a change in
Also in East Asia, sugar became the main crop, but they also had new varieties of rice, and inflicted a form of water control on mountain sides. Second, in South Asia, there became a sensation of which “India virtually clothed the world”. Cotton products and trade, as well as cotton textiles were an important market item, also there was a discovery or need for new sources of bullion. Also there became a senation for wanting to find new sources of gold, and gold became one of the main money providers for South Asia. Last, southerinzation also effect the Islamic world.
After the XVI century, Europe had a resurgence that allowed their nations to explore the world. European nations looked for how to extend its political and military power among the world. However, economic power appears as an important matter for the Empires´ maintenance and hence, trade appeared as a tool to create such Economic control. European Empires found opportunities to develop trade in Asian countries that faced instability. Developing political agreements in order to establish monopolies was the initial stage for future trade companies’ economic expansion.
Economic Effects of the Columbian Exchange Inflation of cash-crops, slavery and silver resulting from the Columbian Exchange caused a drastic effect on the global economy. Cash-crops forged new trade routes across continents, slavery supported New World exports, and silver caused power shifts in the world 's distribution of wealth. As Spanish expeditions to the New World increased in size and purpose, the economic effects on the rest of the world spread with equal vigor. The triangular trade circulated commodities between Europe, Africa, and the Americas. From Europe some commodities were distributed throughout Asia.
The Columbian Exchange caused inflation in Europe. Silver
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.
Spanish were benefiting from the colonial regions while imposing devastating social and economic changes and ironically these changes had no lasting benefit to the colonial empires either. Spain used the gold and silver for the consumption of Spainish elite which caused unproductive investment in government buildings and private villas. Cheaper luxury good were improted from Holland and Britain which created a flow of Spanish gold and silver to other European powers. The popular saying “Spanish held the cow and the Dutch milked it” was coming from here. Mexico
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
Having the use of trade available to different nations made it easier to focus on aspects of receiving the raw materials to make countries more valuable. According to a reliable source, “Overseas colonies could serve as reliable sources of raw materials not available in Europe that came into demand because of industrialization” (911). This meant that they could get rubber from rubber trees in the Congo River basin and Malaya and use it to make many things, from tires to pipes. Tin came from colonies in southeast Asia and copper came from central Africa. Tin and copper were mostly used to make tools and weapons.
However the biggest influence was their natural resource of gold. Once gold was discovered in the region, there was a mass demand for it