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Effect of the Atlantic slave trade
The effect of the Atlantic slave trade
Importance of mercantilism in the economy
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Overview
How did the Atlantic System affect Europe, Africa, and the Americas? (The Earth and Its Peoples, 500)
The movement of goods, people, and wealth in the late 17th and 18th centuries permanently changed societies across the continents of Europe, Africa, and North and South America, thereby increasing the reach of globalization in the modern age. Most influential to this movement was what is sometimes referred to as “The Atlantic Circuit”, a triangle of trade between Western Europe, western Africa, and the West Indies. Out of this circuit came the rapid growth of the Atlantic slave trade, which not only established multiple industries of agriculture, but significantly changed the economies of all countries involved. The agriculture industries, in combination with further colonization transformed the land of the Americas, and the impacted diets across the world. Capitalist systems and mercantilist policies provided structure to trade, and allowed both private investors and nations to profit from it. These systems laid the foundation for future economies by creating new levels of power and interaction between the private and public sectors and, in the process, generating many successes and failures.
One of the most significant catalysts of the system was the growth of the Atlantic slave trade. The success sugar plantations of the West Indies and the colonial expansions in South America would not have been possible without African slave labor. Although African slaves were expensive, approximately equivalent to 6.5 thousand USD in today’s currency , compared to natives or indentured servants from Europe, they were seen as a better investment. The mercantilist policies of European states such as England and the Netherl...
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...gn policy, the many edicts established during his time bolstered the domestic economy, and succeeded in growing overseas trade. The main purpose behind his interests was competition with the Dutch, who had secured many trade interests in the East and the West, and whose naval forces dwarfed those of the French. Originally, Colbert had sought to ally with the English against the Dutch, however, in the establishment of these policies the two nations became lasting rivals.
Works Cited
Original figure: Bulliet et al. « The Earth and Its Peoples » . Houghton Mifflin Company. 2005.
Conversion to modern worth: Lawrence H. Officer and Samuel H. Williamson. « Purchasing Power of Money in the United States from 1774 to 2010 » MeasuringWorth. 2011.
Conversion to USD: Citibank, N.A. via Google. http://www.google.com/search?q=4000+pounds+in+usd. Retrieved September 2011.
With differing economies and the growth of specie and paper money, Brands argues that the basis of knowledge about the money system of this time lays a foundation for how Carnegie, Rockefeller, and others were able to manipulate the market and gain wealth. Leading into price manipulation by those in corporate
When the first Europeans settled in what would become the United States, the need of a currency to make trade easier rapidly arose. Before the US Dollar as we know it, the American Colonies went through several currency systems. Since most settlers were from the United Kingdom, the colonies were under the authority of the crown, and used the British system of pounds, shilling and pence. The use of Spanish dollars was also very widespread, and the name of the country’s official currency comes from this common practice. While the first trades took place with British or Spanish currency or commodities, the Massachusetts Bay Colony was the first to issue some paper currency, which it denominated in British terms at first, and then in both British and Spanish terms. For the first time in the colonies, a colonial authority delivered a piece of paper, regardless of the Crown’s opinion, which people trusted would be worth money. This was therefore the first fiat currency of the colonies, which would later become the United States of America. In this paper, we will explore the evolution of fiat currency in the United States, and the process that led to the adoption of the US Dollar still in use today. It will cover the period from 1690 to 1863, separated in three parts that correspond to currency evolution: Colonial currency from 1690 to 1775, the Revolution and the first banks from 1775 to 1860, and finally the US Dollar, the Legal Tender Act and the National Banking Act from 1860 onwards.
Following the success of Christopher Columbus’ voyage to the Americas in the early16th century, the Spaniards, French and Europeans alike made it their number one priority to sail the open seas of the Atlantic with hopes of catching a glimpse of the new territory. Once there, they immediately fell in love the land, the Americas would be the one place in the world where a poor man would be able to come and create a wealthy living for himself despite his upbringing. Its rich grounds were perfect for farming popular crops such as tobacco, sugarcane, and cotton. However, there was only one problem; it would require an abundant amount of manpower to work these vast lands but the funding for these farming projects was very scarce in fact it was just about nonexistent. In order to combat this issue commoners back in Europe developed a system of trade, the Triangle Trade, a trade route that began in Europe and ended in the Americas. Ships leaving Europe first stopped in West Africa where they traded weapons, metal, liquor, and cloth in exchange for captives that were imprisoned as a result of war. The ships then traveled to America, where the slaves themselves were exchanged for goods such as, sugar, rum and salt. The ships returned home loaded with products popular with the European people, and ready to begin their journey again.
Though the Atlantic Slave Trade began in 1441, it wasn’t until nearly a century later that Europeans actually became interested in slave trading on the West African coast. “With no interest in conquering the interior, they concentrated their efforts to obtain human cargo along the West African coast. During the 1590s, the Dutch challenged the Portuguese monopoly to become the main slave trading nation (“Africa and the Atlantic Slave Trade”, NA). Besides the trading of slaves, it was also during this time that political changes were being made. The Europe...
Slavery was a practice in many countries in the 17th and 18th centuries, but its effects in human history was unique to the United States. Many factors played a part in the existence of slavery in colonial America; the most noticeable was the effect that it had on the personal and financial growth of the people and the nation. Capitalism, individualism and racism were the utmost noticeable factors during this most controversial period in American history. Other factors, although less discussed throughout history, also contributed to the economic rise of early American economy, such as, plantationism and urbanization. Individually, these factors led to an enormous economic growth for the early American colonies, but collectively, it left a social gap that we are still trying to bridge today.
Ernst, Joseph Albert. Money and politics in America, 1755–1775; a study in the Currency act of
Labor shortage and certainly did make room for immigrant newcomers. Combinations of indigenous, European and African people created a new society in the Americas. Europeans and Africans brought not only germs and their people but also their plants and animals. They also changed the environment. Even more innovative were their animals: horses, pigs, cattle, goat, and sheep. New domesticated animals made possible the ranching economy and cowboy cultures, hunting bison by horseback. American food crops spread widely in the Eastern Hemisphere. The American crops later provided cheap and reasonably nutritious food for millions of industrial workers. Exchange with the Americas reshaped the world economy because of the silver mines of Mexico and Peru and the millions of African slaves to the Americas. The plantation owners of the tropical lowland regions needed workers and found them by millions in Africa. The slave trade which bought these workers to the colonies, and the sugar, and cotton trade, which spread the fruits of their labor abroad, created a lasting link among Africa. The Columbian was enormous network of communication, migration, trade, disease, and the transfer of plants and animals, all made by European colonial empires in the
Friedman, Milton and Jacobson Schwartz, Anna. A Monetary History of the United States, 1867-1960. Princeton, 1963
During the late 1700’s, the United States was no longer a possession of Britain, instead it was a market for industrial goods and the world’s major source for tobacco, cotton, and other agricultural products. A labor revolution started to occur in the United States throughout the early 1800’s. There was a shift from an agricultural economy to an industrial market system. After the War of 1812, the domestic marketplace changed due to the strong pressure of social and economic forces. Major innovations in transportation allowed the movement of information, people, and merchandise.
The immediate cause of the European voyages of discovery was the conquest of Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks in 1453. While Egypt and Italian city-state of Venice was left with a monopoly on ottoman trade for spices and eastern goods it allowed Portugal and Spain to break the grip by finding an Atlantic route. Portugal took the lead in the Atlantic exploration because of the reconquest from the Muslims, good finances, and their long standing seafaring traditions. In dealing with agriculture, The Portuguese discovered Brazil on accident, but they concentrated on the Far East and used Brazil as a ground for criminals. Pernambuco, the first area to be settled, became the world’s largest sugar producer by 1550. Pernambuco was a land of plantations and Indian slaves. While the market for sugar grew so did the need for slaves. Therefore the African Slave start became greatly into effect. Around 1511 Africans began working as slaves in the Americas. In 1492, Columbus embarked on his voyage from Spain to the Americas. The Euro...
...e Earth and Its Peoples, Second Edition. CENGAGE LEARNING, n.d. Web. 26 Mar. 2014. .
Slaves and slave trade has been an important part of history for a very long time. In the years of the British thirteen colonies in North America, slaves and slave trade was a very important part of its development. It even carried on to almost 200 years of the United States history. The slave trade of the thirteen colonies was an important part of the colonies as well as Europe and Africa. In order to supply the thirteen colonies efficiently through trade, Europe developed the method of triangular trade. It is referred to as triangular trade because it consists of trade with Africa, the thirteen colonies, and England. These three areas are commonly called the trades “three legs.”
Bulliet, Richard W. Earth and Its Peoples: a Global History. 5th ed. Vol. 1. Boston, MA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2011. Print.
Bulliet, Richard W. et al. The Earth and Its People: A Global History. 2nd ed. New York: Houghten Mifflin.
After its discovery, the Americas became very profitable land for the Europeans in the 15th to 17th century. There were all sorts of new resources and riches available. These led to a massive oversea trade between the Americas and Europe called the Colombian trade. This brought direct changes in the economy, demography, social classes, and the lives of the Amerindians. The massive changes made by the Europeans affected how the Americas are today.