The flow of silver from Japan and Latin American colonies to Europe and Asia led to massive wealth that would eventually cause problems such as inflation and trade imbalance in the economies of Spain and Ming China.
Spain was one of the major producers of silver. It controlled the mines in Latin America where silver was produced, and traded it around the world but especially to China. The Chinese economy required silver, and they traded many commodities in return for it .From the abundance of silver, and subsequent trade, Spain grew massively wealthy and powerful. The glut of silver into Spain’s economy allowed the arts and sciences to develop, but also led to high inflation. The Spanish also spent tremendous amounts of silver to fund many
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costly wars across Europe. Doc 2: As a Spanish citizen, he would probably be affected by high prices which might make him bitter to the government. Doc 6: In Document 6, Antonio Vasquez de Espinosa describes the conditions in the mines, as well as the plethora of silver produced there. Much of the silver would be secretly shipped out to Asia and Spain without paying the required tax. Espinosa was also the only writer to discuss the conditions of the indigenous workers in the mine, where work was difficult and dangerous.As a Catholic priest, a religion that preaches kindness and charity, he probably felt sympathy for the Indians. Since he was likely writing to a Spanish audience interested in learning about the colonies, he had to be fairly honest, but was still biased in favor of Spain, being Spanish himself. The majority of silver produced in Latin America and Japan went to China. (Documents 2,4,6, and 7) Documents 1, 3, 5, and 7 discuss the impact of the silver trade on Ming China. Silver was very important to the Ming, because taxes had to paid in silver bars. Earier, taxes in China could be paid in a variety of goods and labor, but the Ming changed their policy to accept only silver. Ming China was self-sufficient, and the silver was the only thing they lacked, while Europe wanted many Chinese goods. This created a trade imbalance in China’s favor, but they still struggled with a rapidly increasing demand for more silver to sustain their large economy. Like Spain, the Ming also invested too much silver into expensive areas, here defense, and had rapid inflation. Doc 1: Ye Chunji was a court official who in Document 1, offers a short but poignant look at china's dependence on silver.
The economy’s reliance on it meant they must keep trading for more and more silver, in exchange for chinese luxury good like silk.
Doc 3: Xijue shows that the importance placed on silver negatively affected agriculture. Silver was so important to he economy people turned away from agriculture to moore profitable pursuits, like silk making. (That led to more silver.) As an official, he is trying to appear respectful and not criticize the government.
Doc 5: In document 5, Xu Dunqiu Ming writes about the use of silver as the main form of currency. Previously, customers could pay with commodities like grain, rice, or animals.
Doc 7: Document 7 goes into more detail about the trade imbalance. He Qiaoyuan was a court official who was in favor of the trade. He writes about the huge profits that could be made from trade, where silk worth 100 bars of silver could be sold for to 200 or 300 bars in the Philippines. Since he is reporting to the Emperor, he might be trying to be respectful and polite. He is arguing for a specific position and not discussing issues that might countermine his position in the argument, or affect his job as an
official. We need a document written by The flow of silver affected many other nations besides Spain and Ming China, as discussed in documents 4 and 8. The Philippines were a Spanish colony close to China that grew incredibly rich. Doc 4: The people of the Philippines brought back silver from Japan, and traded it with China for luxury goods, making a large profit. In Document 4, Ralph Fitch discusses the huge amount of silver traded through the Philippines in his travel account. Doc 8: In Document 8, Charles D’Avenant also discusses the benefits of the silver trade, in this case with his own native England. D’Avenant is arguing in favor of trade with Asia. As he is a scholar, and likely well to do, he would support the importation of luxury goods he personally enjoyed. We need a document written by a Japanese person, detailing the production of silver in their nation as well as the economic impact it had. Japan was a major producer of silver, and to truly understand the silver trade from a global perspective we need to see how Japan’s economy was affected. Fitch and D'Avenant are both English, and their perspective is important because England was a major trading power at the time, but they do not represent the full complexities of the silver trade. Here is an conclusion, mirroring the thesis. Ultimately, the wealth gained from the silver trade had severe consequences. While both Spain and China quickly grew rich quickly, they were plagued with issues almost immediately and did not stay rich. The silver trade caused inflation that would weaken both governments, and its production would harm the environment and take the lives of thousands of native americans. The problems of the silver trade would have a lasting effect on history. Europe would resort to opium to try and gain access to China, eventually sparking the Opium Wars.
Politically, World Powers craved practically nothing but silver from Asia. (Document 8) When silver was in such high demand, the business structure in many places changed dramatically. In China, the previous Bill of Credit, where citizens could purchase items with means other than money (for example, rice, wheat, or chicken) was removed and it was heavy enforced that everybody must pay for everything with silver. (Document 5) Lust for silver caused many political injustices around the world as well. Antonio Vasquez de Española, a Spanish priest wrote about the brutality existing between Spain and the Potosi Indians
Around the beginning of the sixteenth centruy, many countires had started to explore farther away and finding new territories. New products like sugar and taobacco began to emerge around the world in many places. Many countries in Europe were gaining power due to the control of colonies in the Americas. Asian countries did not explore as much, but still managed to remain large and powerful for a while. The global flow of silver had economic effects on inflating prices of goods and stimulating econimic policy of mercantilism, and social effects on negative effects on the lower class around the world during the mid-sixteenth century to the early eighteenth century.
Upon the conclusion of the First World War, the strength of the Senate against the Treaty of Versailles, and President Wilson's stubbornness, brought its defeat. This is mainly due to the common feeling of staying away from further European involvement, the fear of implementing a poorly drawn-up treaty, Senate's assertion of its power against the executive, and the plurality of Republicans in Senate versus the Democrat President.
During the Revolutionary War, at Valley Forge, which is Washington’s winter camp, 18 miles outside Pennsylvania, soldiers went through a very rough time during the tough and hard winter months of 1777 and 1778. Many soldiers didn’t have shoes, jackets, blankets, and proper warm clothing. Also, there was barely enough food for everyone. For example, in Document C, Dr. Albigence Waldo, (a doctor/surgeon at Valley Forge) , states, “No meat! No meat!” Without meat, the Patriots wouldn’t the proper protein they need, especially since they are fighting in a war! The question is, Would I have quit and left Valley Forge? After some lengthy thinking, my answer is, ‘no,’ I would not have quit and left. This is because, the Patriots had a great and caring
Valley Forge, was the toughest obstacle the Continental Army had to face during the Revolutionary War. For about nine months in the cold winter, these soldiers stayed in this area for them to"... be close enough to Philadelphia to keep an eye on the British"(Background). By the end of the war, the colonists were victorious in gaining their independence. Regardless, I would abandon my position as a soldier at Valley Forge. My reasoning are due to the multiple hardship they endure such as living in a harsh environment, sickness that lead to death and lacked numerous resources.
During the period 1550-1800, the colonization of the Americas by European civilizations led to massive shifts in economic power from the West to East and vice-versa. An increase in global competition among western civilizations and against their asian counterparts drove Europeans to search for wealth elsewhere, and thus colonizing the Americas. One of the easiest ways to generate a profit, increase a civilizations wealth, and ultimately their military power was through the silver trade. In monopolizing said trade, Europe was able to establish a somewhat steady economic connection to the very wealthy Asian civilizations. However, european nations were struggling to keep control of the silver trade out of Asian hands, which caused major shifts
Areas within Japan, such as Nagasaki, acted as the biggest suppliers of silver to regions across the globe. By leaving out Japan, the opportunity to fully analyze the connections established by Japan with other regions and the effects on Japan’s economy and society has been eradicated. However, with the documents provided, the silver trade drastically changed trade around the world by connecting different and distant regions across the world and establishing communication on a global scale. The emergence of silver catapulted many societies to amass their wealth and power on silver, and shifted the economies and societies of these regions towards relying on their stability through a dependence on
Sparta was known for being strong, but was it really? In case you don’t know, Sparta was a Greek city-state. Sparta only focused on war. Spartans were only taught the basics of other topics. Spartans were trained for 13 years just to fight. Reading and writing were only taught in Sparta for practical reasons. The strengths didn’t outweigh the weaknesses. There were more weaknesses to Sparta than there were strengths. The strengths of Sparta didn’t outweigh the weaknesses for three reasons. The first reason is that the babies were killed just if they looked weak. The second reason is that the Spartans barely new anything about other topics (math, reading, writing, etc). The third and final reason is that the helots outnumbered the Spartans 50 to 1.
Originally Spain found success with finding gold or other mineral wealth not by colonizing, but by conquering and enslaving the local population, such as the Aztecs. As a result, Spain discovered that there was no gold or other mineral wealth to be found past t...
In this process, they succeeded in influencing Japan greatly. However, they were not as successful with China. At the end of the eighteenth century, China’s goods were much sought after by Britain. However, the Chinese saw Europeans as savages and did not want to trade with them. During trade, there was an imbalance in China’s favor, because the Europeans were forced to buy Chinese goods using silver.
Much opportunity arose for Europe and Asia, such as trade, since they were also able to attain silver from the new world. Trade was taking place in Asia, Europe, and Africa, and in all three continents people were interacting like never before. The Europeans were able to trade silver for many other goods such as expensive spices such as pepper, ginger, and saffron. This helped in the preservation of their meats considering they ate mostly meat and butter. The Europeans, living in colder climates, used these dyes to add pizzazz to their clothing. The Europeans craved new luxury goods
as the financial motives of the Silverites which were important to this era. Using allegory methods this story has depicted every type of rural life, gold-silver
Guanxi, a special word in Chinese, stands for all kinds of relationships, which is one important concept in Chinese culture. In many cases, Guanxi is about connections in social networks that can be used to help accomplish certain objectives or goals one has. Furthermore, it emphasizes connections one can use for conducting a favour or receiving a favour from the mutual connection. The Chinese word guanxi as stated above, in directed translation means relationship. Guanxi consist of two words, guan and xi. Guan means to close up or a door. Literally, thinking, someone inside the door is known to separate between insiders and outsiders. The word guan is also used to mean doing a favour for someone (Hsu and Saxenian, 29). Xi on the other hand means to extend relationship to another party. The word Xi is used in place of maintaining a long term relationship. With the above definition in mind, guanxi is used to refer to “drawing closer connections with people in order to gain personal relationship with the parties” (Luo, 2007). Guanxi is seen to have originated a long time ago and its exact point in history cannot be traced. All that is known is that the concept has always been in existence to bring people together and helps people who have good social ties. As the saying goes “reciprocity respect for hierarchy, and the ritual materialization of sentiment.” People are not treated equally in this traditional society so they start to depend on important people. Indeed, under this philosophy, Chinese strive on managing their guanxi with special persons in hope of better opportunities. Finally yet importantly, in Confucianism, guanxi network is dedicated to building harmonious relationships...
The idea of mercantilism was for nations to export more than they important and accumulate gold or silver, but mainly gold, to make up the difference (Mercantilism, n.d.). At the heart of mercantilism was that by maximizing net exports that would lead them to the best route to national wealth (C.W., 2013). This started “bullionism”, the idea that the only way a person could measure a country’s wealth and success was by the amount of gold that had (C.W., 2013). The best way to achieve “bullionism” was by making fewer imports and much exports. By doing that they make a net inflow of foreign exchange and maximizing the country’s gold stock (C.W., 2013).
The origin of the gold standard came from the use of gold coins as a medium of exchange, unit of account, and store of value. While gold has played these roles since ancient times, the gold standard as a legal institution dates from 1819, when the British Parliament repealed longstanding restrictions on the export of gold coins and bullion from Britain. Later in the 19th century, the United States, Germany, Japan, and other countries also adopted the gold standard. At the time, Britain was the world’s leading economic power, and other nations hoped to achieve similar economic success by following British precedent. Given Britain’s preeminence in international trade and the advanced development of its financial institutions, London naturally