Starting from the early 1570’s a new good was introduced to the global market that
will cause great changes to the nations invested into this global exchange drastically. This
desired good is the precious metal known as silver and the leading exporters of silver was
Tokugawa Japan and colonial Spain with Ming China as silver’s primary consumer. The
distribution has caused social dependability, value change, and oppression amongst these
empires.
As these nations began the exchange of silver for goods, their citizens became
dependent on each other, Ming china beame dependent on these nations for silver and the
other nations became dependent on china for their asian goods. Document two by scholar
Tomas de Mercado, was made in order to inform people of how as
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Spain became a major producer of silver it uses that metal in order to attain Chinese resources such as the example that he expressed cobblestone, and vice versa as the Chinese returning with ships containing silver. Document four by Ralph Fitch, who is a British merchant who traveled to the East Indies, is published in order to express his eye-witness account of the commerce that took place in the west Indies in hopes of encouraging Britian to be included in East Indies trade with belief of it being a benefit. In this document it expresses the dependability of the three states by expressing that Japan needs good from china, china needs silver from Japan, and Portugal returns home with asian goods. This article expresses that as Japan and Portugal have a monopoly on silver that they can gain access to their desired goods from china. Document seven is by a Chinese government official named He Qiaoyuan published in 1630 when china was experiencing a ban on foreign trade . Qiaoyuan published this article in hopes of repealing the ban as he believes that Chinese merchants need their foreign traders in order to make profit with this statement “when Chinese merchants trade in south east asia and the Indian ocean, they trade the goods we produce for the goods of others” this statement shows that Qiaoyuan believes that china needs foreign goods just as much as foreigners need Chinese goods. Article eight by English scholar Charles D’ Avenant of the silver flow, and was made for two reasons first of which is to inform the people of the English empire that they have grown accustomed to a lifestyle that requires the use of asian goods on a daily basis but such substances are temporary whereas the silver that is traded for these goods is more useful in the long run, and to also disagree with the ban on Indian textile trade as he believes the English people need these goods to simply survive.
An additional
document would be of a report of why Japan needed goods from china to know why
japan participated in the trade by giving china massive amounts of silver.
Ever since silver has entered the world of the global market it has changed the
economic foundation of exchange by modifying the value of goods and currency.
Document one by Chinese county official Ye Chunji tells that the conversion of the
currency to silver is able to please everyone in china as a benefit as silver has became
so valuable that it is able to support the population. Document three by Chinese court
official Wang Xijue this was produced to convince the emperor of china to spend more
money for the people of china so that the value of grain can increase. Document seven
by Chinese court official Qiaoyuan is intended to convince the emperor to repeal the
ban on foreign trade due to the fact that the value of Chinese goods is more expensive
to foreigners rather than natives to the country this is clear by the quotation “ Chinese
silk yarn worth 100 bars of silver can be sold in the Philippines at a price of 200 to
300 bars of silver there” this basically proves that the silver flow has caused for Chinese goods to increase in valuability. Document eight by English scholar Charles D’ Avenant is intended to persuade the British to continue trade with asia because if they lose the supply of Asian goods then another country will step in and benefit. To the English empire the goods they receive from asia are very valuable by saying it is for luxurious use of the population in whole this and how the author fears the abandonment of this trade route proves that these goods are extremely valuable for the population and for the nations economy. An additional document that would be useful could be a graph to show in specific of how much greater does an objects value increase by when being sold to foreigners from china. The sliver flow has sadly became a cause for international oppression as people start to do anything to try to extract as much silver as they can to appeal to the global market. Document five by Zu Dunqui Ming talks of the economic effects the conversion to silver currency had on the people of Hangzhou. According to Zu Dunqui Ming “Now, when you have your cloth dyed you receive a bill, which must be paid with silver obtained from a moneylender” this observation by Dunqui suggests that not many people are able to obtain silver so they resorted to borrowing money from loan sharks implying that economically people struggled. Article five is created by Spanish priest Antonio Vasquez de Espinosa, this article was created to inform the public of the corruption the Spanish are committing by forcing the indigenous people of the west Indies to work at their potosi mine. Document three is by court official Wang Xijue, he explains that as grain has become cheaper the people who plant that grain receive less profit to add on to the new silver taxes this resulted in people oppressed by poverty and the results for poor farmers is that less land got put into cultivation. An additional document I would request is a report of an indigenous slave of colonial Spain expressing his/her personal experience of being oppressed. Silver has had a drastic impact during the years of 1570 to 1750 to the world of global commerce. As silver became a high demand product and other countries had a monopoly on them, there was an increase of interaction amongst countries for the goods desired. The silver flow had social and economic impacts on the countries participating in this relation such as changes in the dependability that they had on each other for certain resources, the changes in goods scale of value, and the oppression amongst others to obtain silver.
There were many economic effects due to the global flow of silver. One of these
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
middle of paper ... ... In conclusion, Japan tried to isolate themselves, and China tried to compete with them, using their land, and excess population. Documents one through ten were all about China, and documents eleven through sixteen were about Japan. Documents one, two, three, and seven talked about whether China was prepared for the European countries, and documents five, six, and nine talked about whether or not China compared to the European countries.
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
Ottoman vs. Qing The declines of the Ottoman and Qing Empires both had commonalities in their downfall such as corruption in the government, weak armies, and debt to the Europeans, though the main reasons for the collapse of the empires are alike the way that the problems developed are dissimilar. While both the Qing and the Ottoman were in completely separate locations, both had government officials that abused their positions of power and brought down the economic standing of the empire as whole. Ottoman rule was at its peak during the sixteenth century and they stayed in that era, as did the Qing, the military advancements that had occurred were not followed by these empires causing them to be utterly defenseless in war. Finally, due to the fact that the Ottomans and Qings had no way to protect themselves from the Europeans, the British and French gave them loans or crops that forced them into economic strife because they could not pay back the money they had borrowed.
The relationships of the Axumite Empire with the world outside its borders was almost entirely based on trade and military conquest. The key location of Axum in the horn of Africa, which is now Ethiopia, near The Red Sea and the Indian Sea made Axum one of the most important trading posts of the time. In the documents “The Periplus of the Erythraen Sea”, “The Christian Topography” by Cosmas and “Inscription on a Stone Throne” The authors describe different features of the trading practices and military campaigns of Axum that had a significant impact in the neighboring empires. From the grandeur of the Axumite port Adulis and the products that were available for import and export. To how they conducted the trading of materials and resources for gold with the neighboring African peoples. And military conquests that expanded the wealth of Axum.
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.
In the early part of the 15th century C.E., a massive fleet of Chinese ships went on a series of seven voyages under the direction of Admiral Zheng He (The Ming Dynasty: Exploration to Isolation). For approximately 30 years, China sailed it's ships around Southeast Asia, India, and even East Africa trading exotic goods and reportedly establishing political alliances (Viviano). In addition, many estimate the Chinese flagship as being about 4.5 times larger than a European ship of the time period (Hadingham). These accounts of Zheng He's voyages can be used to argue that China in the early 15th century was the equal or possibly even superior to Europeans in terms of technology, navigation, trade, and it's political scope. Despite these voyages tremendous success, a faction of Confu...
This means that, in the coming years, the yuan will be stronger in the coming years which will make the return on sales to increase.
...st and stand in the world. It is predicted that China will one day be the largest economy growing country in world. They continually growing and rebalancing their world to be the best. The growth of economy will depend on the Chinese government comprehensive economic reforms that more quickly accelerate in China transition to a free market economy. The consumer demand, rather than exporting the main engine of economic growth; boost productivity and innovation; address growing income disparities; and enhance environmental. (Morrison, 2014,para2)
From the 1970s, there has been a wave of liberalization in China, which was introduced by Deng Xiaoping. This is one of the key reasons to the rise of China to be one of the economic giants in the world. In the last 25 years of the century, the Chinese economy has had massive economic growth, which has been 9.5 percent on a yearly basis. This has been of great significance of the country since it quadrupled the gross domestic product (GDP) of the country thus leading to saving of 400 million of their citizens from the threats of poverty. In the late 1970s, China was ranked twentieth in terms of trade volumes in the whole world as well as being predicted to be the world’s top nation concerning trading activities (Kaplan, 53). This further predicted the country to record the highest GDP growth in the whole world.
The rise in China from a poor, stagnant country to a major economic power within a time span of twenty-eight years is often described by analysts as one of the greatest success stories in these present times. With China receiving an increase in the amount of trade business from many countries around the world, they may soon be a major competitor to surpass the U.S. China became the second largest economy, last year, overtaking Japan which had held that position since 1968 (Gallup). China could become the world’s largest economy in decades.
Gold, nothing can compare to this precious metal. A symbol of wealth and prosperity, it has been a value for explorers and adventurers and a lure for conquerors. Today it is vital to commerce and finance; popular in ornamentation, and increasing importance in technology.
government, he felt that “Principle was the diffusion of the imperial government.”(www.travelchinaguide.com). So in order to correct the situation of the government, he tried to strengthen rule into absolute rule by emperor. One of the single most important innovations that Hongwu made to the Chinese government was the abolishment of the Chief Minister. By eliminating the Chief Minister, Hongwu essentially took over the administration. In a way he was proclaiming absolute...
Commodity is a fundamental item used by almost everyone. In the past, tea, tobacco, salt, sugar are considered as commodities. People use these commodities to exchange goods. T...