CHAPTER 14 Economic Transformation: Commerce and Consequence 1450–1750 CHAPTER LEARNING 2. American silver allowed greater European participation in the commerce of East Asia OBJECTIVES 3. fur trapping and trading changed • To explore the creation of the first true global commerce and the natural environment economy in the period 1450–1750 C. Europeans were increasingly prominent in • To examine Western European commercial long-distance trade, but other peoples were expansion in a context that gives due weight to the also important. contributions of other societies D. Commerce and empire were the two forces • To encourage appreciation of China as the that drove globalization between 1450 and world’s largest economy in the early modern period 1750. • To increase student awareness of the high costs II. Europeans and Asian Commerce of the commercial boom of the early modern period A. Europeans wanted commercial connections in ecological and human terms with Asia. • To investigate the various models of trading 1. Columbus and Vasco da Gama both post empires that were created in this period sought a route to Asia 2. motivation above all was the desire for spices (though other Eastern products CHAPTER OUTLINE were also sought) 3. European civilization had recovered from I. Opening Vignette the Black Death A. The Atlantic slave trade was and is 4. national monarchies were learning to enormously significant. govern more effectively B. The slave trade was only one part of the 5. some cities were becoming international international trading networks that shaped the trade centers world between 1450 and 1750. 6. the problems of old trade systems from the 1. Europeans broke into the Indian Ocean Indian Ocean network spice trade a. Muslims controlled supply 313 314 CHAPTER 14 • ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION: COMMERCE AND CONSEQUENCE b. Venice was chief intermediary for d. the Philippines remained a Spanish trade with Alexandria; other states colonial territory until 1898, when the resented it United States assumed control c. desire to find Prester John and enlist 3. major missionary campaign made Filipino his support in the Crusades society the only major Christian outpost in d. constant trade deficit with Asia Asia B. A Portuguese Empire of Commerce 4. Spaniards introduced forced relocation, 1. Indian Ocean commerce was highly rich tribute, taxes, unpaid labor and diverse a. large estates for Spanish settlers, 2. Portuguese did not have goods of a quality religious orders, and Filipino elite for effective competition b. women’s ritual and healing roles were 3. Portuguese took to piracy on the sea lanes attacked a. Portuguese ships were more 5. Manila became a major center with a maneuverable, carried cannons diverse population b. established fortified bases at key 6. periodic revolts by the Chinese locations (Mombasa, Hormuz, Goa, population; Spaniards expelled or Malacca, Macao) massacred them several times 4. Portuguese created a “trading post D. The East India Companies empire” 1. Dutch and English both entered Indian a. goal was to control commerce, not Ocean commerce in the early seventeenth territories or populations century b. operated by force of arms, not a. soon displaced the Portuguese economic competition b. competed with each other c. at height, controlled about half of the 2. ca. 1600: both the Dutch and the English spice trade to Europe organized private trading companies to 5. Portuguese gradually assimilated to Indian handle Indian Ocean trade Ocean trade patterns a. merchants invested, shared the risks a. carried Asian goods to Asian ports b. Dutch and British East India b. many Portuguese settled in Asian or companies were chartered by their African ports respective governments c. their trading post empire was in steep c. had power to make war and govern decline by 1600 conquered peoples C. Spain and the Philippines 3. established their own trading post empires 1. Spain was the first to challenge Portugal’s a. Dutch empire was focused on control of Asian trade Indonesia 2. establishment of a Spanish base in the b. English empire was focused on India Philippines c. French company was also established a. first encountered when Ferdinand 4. Dutch East India Company Magellan circumnavigated the globe a. controlled both shipping and (1519–1521) production of cloves, cinnamon, b. Philippines were organized in small, nutmeg, and mace competitive chiefdoms b. seized small spice-producing islands c. Spaniards established full colonial rule and forced people to sell only to the there (takeover occurred 1565–1650) Dutch CHAPTER 14 • ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION: COMMERCE AND CONSEQUENCE 315 c. destroyed the local economy of the iii. Japanese were barred from travel Spice Islands; made the Dutch rich abroad d. for a time sought to colonize Taiwan iv. Europeans were banned, except through large-scale Chinese the Dutch at a single site immigration, but lost control to China e. Japan was closed off from Europe from 5. British East India Company 1650 to 1850 a. was not as well financed or as 4. Asian merchants continued to operate, commercially sophisticated as the despite European presence Dutch; couldn’t break into the Spice a. overland trade within Asia remained in Islands Asian hands b. established three major trade b. tens of thousands of Indian merchants settlements in India (seventeenth lived throughout Central Asia, Persia, century) and Russia c. British navy gained control of Arabian III. Silver and Global Commerce Sea and Persian Gulf A. The silver trade was even more important d. could not compete with the Mughal than the spice trade in creating a global Empire on land exchange network. e. negotiated with local rulers for 1. enormous silver deposits were discovered peaceful establishment of trade bases in Bolivia and Japan in the mid-sixteenth f. Britons traded pepper and other spices, century but cotton textiles became more 2. in the early modern period, Spanish important America produced around 85 percent of 6. Dutch and English also became involved the world’s silver in “carrying trade” within Asia B. China’s economy was huge and had a 7. both gradually evolved into typical growing demand for silver. colonial domination 1. 1570s: the Chinese government E. Asians and Asian Commerce consolidated taxes into a single tax to be 1. European presence was much less paid in silver significant in Asia than in Americas or a. value of silver skyrocketed Africa b. foreigners with silver could purchase 2. Europeans were no real military threat to more Chinese products than before Asia C. Silver was central to world trade. 3. the case of Japan 1. “silver drain” to Asia: bulk of the world’s a. Portuguese reached Japan in the mid- silver supply ended up in China (most of sixteenth century the rest reached other parts of Asia) b. Japan at the time was divided by 2. Spanish silver brought to Europe was used constant conflict among feudal lords to buy Asian goods (daimyo) supported by samurai 3. silver bought African slaves and Asian c. at first, Europeans were welcome spices d. but Japan unified politically under the 4. the Spanish “piece of eight” was widely Tokugawa shogun in the early used for international exchange seventeenth century 5. Potosí, Bolivia, became the largest city in i. increasingly regarded Europeans the Americas (population: 160,000) as a threat to unity because it was at the world’s largest silver ii. expulsion of missionaries, mine massive persecution of Christians 316 CHAPTER 14 • ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION: COMMERCE AND CONSEQUENCE a. the city’s wealthy European elite lived 2. British traders moved into Hudson Bay in luxury region b. Native American miners lived in horrid 3. Dutch moved into what is now New York conditions C. North American fur trade. c. women found some new economic 1. Europeans usually traded with Indians for opportunities furs or skins, rather than hunting or D. Silver vastly enriched the Spanish monarchy. trapping animals themselves 1. caused inflation, not real economic growth 2. beaver and other furry animals were in Spain driven to near extinction a. Spanish economy was too rigid 3. by the 1760s, hunters in the southeastern b. Spanish aristocrats were against British colonies took around 500,000 deer economic enterprise every year 2. Spain lost its dominance when the value 4. trade was profitable for the Indians of silver fell ca. 1600 a. received many goods of real value E. Japanese government profited more from b. Huron chiefs enhanced their authority silver production than did Spain. with control of European goods 1. Tokugawa shoguns used silver revenues to c. but Indians fell prey to European defeat rivals and unify the country diseases 2. worked with the merchant class to develop d. fur trade generated much higher levels a market-based economy of inter-Indian warfare 3. heavy investment in agriculture and 5. Native Americans became dependent on industry European trade goods. 4. averted ecological crisis, limited a. iron tools and cooking pots population growth b. gunpowder weapons F. In China, silver further commercialized the c. European textiles country’s economy. d. as a result, many traditional crafts were 1. people needed to sell something to obtain lost silver to pay their taxes e. many animal species were depleted 2. economy became more regionally through overhunting specialized f. deeply destructive power of alcohol on 3. deforestation was a growing problem; Indian societies wasn’t addressed as it was in Japan 6. Implications of fur trade for Native G. Europeans were essentially middlemen in American women world trade. a. many native women married European 1. funneled American silver to Asia traders facilitating cross-cultural 2. Asian commodities took market share exchange from European products b. in native societies the status of men IV. The “World Hunt”: Fur in Global Commerce was enhanced by the focus on hunting.