2006 Ap World History Dbq Analysis

In Document 5 the author Xu Dunqui Ming writes about how important silver coins were for the economy of China.. During the Ming dynasty in China they replaced “in-kind” purchasing with silver meaning that instead of being able to trade in goods for some other form of goods everything must be paid for with silver coins. Whole Thai did make the Chinese economy much more stronger it deeply hurt it at the same time in the following way. As seen In Document 3 Wang Xijue States that the growing popularity of the silver as a payment for taxes actually affected cultivators. As they only were allowed to pay taxes and goods with silver the majority of their silver went to paying for the taxes which in turn caused them to not have sufficient silver in order to pay for farming tools, or laborers.

Documents 3,5,6, 7 and 8 all mention how the economy changed dramatically due to the arrival and growth of silver as a currency. In document 3, a Ming dynasty court official writes about how the silver coin is hard to come by because the government is hoarding all of it. They take silver for taxes but do not redistribute it to the people. He is writing this because he is trying to convince the emperor to distribute the silver more appropriately to the people, and because his family is obviously not doing well financially. He is a court official who most likely has small influence in the government and writes in hopes of getting the emperor to consider spreading the wealth to the lower classes of China, to save his family, and other families like his. Document 5 expresses a different, but somewhat related view about how silver has become a hindrance to regular business interactions, because customers can no longer trade items of their own to purchase goods, they have to go through a lengthy process to pay everything in silver. Document 6 shows a counter point of view about the wealth that the mining of silver has brought to Spain. Document 7 is a report written to convince the emperor of China that there is much wealth to be found in foreign trade, because of how much silver some countries will pay for Chinese goods. Finally, document 8 examines how European countries are able to purchase Asian commodities freely because of their immense supply

Document 2 strongly states that silver flow began to snowball towards the Asian commodities in Asia, rather than those in Spain. This was due to the fact that prices of Spanish commodities were very high and people turned to the less costly Asian commodities. As an effect, silver flow started to concentrate in Asia and around Asian commodities. Wang Xijue, a Ming dynasty court official, reports to the emperor in document 3 about the scarcity of silver coin and the negative effects it has on the value of grain. Grain was a main cash crop in the Ming dynasty in the late 16th century and when the price of grain dropped, cultivators earned less of a profit. This snowball effect was directly based upon the price of silver because when the government takes the silver and doesn’t distribute it, there is less silver to pay for the grain. As a result, this reduces the amount of food produced and the population of the dynasty is reduced as less land is put into cultivation. Silver’s indirect effect on the amount of food produced affected many societies throughout the globe in the mid-seventeenth century and early eighteenth century. Document 4, 5 and 6 are expressing the constructive economic impact on the global flow of silver. In document 4, the positive economic effect on the global flow of silver is that silver coins are a great use of currency. Portuguese use the Japanese silver coins to their

1: In the mid 15th century, European nations started to desire power, wealth, and resources. Because of this, they formulated motives to find quicker routes to the far east to trade for valuable luxuries, such as spices and silks. These products were in high demand Europe, and could sell at incredibly high prices. They were named luxuries for a reason though, as they had to travel thousands of miles through heated deserts and violent seas. Understandably, the merchants of Europe wanted to find an easier way to Asia. However, due to prevailing winds on the west coast of Africa, a voyage down the African coast would be a one way trip. This problem was later solved with the invention of Caravel, a ship that could make the journey back home against

1. Sinification is the Chinese influence in other regions. Chinese culture is adopted into another country and is spread widely. Sinification was common in Japan and Korea, but a little less common in Vietnam. 2.

Ye Chunji, a Chinese official revealed this social division by revealing that there was a great division between the “frugal” or poor and the “extravagant” of wealthy when it came to the costs of their weddings. This would generally be a sign that the rich have vast amounts of more money than the poor. Ye Chunji is an official of the Ming dynasty who would therefore most likely be Confucian. He is a reliable source as he is an official who is noting something that is happening and has no need to persuade others. Another court official, Wand Xijue also proclaimed that due to the increases in the amounts of silver that the Ming government is receiving, they could afford to decrease the taxes on farmers and therefore lower the price of grain. Wang Xijue is a reliable source, because, like Chunji, he is solely a person who reports information to the emperor and has no reason to lie during this report. The changing of the Chinese economy resulted in a further gap separating the wealthy and the poor. This is revealed when Xu Dinqiu in his Essay in The Changing Times states, “customers could pay for dying the cloth with rice, wheat, soybeans, chickens, or other fowl. Now, …when you receive a bill, which must be paid with silver obtained from a money lender.” (Document 5) This quote could argue that the poor are no longer capable of paying for their

The constant need of silver for trading became a disaster for China. China did not have their own supply of silver which made them rely more and more on trading. Farmers and peasants’ conditions were worsening because the value of their goods were decreasing. The “scarcity of the silver coin”(Doc.3), the government couldn’t pay their peoples and labor workers were starting to receive less money. The trade of silver was causing chaos with their economy and hindered it. And as a result of all of this, “less land is put into cultivation”(Doc.3). Which caused an economic crisis in china. They would no longer trade with goods like grains and proteins, it was now all about the silver. This not only affected the poor peasants and farmers, it also affected the upper class people. It started as a small unnoticeable issue which grew to a political

In the 17th and 18th century, each colony approached the idea of unity; however, they each had different proposals. Due to the colonies being separated from Great Britain, they developed different political conceptions from each other. However, when it came to the point that the colonies believed they should unite, each colony wrote a document stating their ideal, united government. Thus, some documents included God as a factor, proposing ideas that would be what God desires. Meanwhile, other documents provided militaristic notions, while others claimed that they should keep their connection with Britain. Comparing the documents from each other, it is perspicuously shown that there is a distinction between their intentions for a united government.

The 11th and 12th century was a very difficult time for Europe and Japan. After the fall of the Roman Empire, Europe was in trouble. Decline in population, a reduction in construction, and smaller amounts of food were only some of the negative effects. In Japan, the emperor was weakening and daimyos were rising to power. Because of these hard times, both Europe and Japan created a system. In this new feudal system, Europe and Japan each had their version of a warrior. In Japan, the warriors were called samurai, and in Europe the warriors were called knights. Surprisingly, there were extremely similar elements when it came to the two fighters. But we’re the similarities greater than the differences?

Throughout the Industrial Revolution, countries began to gain many raw materials to strengthen their empires. Inventions like the automobile made things much more efficient. With all this newly aquired power, countries already did not know what to do with it. During this Age of Progress from around the 1870's to 1890's, countries began to experience anxiety because they had trouble figuring out how humans worked. A great example is Siegmund Frued's psychoanalysis system which tried to prove how the human mind works, but now we know today it is very flawed. Herbert Spencer created his Social Darwinism theory stating that the strong countries are strong and "fit" to survive, and that the weak will die out. This caused more anxiety, so people mindlessly followed what was told to them. Many of these anxieties caused the imperialization of Africa, where

1.John Calvin- Martin Luther’s follower as a Protestant theologian, and the biggest figure in the second generation of the Protestant Reformation.

In the late eighteenth century, North American British Colonies worked to free themselves and create their own governing body. Some ideas stated by revolutionaries helped to unite the colonies in a single governing body and revolt against the existing government. The primary driving forces of the revolutionaries included the belief that humans had the right to freedom and to govern themselves, and that they had certain natural rights that the ruling government of Britain was not allowing them, as well as a general hatred for the ruling power of the European monarchy. These ideas that were so prevalent in the colonies were stated by many different revolutionaries, but many of them held the same idea, freedom was a right that was shared by all

This began problems displayed in documents 1, 3, 5, and 7 dealing with China’s new mandate of silver currency. Document 1 described the need for more and more silver; never enough, was the theme of silver bars in that country. In document 3, the major harmful impacts of silver tax on grain cultivation shows a result of less land farmed and lower returns on the land/grain that is reaped which influences both the economy and the social standards of the population. Document 5 deals with the new regulation of silver needed to pay for common tasks and that silver had to be acquired through a moneylender. This caused civil unrest and possibly rebellion. According to document 7, He Qiaoyuan (a court official) reported that the Ming dynasty would have enormous amounts of silver flowing into it, if they lifted their ban on foreign trade. That trade ban was soon lifted and this occasion led to China becoming a major international economic

Wang Xijue, an official in the Ming Dynasty Court, said that the Chinese government required that taxes and tariffs be paid in silver (Document 3). Xijue mentions how China’s silver policy adversely affected grain prices which affected the poor peasant farmers the most. Furthermore, Ye Chungji, a Chinese county official, stated how China’s policy of requiring domestic taxes to be paid in silver may explain order limiting wedding expenses (Document 1). Chunji, as a county official through China’s merit-based civil service system, uses the word “frugal” which justified the limitation on wedding expenses by noting it was in keeping with the Confucian value of frugality. This just proves how paying in silver affected the traditional Chinese culture. Due to this, the traditional Confucian social order was threatened. To add on, Xu Dunqui Ming writes in an essay that seems directed at the general public, of the unfairness of dye shops in the commercial city of Hangzhou and explains Ming China’s conversion from a barter economy to a currency-based market economy as customers now “receive a bill, which must paid with silver obtained from a moneylender” (Document 5). This only silver means of exchange likely harmed lower classes the most by plunging them even further into debt by forcing them to borrow from a money lender to get silver and explains the decline of traditional Chinese society and economy. Furthermore, the increased flow of silver brought inflation in China. He Qiaoyuan, a Ming court official, reported to the emperor that the trade ban should be lifted because of the inflated price of Chinese products in the Philippines by commenting on large supply of Spanish silver in the Philippines that led to massive inflation of 100 to 200 percent for silk yarn (Document 7). However, Qiaoyuan’s motives in his report is suspicious because repealing the ban on

Yet despite any conjectures drawn from accounts of scholars, merchants, officials and priests it is impossible to know the full extent of the economic and social effects of silver without the voice of the common people. It was the commoners, laborers, slaves, farmers and peasants which bore the full brunt of the trade. Their every day lives relied on day to day paychecks, which mandated how they survived. It is the rise and fall of poverty in the peasantry, the social unrest or benefit of the commoners that would reveal the true effect of silver. The majority of all of