Silver Dbq

Europe seemed to remain the most neutral in this desperate silver trade, choosing to remain only involved enough to observe. British merchants were not entirely reliant on trade to or from the Asian worlds so merely recorded how China received “nothing but silver” (Doc. 4) and the Portuguese use this to “their good advantage in China”. However, England could not remain completely unaffected as scholars such as Charles D’Avenant observed. Luxury goods especially spices and silks have become prominent in European culture. While Europe draws from Asia “nothing on solid use” it has “tasted of this luxury” (Doc. 8) and it is not advisable for England to pull out of this silver trade. England could afford to remain more objective, but it could not pull out entirely. It had roots planted early on, and it would cause severe social disturbance to tear them up.

The increased flow of silver altered the worldwide global trading both socially and economically. The global flow of silver from the mid-sixteenth century to the early eighteenth century caused social and economic issues by creating social impact in China, changing the economic purpose for trading, and the overall exchange between the Chinese and European nations.

The wealthy were able to obtain more silver than the lower class causing an unequal distribution of silver. China has issued a new policy to limit wedding expenses. They are requiring the payment in silver which explains their way of limit wedding expenses. The frugal man would have something left over because he is able to save and use limited resources. While the other extravagant man would spend much more than is needed. These men are from two different social classes. Ye Chunji was a county official during the Ming Dynasty and must have earned the position he is in so he is able and has the authority to limit the wedding expenses of a frugal and extravagant man to what he feels is right. (Doc 1). China’s policy of silver being paid as taxes has affected grain prices and has mainly affected poor peasant farmers. This expresses dominance the government has over the farmers which is causing them troubles. Wang Xijue, a Ming dynasty court official reported this problem to the emperor. In the report he criticized the national government’s new silver policy about the farmer’s lack of silver. He personally could have been a farmer himself and rose to more power which is affecting his view. (Doc 3). In China, the dye shops have changed the way they charge their customers for service. They went from not using money to a currency way of paying. This made the form of

Like Lopez there were a lot of Spaniards that never worked with silver or were important persons, but in Potosi they became strongly important been silver traders. This opportunity was very attractive to any person in the old world; it was the main reason why Spaniards were moving to Potosi. Into the functions of the silver traders was also to provide credit for miners and refiners. These credits were like cash loans to supply materials, tools and other goods needed to make silver. Credits were given, of course, at interest .

The author also mentions that China-based their economy on the exchange of silver. Another important thing in this chapter was the role of the Chinese voyages in the history of China and the entire world. The voyages that were created around the 1400s were used for three reasons,

In 1939 the world was plunged into World War II because of the Munich Agreement. The Munich Agreement was an agreement regarding the Sudetenland Crisis between the major powers of Europe after a conference held in Munich in Germany in 1938. The Sudetenland was an important region of Czechoslovakia. The Treaty of Versailles was the peace treaty created as a result of six months of negotiations at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, which put an official end to World War I between the Allies and Central Powers. The Munich Agreement caused many disagreements between European countries. Collective security was a more effective response to aggression than appeasement because more European countries disagreed than agreed

By 1839, war was imminent. The opium trade had caused the reversal of the silver deficit, now putting an economic strain on China, while Britain’s economy flourished from the profit they were making off the drug. Because it was being illegally imported, all of the money was going directly to Britain instead of to the Chinese government in the form of taxes. This caused a severe economic decline in China as unemployment rose, agriculture declined, and funding for public improvements diminished.

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

c. The Chinese population and commerce continued to expand under the Qing dynasty, fueled by new crops from the , new silver and copper mines, and silver acquired through trade with countries.

The scramble to increase wealth began following the ‘discovery’ of the western hemisphere by wealth-seeking European empires. Initially, empires sought for gold but later realized the soil of the new lands were of the greatest wealth, but could only be acquired through the labour

Spanish, which gives them silver in return. This document is written by a Ming dynasty court official with

The combination of increasing unemployment rate and food price created severe poverty across the nation (Goldfinger par. 1-3). The currencies in China, too, went through a lot of changes to accommodate the increasing trade. At first, the silver Spanish dollars became rare and increased in value so much that it was outlawed as a usable currency. However, at the same time, the Chinese copper currency were also being used less due to the fact that the metal was becoming rare and the administration of the currency was extremely poor. The Mexican dollar was introduced but the problem was not solved until paper money were used in 1853 (Goldfinger par. 2). To make the economy worse, during the First Opium War, China had to pay six million silver dollars to ransom Canton, and an additional nine million dollars were paid to foreigner traders for their loss. Later, twelve million taels of silver were paid to Britain and France under the treaties negotiated after the Second Opium War. All of those factors weakened the Chinese economy in the 1800s (Allingham par.5-9). However, the Opium Wars’ impact is everlasting, for “the Chinese have embarked on a long and arduous struggle to expunge the humiliations which they suffered during and since the Opium War…Foreign industrialists may continue to dream of the supposedly unlimited China market, but the Chinese…are determined to keep the 'open door' sufficiently ajar to import vital technologies, while keeping all unwanted

The high demand for quicker trade routes and goods to trade with caused an insurgence of foreign explorers. These explorers attempted to find the quickest trade routes to India and China, but ended up running into the New World, the Americas. One trend, particularly popular with the wealthy, was the trend of using foreign goods. Europe was the biggest advocate of using goods from far away places

Although this would not affect the economy at all, the basic reason to be frugal is one that the Ming Empire should have used in their large transactions that would affect the economy. Furthermore, the affect moneylenders in order to buy things, since they must use silver instead of a traditional barter economic system ( doc5). The increase impedance to the Chinese economy would fill the pockets of moneylenders instead of benefiting the economy.