Growing Pessimism Of Silver Dbq

Between the mid-sixteenth century to the early eighteenth century, silver production or the increased flow of silver had an effect in the society and economy(both good and bad) throughout the world. While the Spanish colonial America and Tokugawa Japan were leading the world in silver production, the government of Ming China were making all domestic taxes and trade fees be paid in silver.

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.

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 .

A major effect of the global flow of silver is the economic dependency required.In Document 5, Xu Dunqui Ming purposefully explains the growing of heavy silver use in his city’s economics in 1610, leading to silver becoming the required and standard payment for cloth dying and other services, along with silver now a necesity in their lives.Wth this new standard payment of silver in China, where it is unaccessible in their own environment, they depend on Europe and Spain to in exhange for China’s goods pay in silver to make it readily available for China’s inhabitants. In

This was due to the fact they lost a lot of silver to China, where it wasn’t recirculated back into the global economy. This is evident in document 2, which states that “High prices ruined Spain as the prices attracted Asian commodities and the silver currency flowed out to pay for them.” This shows that Spain, one of the leading silver producers in Europe, was going economically downhill due to having to mine out large amounts of silver in order to meet the prices for Asian commodities. Document 6 claims that, “…according to most of the accounts in the Spanish royal records, 326,000,000 silver coins have been taken out.” This was in the time frame of 1545 to 1628, meaning that millions of coins worth of silver were taken out of Potosí in order to fund the Spanish economy and their buying of Asian goods. Document 8 supports this by stating, “…sends to Asia gold and silver, where is there buried and never returns.” This document also states that Europe only gains luxury goods and perishable commodities from Europe, nothing of much practical purpose, while sending away silver, which is of high value and can be used for more practical reasons. This shows that while Europe is receiving luxury goods from Asia, it is giving away precious metals that aren't going to be recirculated back into their economy, which ends up hurting their economy in the long

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

The author, who is presumably against trade with Asia, argues for the restriction Indian textiles, most likely hoping to persuade government action in Parliament. The author does this through the claim that Europe sends all of its valuable gold and silver to Asia but receives nothing of worth in return and the assertion that most of the gold and silver was sent there to never leave again. Through this passage, the author illustrates how silver precipitated a trade imbalance between Europe and Asia, as Europeans often traded their silver in return for impractical luxury goods and

2 and 4 explains Asian trade and how it changed China. Doc. 2 is reliable because it was written by a Spanish scholar and it is a manual of deals and contracts, a document which is a record, hence it is reliable. This document simply explains how prices went up in Spain, so they bought from the Chinese. In order to pay China, they had to spend their resources in silver to pay them.

silver. This document was written by Spanish scholar Tomas de Mercado so his position as a

In the year 1500, Ming China enforced an isolationist policy for trade. China had totally separated itself from the outside world, and private international trade was made unlawful. Just certain trade was permitted, for example, the Japanese were permitted in an assigned port like clockwork. Be that as it may, around the mid-1500s, a few Europeans came to Guangzhou to exchange. After this, in 1517, a Portuguese endeavor arrived, however, the gathering was placed in prison. Fortunately, in 1557, the Ming court and the Portuguese agreed to a settlement, formally making Macau, a region on the south shoreline of China, a legitimate exchanging port for the Portuguese. Later on, exchanging got to be allowed among the Chinese once more, and was no

During the reign of Qing Emperor Daoguang (1820 - 1850), foreign trade was only allowed in the commercial port of Canton. Due to the foreign trade policy, for Britain to obtain Chinese goods they would have to purchase them with silver. Silver was China’s currency at that time. The English-speaking merchants were not allowed to learn Chinese and were to be harshly punished if they left the port to enter China. This frustrated the British East India Company. They had very few restrictions from foreign ports and companies. The reasoning behind this was they had already seized control of them. This gave Great Britain a massive advantage: A monopoly system of the seas. A stem of related problems began to emerge for Britain. They did not have their own supply of silver and would purchase it from Mexico so it could be used to purchase large quantities of Chinese Tea. “Tea and sugar made a marvelous mildly addicting drug food…” (qtd. Dunn) Years went by of accelerated

Even though the impact of Spanish exploration and conquest had its good side, it also had its bad side. The rising cost of an item and a person not having enough income, led to items losing its value because things costed more money than

Prior to the 16th century rise of silver, globalization and extensive nature modification, both hallmarks of the capitalistic Anthropocene, were handcuffed from two separate angles. China, an essential element to any type of globalization movement, had long been unwilling to trade with their European counterparts. Focused on self-sufficiency, western products were viewed as wholly unnecessary to Chinas continued success. At the same time, a lack of physical capital, to ensure and secure debts, bonds, and payments were restricting long distance, trade partnerships within Europe. However, silver’s rapid emergence onto the global stage in the 16th and 17th century quickly dismantled these constraints to capitalism. In China, an unstable 16th