Silver Dbq Analysis

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.

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,

Silver production in the mid-sixteenth century to the early eighteenth century increased substantially due to Spaniards gaining control of Potosí. This led to them creating mines in the area, which was rich in silver. By doing this, they substantially increased the silver in the hands of the Spaniards, which they mainly used to pay for luxury goods and products from Asia. The silver trade had long reaching effects on the social and economic state of empires and countries worldwide from the time period of the mid-sixteenth century to the early eighteenth century. Socially, the silver trade affected the Chinese social mindset and structure and caused them to change. Economically, the silver trade negatively affected the economy of Europe overall.

This document is reliable as it is a scholar whose primary purpose should be to observe and record. The Portuguese also took advantage of this Silver Trade integration. Ralph Fitch was aware of this stance of the Portuguese by recording in his account of travels in the East Indies during the year 1599. He claims, “…more than 600,000 cons of Japanese Silver… the Portuguese bring from China gold, perfume, silk, copper, porcelain, and many other luxury goods.” (Document 4) This quote by Fitch reveals that the Europeans, or in this case the Portuguese, were frequently trading with China for goods that they did not frequently obtain before this time. Antonio Vazquez de Espinosa, a Spanish priest in the 1620’s exclaimed, “…silver taken secretly from these mines to Spain, paying no 20 percent tax or registry fee, and to other countries outside Spain including the Philippines and China.” (Document 6) This quote means that there was silver that was being spread throughout the

During the 1790 the country was split up over the rise of political parties. There were the federalists led by alexander hamilton and the democratic-republicans led by Alexander Hamilton and the democratic republicans led by tomas jefferson. The federalists and democratic-republicans have different views on many things, including the interpretation of the constitution, strong parts of the nation's economy and if the alien and sedition acts were important to have in our country.

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

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

Many immigrants came into the United States during the nineteenth century; some of them being Chinese. They came here through Angel Island to find better lives than in China, but it did not work out that way for most. These people faced much discrimination in this new country, such as working cheap jobs and being treated unfairly, but eventually they began trying to conquer these unfair acts towards them.

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 primary flow of silver had severe effects economically and socially from 15000-1750. Some effects are the economic imbalance which caused social suffering, the social anarchy of robbing and more, and when the economic imbalance caused them to be active within the trade business which helped their economy. Documents 1, and 3 show the social effects that evolved from economic aspects. In document 1 it shows that the demand of silver had effects on the poor and also the rich. The source of document 1 was Ye Chunji, who was a county official during the Ming dynasty.

Ralph Fitch being a British merchant at the time (1599) was trying to convince his nation’s to get into the silver trade due to the vast amount of wealth he has seen in the Portuguese model of trade. In document 5 it talks more about the Chinese economy saying how that now because of the changes of the global flow of silver now China has transitioned into a more currency (silver) market system. Now transactions within the economies are solely silver dependent, they are more official. Document 7 and 8 share the same story as document 4. Document 7 is telling the same tale of European trade in where the Spanish in this case bring nothing but silver into southeast Asia in order to bring goods back to their homelands.

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

A related analysis is found in the work of historian Lloyd E. Eastman, who claims that the large incursion of Spanish American and Japanese silver “had far-reaching consequences” that extended beyond monetary inflation (Eastman 126). Through his illustration of how the New World metals first increased and intensified the commercialization of manufactured trade, he claims that by the 17th century, China had become a “silver ‘junkie,’ addicted to steady fixes of the metal in order to maintain an economic high” (Eastman 126). Indeed, the silver bonanza that surged bullion flows invoked a crucial factor in the 17th century monetary inflation in China; so much that a harsh drop in the metal in the 1640s even led to the collapse of the Ming dynasty (Glahn 249). These interpretations, it would be plausible to conclude that to every extent, enormous influxes of silver from the New World caused the 17th century Chinese monetary inflation as a result of foreign dependency on imports and monetary depreciation.