Silver Dbq Essay

Although Republicans and Federalists were characterized as having particular views towards the implementation of the Constitution, the Jefferson and Madison presidencies prove that even though virtually they believe one thing, realistically they could very possibly act another way.

The global flow of silver from the mid-sixteenth century to the early eighteenth century had vast effects both socially and economically around the world. By this time an interregional trade network had been clearly established and world trade was booming. When China, a prominent trade nation, accepted silver as its currency and would only exchange for it, the importance of silver increased. This new rapid scramble for silver proved to be both beneficial and disastrous. While countries which were lucky geographically in their supply of raw silver could now trade prominently with China, demand created an increase of labor and social unrest. Reliance on silver both helped and hindered economies and societies, bringing

According to Document 1, which was written by a court official during the Ming Dynasty, wedding expenses were mandated to be limited in order to curb the luxury spending of the Chinese in an attempt to reduce the social aspect of needing to spend high amounts of money on luxury goods. Document 3 emphasizes that the silver trade affected the social structure of China by stating how due to the silver trade, many people are not farming anymore and are thus cultivating less land for crops due to not being paid fairly in silver by the government due to taxes on silver. Due to the fact that farmers were part of the Nong class of the social hierarchy, which was a high ranked class due to the fact that farmers were regarded as highly important

The great silver trade is considered to be the world 's first true global trade system. This trade had many positive benefits on those who participated in it. The people who benefited the most from this trade was the chinese (doc. 2, 4, and 8). The Spanish scholar Tomas Mercado wrote that “silver currency flowed out [of Spain] [...] in Chinese ships coming to get silver for China” (Doc. 2). The silver of the silver trade didn’t come from China however that’s where most of it ended up (doc. 2, 4, OD 1). Ralph Fitch, a British merchant, stated that the portuguese “have a ship that goes to Japan every year and brings back more than 600,000 coins’ worth of Japanese silver. The Portuguese use this Japanese silver to their great advantage in China” (doc. 4). In “Maritime Silk Road” by Li Qingxin, he discusses how most of the world 's silver

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

Contrary to most Chinese thoughts, the production of silver hurt the economy of Ming China. Document 3, for example, states that the “scarcity of the silver coin” is what’s damaging the harvests. Wang Xijue, a court official, believes there is too much silver being used for taxes, that there is not enough left to care for the plantations. He Qiaoyuan, also a Ming court official, describes how much profit the country could make if it opened up its doors to trade with the Europeans (document 7).

Museum exhibits matter. From teaching us about ancient civilizations, to famous and not so famous battles, our museum exhibits are a way of learning history in an engaging way. That is why when it comes to economical issues, not so fun a topic to dive into for most, we need to open fun, engaging exhibits. That is why having something of historical significance that can be explained in a fascinating way is so important to do. That is why I chose the Gold and Silver Trade as a topic to present. The Gold and Silver Trade is considered by some, to be the beginning of a global economy. By learning about important goods sold and traded in history, we can learn so much about world culture. From the trade of gold, and especially silver in particular, you can see how important it was by the amount of civilizations that thrived off of it. Gold and silver have been used

Throughout China, currency was rapidly changing. At first China used paper money, but silver was the main form of payment. Silver was the main form of payment because it was easier to trade among many different countries with it. Paper money was used for a while, but the worth of it didn’t last very long and so China returned to using silver. Europe, America and China all started using silver for foreign trade. It was important for China to establish trading posts with Britain and America because of the new cultural items being brought into the country for the foreign ones. One reason for the success of silver taking over the main form of currency was the fact that large amounts of silver had been available in America and in Britain, who hadn’t started using silver as currency yet. Once the Ming Dynasty ended, silver was still used, but mostly along the coast of China.

During the 16th century the single whip impact China economy flourished with Europe being able to provided China with silver. China’s Ming Empire created a tax reform that forced its revenue to be paid in silver. Europe was able to provide this resource through mines of Potosi (Bolivia) and conquered land. Historians argue that Spanish greed, lead to an enormous demand in trading with China. Silver is what what drove the linkage with Europe and Asian countries to China. (Huang Yale Press) Japan and Spain desired porcelain and silk so the had they were forced to meet Zhang Juzheng terms if not deals would have ever been met. Without the single whip impact pre-modern globalization would have never occurred and Europe would not have been able

China was the leading country that bought silver. They believe that Latin America produced 150,000 tons of silver. The Latin Americans traded between 1500-1800. Japan was the main exporter of silver to China. They shipped 200 tons of silver per year. In the second half of the seventeenth century, they began to not buy

Until the sixteenth century, the world used four main substances for commodity. These substances were; gold, silver, copper, and various shells. Out of all these substances it would be silver, that was used as a commodity and a type of currency. This allowed a all-encompassing network of global trade in the sixteenth century to be created. The need for silver grew from the sixteenth century until about 1750. China’s demand for silver served as an engine for world trade. The Japanese Tokugawa Shogunate and Spanish empire earned a substantial portion of silver profits from several of the mines they controlled.

Silver was the most important trading good, and the silver trade allowed for a global network of exchange. Silver was one of the most important products to be exchanged during this time.

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

China, while under the Qing dynasty and was being ruled by the Manchus, they lost in the Opium Wars. As the wars led China into financial crisis, corruption led to various forms of protests and reform movements and eventually to the rise of the nationalism, which put an end to the last dynasty. One of the causes of the corruption was the opium trade. There were two most important official concerns about the trade. According to Harry, “one was the damage done to the health and capacity for work of the people using opium, especially the addicts. The other was the economic damage”(Harry, 5). Most importantly, too much silver was being paid to foreign merchants for opium, and thus leaving China. The domestic price of silver was therefore going up. But the price of everyday copper cash remained the same. So tax payments, which had to be made in silver, were effectively tax increases, causing much popular resentment and social unrest (Harry, 8). High taxation and corruption worked only to oppress and worsen the life the poor, which led to various rebellions and the raise of the peasant that worked against the Qing government.