ONE LUMP OR TWO? The Development of a Global Economy 1250L A HISTORIAN S JOURNAL ENTRY / BY ANITA RAVI

Transcription

1 8 ONE LUMP OR TWO? The Development of a Global Economy 1250L A HISTORIAN S JOURNAL ENTRY / BY ANITA RAVI Networks of trade from East Asia to the Mediterranean had been operating by sea and by land for centuries by the time Columbus made his famous voyage.

2 This allowed for the acceleration of ideas, goods, and technologies across Afro-Eurasia. In the fifteenth century, European explorers connected the four world zones, resulting in the Columbian Exchange and the opening of new networks of exchange. By the seventeenth century, the English, Spanish, Dutch, and Portuguese had settled colonies throughout the Americas, and the Atlantic slave trade was in full, terrifying swing to support the production of crops and goods to be sold in Europe and Asia. But how did we get from Columbus setting foot on Hispaniola to the 13 American colonies? What systems had to be developed to support these settlements? I think the answers lie in good old capitalism. People wanted certain goods, and the Europeans stepped up to provide those goods in ways that the Asians had for the centuries before. In the early part of the sixteenth century, European participation in the trade in Asia was seriously limited. Europeans didn t produce any commodities or finished goods that Asians wanted to buy. In fact, it was the Europeans and their desire for Asian goods that initiated most of this global trade. In order for the Europeans to become global economic players, they needed to become producers of the goods, movers of the goods, and consumers of the goods; but first, they needed cash. SILVER AND GOLD The saying goes that the Spanish and Portuguese explorers came to the New World for God, gold, and glory. So did they find their gold? The table below shows what was exchanged between Spain and South America from 1493 to This small chart tells me a great deal. First, I can see that initially, the Spanish were sending weapons, horses, and other basic goods to the New World. I imagine these helped the Spanish establish a foothold in the Americas (and I can guess it probably wasn t a friendly one). They landed first in the West Indies, and their initial search was for gold, which they found and sent back to Spain. In an attempt to control this new trade route, the Spanish crown ruled in 1504 that all trade with the New World had to go through the Spanish port of Seville so that they could supervise, centralize, and regulate the process (this isn t in the chart it s additional information I gathered from the sources listed at the bottom of this page). This policy has actually been handy for historians because it created records of what came and went through that port, and set a precedent for tracking trade around the world. Based upon this chart, I can also conclude that by 1521 the Spanish had settled in the West Indies and perhaps other places because they were bringing in consumer goods (things people need to be able to live) rather than a majority of guns and horses. They must have had all the guns and horses they needed by that time. I also see that the exports back to Spain had expanded to include dyes and pearls, both of which were highly desirable luxury items in Europe. By 1550, I see that the type of consumer goods going to the colonies had changed. The colonists must have been well established and were missing the finer things from home like wine, cloth, and their books things they couldn t produce yet in the New World. It s also significant that mercury Trans-Atlantic Trade Dates Goods that traveled from Spain to the New World Goods that traveled to Spain from the New World 1493 to 1520 Guns, gunpowder, horses and other livestock, flour, oil, and wine 1521 to 1530 Consumer goods (things that people needed to live, such as cloth, pots, tools) 1530 to 1550 Mercury (used in processing sliver), fine foods and wines, damascene swords, quality textiles, spices, books, and paper Gold from the West Indies Gold, dyes, pearls Silver (largest export), gold, hides, tobacco, medicinal plants, indigo, and sugar Chart taken from Chapman, Anne. Landscape Teaching Unit 6.2 The Columbian Exchange and Its Consequences World History for Us All. PDF file, 55. See also McAlister, Lyle N. Spain and Portugal in the New World: Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, Print. Davis, Ralph. The Rise of the Atlantic Economies. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, Print. Flynn, Dennis O. and Arturo Giráldez, Cycles of Silver: Global Economic Unity through the Mid-Eighteenth Century. Journal of World History 13, 2 (2002): 398. Print. Elliott, John H. The Old World and the New: 1492 to Cambridge: Cambridge UP, Print. Bozorgnia, S. M. H. The Role of Precious Metals in European Economic Development. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, Print. BIG HISTORY PROJECT ONE LUMP OR TWO? / 1250L 2

3 Trans-Pacific Trade Dates 1570s Trade activity Trans-Pacific trade opened between Acapulco Mexico and Manila, Philippines. Exports: Overwhelmingly silver Imports: Chinese silk, porcelains, spices, wax. The Spanish crown limited this trade to what could be carried in two galleons (ships) yearly According to one estimate, the value of silver sent illegally to Manila from Mexico was greater than the total value of all goods, including silver, carried by Spain s official trans-atlantic fleet to 1610 Imports continued as before. Almost 95 percent of trans-pacific exports consisted of silver. 1600s Throughout the seventeenth century, over 50 tons of silver a year went from Acapulco to Manila. Chart taken from Chapman, Anne. Landscape Teaching Unit 6.2 The Columbian Exchange and Its Consequences World History for Us All. PDF file, 56. See also McAlister, Lyle N. Spain and Portugal in the New World: Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, Print. Davis, Ralph. The Rise of the Atlantic Economies. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, Print. Flynn, Dennis O. and Arturo Giráldez, Cycles of Silver: Global Economic Unity through the Mid-Eighteenth Century. Journal of World History 13, 2 (2002): 398. Print. Elliott, John H. The Old World and the New: 1492 to Cambridge: Cambridge UP, Print. Bozorgnia, S. M. H. The Role of Precious Metals in European Economic Development. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, Print. was sent to the New World. This meant that the Spanish were starting to refine their own silver in the Americas rather than sending it back to Spain as a raw material. By 1550, the exports back to Spain expanded again to include hides (used to make clothing), tobacco (which would later become a booming trade for the English in North America), and sugar. Both the tobacco and sugar imply that crops and plantations had been established, had flourished, and were yielding enough to be able to send these things back to Spain. From the Trans-Atlantic Trade chart on the previous page, we can conclude that within the span of about 60 years, the Spanish had gotten their hands on lots of silver and some gold, set up colonies in the New World, and produced crops and goods that were worth a great deal of money to Spain and the rest of Europe. At roughly the same time trans-atlantic trade was developing, there was also a booming trans-pacific trade, mainly conducted by the Spanish. One big difference between the two was that in the case of Pacific trade, there were ways of getting around the Spanish crown s control. In the Trans-Pacific Trade chart shown above, there is information on what was being exchanged between the ports of Acapulco (Mexico) and Manila (Philippines). Based on the information above, I can conclude that the flow of silver into Asia from the New World was as consistent as it was into Europe. What s new and interesting about this information is that much of the silver trade in the Pacific appears to be illegal, that is, it was not sanctioned or controlled by the Spanish crown. This is important because it shows that the Spanish could not hold onto their monopoly of the silver trade. The illegal trade also means that the mining and selling of silver was not regulated. Eventually, this led to the devaluing of silver all over the world (if there s too much of it, it becomes less valuable). Trading silver behind the back of the Spanish crown was one way people attempted to get their hands on Asian goods. In the end, Spain s strategy backfired. The Spanish lost control of the silver trade, and other players like the English and Portuguese entered this market. TEA Now that I know a bit more about the legal and illegal trans-atlantic and trans-pacific Spanish trade, I m wondering what the French and British were doing about setting up new trade networks in those regions. I m getting the sense that Europeans were seeking new sources for luxury items, or things that were considered desirable or prestigious. One example of this is the growth in the production and trade of tea. Today, we can t help but think of tea when we think of the British, but at the beginning of the eighteenth century, only the very wealthy could afford to drink tea. How does a BIG HISTORY PROJECT ONE LUMP OR TWO? / 1250L 3

4 commodity such as tea become desirable to an entire nation of people? And what are the global economic effects of essentially creating a new market for it? Tea is made from the leaves and flowers of the plant Camellia sinensis, which is native to Asia. The Chinese were the first to drink tea and it was cultivated and consumed for its medicinal properties. The popularity of the drink increased until it became the national beverage of China during the Tang Dynasty ( BCE). How did a product so central to Chinese life and culture become a staple of the English diet? One source tells us that tea became fashionable in England thanks to Queen Catherine of Braganza, a Portuguese princess who was very fond of drinking tea, and who married Charles II, King of England, in The Portuguese bought tea from the Chinese as early as the fifteenth century and brought it back to Portugal as a luxury item. Queen Catherine began drinking tea, which of course made it fashionable at court and eventually this culture of tea spread to all social classes. As a result, by the eighteenth century, tea became the most popular beverage in Great Britain. However, there was one rather big problem: During the seventeenth century tea was primarily produced in China, and the Chinese tightly controlled the number of chests of tea that left its docks. So how did the British convince the Chinese to loosen their control over the tea trade? There s a lot we can learn about the exchange of tea between China and England between 1700 and 1810 by examining the tables below. Over the course of about 100 years, the import of tea from China increased by 6500 percent, from 400,000 pounds in 1700 to 26 million pounds in That s a lot of tea! It also seems that the British paid dearly for their tea. Based on the figures in the Value of Tea Exported from China to England table, I can conclude that it cost England one ounce of silver for every pound of tea. That cost included not just the tea itself but also the cost of transporting it via sea routes to England from China. By 1700, transporters of tea such as the British East India Company (BEIC) had a monopoly on the tea trade from the East Indies. At the beginning of the eighteenth century, this company set up its East Asian office in the port city of Canton in China, which meant that the amount of tea entering Great Britain increased dramatically and, as a result, prices dropped. As the price of tea fell, more people began to consume it because it was now more affordable. By the 1720s, tea became the most popular Chinese export, which made the BEIC extremely wealthy. In fact, more than half of the BEIC s Asian export value was in tea! So while the British were not yet producing tea, they had cornered the market on transporting and selling it, leaving the Portuguese the original European importers of tea in the dust. FUR Fur was already a popular European product in the 1500s, but the overhunting of certain animals meant that European fur had become more expensive. However, this all began to change once European nations set up colonies in the New World. In fact, Dutch, English, and French colonists in North America were already bartering with the Iroquois by the early 1500s, exchanging European goods for fur pelts. All types of furs were traded such as fox and mink but beaver fur soon became the most valuable. Why? Beaver fur is durable, waterproof, soft, and can be easily shaped into a variety of products including coats, boots, and hats. In fact, beaver hats became the most fashionable, and therefore most wanted, type of hat throughout Europe from the seventeenth to the mid-nineteenth centuries. Beaver pelts were shipped from North America to Europe and Russia, where they were transformed into hats and other ready-to-wear goods. These fur commodities were then sold all over Europe, where both the upper and middle classes were willing to pay a good bit for them, and even back to the Euro- British Tea Purchases from China Date Pounds of tea purchased from China 1700 to ,000 pounds ,000 pounds ,300,000 pounds ,000,000 pounds Value of Tea Exported from China to England Date Value of tea exported from China to England 1781 to million ounces of silver 1800 to million ounces of silver Charts taken from Adams, Esther. Landscape Teaching Unit 6.4 The Global Economy Takes Shape CE. World History for Us All. PDF file, 27. BIG HISTORY PROJECT ONE LUMP OR TWO? / 1250L 4

5 pean colonists and the indigenous people of North America, who had trapped and traded the pelts. When I look at these hats made from beaver pelts, I can see that many different types of people in English society the military, the church, and the ordinary male citizen wore this fur. We know that by the seventeenth century, the British and the French had established colonies in North America. These settlements included forts, churches, and businesses, which of course required military, clergy, and ordinary male citizens. Fur became not just a luxury item, but a necessity of human life in cold places. It was goofy hats galore. (Which, on a side note, eventually led to the overhunting of the North American beaver.) Let s look at some additional information on items of exchange in North America, this time from the French. From 1722 to 1723, three French forts located on the Great Lakes supplied the list of goods below to the indigenous people in the region, mainly the Huron and Iroquois nations, in exchange for about 8,000 beaver pelts: 1,605 sewing needles 632 catfish hooks 273 men s woolen shirts 336 women s woolen shirts 214 children s woolen shirts 217 butcher knives 2,109 other knives 243 pounds of red and yellow copper cauldrons 328 axes 59 guns 4,493 gun flints 3,640 pounds of shot and balls 6,463 pounds of flour French exports from North America to Europe: 1620 to 1630: About 30,000 beaver skins a year 1680s: About 140,000 beaver skins a year 1800: About 200,000 beaver skins a year Information in lists taken from Adams, Esther. Landscape Teaching Unit 6.4 The Global Economy Takes Shape CE. World History for Us All. PDF file, 17. Modifications of the Beaver Hat Based on the information above, I can conclude that the Huron and Iroquois found the goods produced by the French useful. Things like needles, fish hooks, axes, knives, and guns all required metal, blacksmiths, and machinery to produce them. The French had these means of production in significant numbers; the Huron and Iroquois did not. The desire on the part of the French to tap into this rich source of beaver pelts led them to haul vast quantities of goods across sea, land, and river to trade with the BIG HISTORY PROJECT ONE LUMP OR TWO? / 1250L 5

6 Iroquois and Huron. The English also wanted access to this opportunity to trade with the Native Americans, and in 1670, they established the Hudson Bay Company similar in structure to the British East India Company. Competition among the French, British, and Russians for beaver pelts continued throughout the eighteenth century. Here s what I ve learned so far from the silver, tea, and fur trades: With the arrival of large amounts of silver into the global market in the sixteenth century, Europeans positioned themselves at the center of a new and vast trading network. While they did not produce tea and fur themselves, they established systems to obtain, transport, and sell these items in European markets. The Europeans competed with each other to control each trade, or in other words, to create a monopoly. The English were the most skilled at this, usually piggy-backing on what the French, Portuguese, and Spanish had started. This created wealth among the middlemen and an established system of trade and transport by sea that led to the next phase of global exchange: the use of forced labor to cultivate raw materials and produce goods. Working Bibliography & Notes Image of beaver hats courtesy of Adams, Esther. Landscape Teaching Unit 6.4 The Global Economy Takes Shape CE. World History for Us All. PDF file, 16. Bozorgnia, S. M. H. The Role of Precious Metals in European Economic Development. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, Print. Chapman, Anne. Landscape Teaching Unit 6.2 The Columbian Exchange and Its Consequences World History for Us All. PDF file. Davis, Ralph. The Rise of the Atlantic Economies. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, Print. Elliott, John H. The Old World and the New: 1492 to Cambridge: Cambridge UP, Print. Flynn, Dennis O. and Arturo Giráldez, Cycles of Silver: Global Economic Unity through the Mid-Eighteenth Century. Journal of World History 13, 2 (2002): 398. Print. McAlister, Lyle N. Spain and Portugal in the New World: Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, Print. Cover image: Unloading Tea at the London Docks, Courtesy of Corbis. This short journal entry is an example of how historians go about exploring important questions and looking at new information. They use a mixture of historical documents and the writings of other historians to inform their thinking. All sources are listed in the working bibliography. BIG HISTORY PROJECT ONE LUMP OR TWO? / 1250L 6