Chapter 14: Economic Transformations

I found it important to read that Europeans, Southeast Asians, Chinese, Indians, Armenians, Arabs, Africans, and Native Americans all play key roles in developing the world economy from the 1450s-1750s. This commerce, along with the growing empires of the time, “gave rise to new relationships, disrupted old patterns, brought distant peoples into contact with one another, enriched some, and impoverished or enslaved others” (Strayer, 602). The Portuguese sailed to India, lead by Vasco da Gama looking for an easier way to get tropical spices and other luxuries. They also used their military advantage to gain access into trading, since European goods were “crude and unattractive in the Asian market” (605). The Portuguese created a trading post empire, which by 1600 was in decline. Spain’s introduction into the Eastern trade was through the Philippine Islands. In the seventeenth century the Dutch and the English joined the Indian Ocean commerce. The Dutch was centered in Indonesia and focused on spice trade, while Britain was in India and traded cotton textiles. Japanese merchants also made their way to Southeast Asia, but with little support from the Japanese government. Despite the European presence at sea, the international trading networks continued on land connecting Central Asia, Persia, and Russia to India. Once silver was discovered in vast quantities in the mid-seventeenth century in Bolivia and Japan, it truly started a global network of exchange. The early modern era also saw the trading of fur, along with other items such as silver, textiles, and spices. This fur trade combined with the Little Ice Age had a large impact on the environment.

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