Silver Trade
by During the mid-sixteenth century to the early eighteenth century, silver traveled much of the globe.
In Document 7, He Qiaoyuan also explained that China’s main goal was getting as much silver as they possibly could. They would trade some of their things in southeastern Asia, and Africa for about 100 silver coins, as opposed to going to the Philippines, ripping them off for 200-300 silver coins. The three sources [Documents 1,3,5,7] stated in this analysis of Ming China, are placed into a group of sources that explains that Ming China’s depended on Silver for all of their financial needs, and that they would try to get as much of it as they could from anywhere in the world.
Documents 4 and 8 are from western [European (British)] perspectives. Ralph Fitch [Document 4] wrote about the Portuguese, and how they took advantage of cheap Chinese luxuries. But by the time that Charles D’Avenant came to write “An Essay on the East-India Trade” [Document 8], Portugal was not as big a player in international trade anymore. So he decided to write about how Europe was now more important than Asia. Chinese, and Asian markets had “nothing of solid use; only materials to supply luxury”. Though this may have been true, D’Avenant says, “But since Europe has tasted of this luxury, since the custom of a hundred years has made Asian spices necessary…Asian silks are pleasing everywhere…their dyed cotton is useful wear at home…it can never be advisable for England to quit this trade, and leave it to any other nation.” Europe was still in much need of the Asian commodities. The English used to pay for all of these goods still with silver and gold, “which is there buried and never returns.” This showed that China was still much in need of silver.
Though the social effect greatly impacted the economic system, there would have been no need for a change or effect on the social system if the people were not power hungry and money mongers. In theory, the Spanish did accomplish their goal in that they were looking to get rich quick. They grabbed a bunch of Indians, and Africans, got them to do the hard labor, and got rich quick. The social system may have been sacrificed [by exploiting the naivety of the Natives], but they got money; the world had become materialistic. Though the positive impact on the economy only lasted a short while, and the negative impact on the social system lasted for centuries afterward [Africans remained slaves in the United States until 1865 when the end of the Civil War abolished slavery]; the silver trade had changed the face of global trade.
Other sources that may have been useful to the analysis of the Silver Trade would be first hand documents from other points of view than just the Spanish, Chinese, and British. If we could hear from the perspective of a native of the Americas, that could really help analyze a lot of the social impacts it had in the Americas. Since the African were also enslaved and imported to the Americas o help mine, a document from an enslaved African would be useful as well.
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