HUMS 101: Early Modern Economy and Commerce

I. Europeans and Asian Commerce

A. Portuguese Empire of Commerce

1. Economic weaknesses but military strengths

2. In 1498, Vasco de Gama reached India.

3. “Trading post empire” and cartaz pass system

4. Mombasa, Hormuz, Goa, Malacca, and Macao

5. Entry into Asian trade: created Portuguese-Asian port culture

6. Decline after 1600

I. Europeans and Asian Commerce

B. Spain and the Philippines

1. Lure of the Spice Islands

2. Magellan’s voyage (1519–1521)

3. Spanish rule (1565–1898)

4. Mindanao and Islam as an ideology of resistance

5. Manila and the Chinese: 20,000 Chinese settled there; in 1603, Spaniards massacred many of the Chinese.

I. Europeans and Asian Commerce

C. The Dutch and British East India Companies

1. Organized monopolies that could make war

2. Dutch East India Company, 1602-1799

a. Sent almost a million Europeans to work in Asia

b. 4785 ships

c. Brought back 2.5 million tons of goods from Asia

d. Colonized what became Indonesia and Taiwan

3. British worked with Mughals in India in textile trade, because Dutch kept them out.

4. “Carrying trade” and bulk commodities

5. Trading posts became colonies.

I. Europeans and Asian Commerce

D. Asians and Asian Commerce

1. Limited European impact in Asia until 18th century: a. controlled little territory

b. China and India had nothing to fear.

c. Siam expelled French missionaries/colonists in 1688.

2. Japan a. initially (1550-1600) open, reflected internal strife:

daimyo lords and samurai warriors

b. Tokugawa Shogun united Japan (early 1600s) and closed it (1650-1850): expelled Christian missionaries, violent suppression of Japanese Christianity

c. Dutch (Calvinists) allowed to trade once per year.

3. Active Asians: Chinese, Southeast Asian women, Armenians, and Indians

II. Silver and Global Commerce

A. Discovery of Bolivian and Japanese silver deposits in 1500s

B. Spanish American silver (85% of world’s silver) to Manila and then China

C. 1570s new tax law: Chinese taxes paid in silver

D. Potosí (now in Bolivia): 160,000 people, most poor Native mine workers

II. Silver and Global Commerce

E. Rise and fall of Spanish economy: massive silver production led to inflation; Spanish aristocrats no great entrepreneurs; monopolies; Catholicism did not welcome Jewish and Protestant merchants; then silver’s value dropped.

F. “General crisis” in 17th-century Europe

G. Japan’s silver management: shoguns used silver profits to unify country; allied with merchants to create market economy; slowed birth rate

H. China: Commercialization, specialization, and deforestation (south consumed half of forests)

I. China and India out-produced Europe: Spaniards in Americas bought Chinese, not Spanish silk; British bought Indian cottons

III. The “World Hunt”: Fur in Global Commerce

A. North American and Siberian fur sources

B. European population growth and “Little Ice Age”

C. European goods (guns, pots, whiskey) traded for American furs: Dutch in Hudson Valley; French in St. Lawrence valley

D. Impact on Native American societies: some were enriched, but alcohol and disease were devastating; also led to brutal inter-tribal wars.

E. Siberian furs to Europe, China, and the Ottomans

F. Impact on Siberians: disease, taxes, and hostage-taking; also more Russians hunted and trapped.

Little Ice Age, 1550-1850

IV. Commerce in People: Atlantic Slave Trade

A. The Slave Trade in Context

1. Varieties of slaveries before 1500: Slavic and Africans were the slaves; Muslims the merchants.

2. Uniqueness of slavery in the Americas:a. 12.5 million sent , 2 mill. died on the way

b. Primarily male, used for plantation agriculture

c. Slave status became hereditary

d. Slaves had no rights

e. Slaves were racially distinct.

3. Sugar and other plantation crops: tobacco and cotton

Why Africans?1. Great Dying: Native American labor scarce2. Europeans affected by tropical

environment and diseases3. Plantation owners looked to Africa,

geographically close4. Portuguese had already discovered the

existing African slave markets5. Pope sanctioned the slavery of Muslims

and pagans.6. Racism: Europeans inherited some aspects

of Islamic racism and developed their own racism.

IV. Commerce in People: The Atlantic Slave Trade

B. The Slave Trade in Practice

1.African slave traders: Europeans did not become slave raiders in Africa; they waited on the coast.

2.European and Indian goods to African consumers: African slave traders exchanged slaves for weapons, cowry shells, Indian cotton textiles.

3.Where did the slaves come from? Prisoners of war, debtors, criminals, main sources were West Coast: from Mauritania to Angola.

4.No pan-African identity at the time.

IV. Commerce in People: The Atlantic Slave Trade

C. Consequences: The Impact of the Slave Trade in Africa

1. Negative demographic and economic impact

2. Corrupting effect

3. Rising labor demands on women and polygamy

4. New opportunities for women

5. Options and choices for African states: Africans could opt out; Benin did not engage in slave trade, while neighbor Dahomey did.

V. Reflections: Economic Globalization—Then and Now

A. Similarities with the past but our lives are different

B. How old is globalization?

C. What is different about globalization today?

D. Globalization tied to empire and slavery