2006
Lila Tong
AP World History
Miss. Averitt
2014/11/18
2006 Free-Response Questions
The increased production and flow of silver during the mid-sixteenth century to the early eighteenth century caused many social and economic effects all around the world. It caused social class distinction in China, and caused negative social and economic effects in Spain.
First, Document 1, 3, 5 and 7 should be grouped together because they were all written by Chinese during the Ming dynasty. Document 1 was written by country official Ye Chunji. It was a order issued to limit wedding expenses. Upper class people wanted to spend more and more silver on wedding, while one bar of silver was enough for lower class people on wedding. The author noticed the social class distinction in the country, so he issued this order, trying to used his power to regulate the spending on wedding. He thought greedy people would waste silver, so wedding expenses need to be limited. Document 3 was written by Wang Xijue. He reported the reason of why grain was cheap to the emperor. Despite the poor harvests, the government required silver taxes but they paid little to people. The lacking of silver being given to the farm workers caused less production of grain and it also harmed the rights of underclassmen. The court official reported this because this was hurting the Chinese economy, which meant less money for him. Also, he needed the support for his home district, so he reported to the emperor and hoped this problem could be solved. Document 5 was written by Xu Dunqiu Ming. He pointed out that in the past, customers could pay for dying cloth with food, but now they must pay the bill with silver obtained from a moneylender. Therefore, moneylenders got benefit from it while customers need to pay more. Document 7 was written by He Qiaoyuan. He reported to the emperor on the possibility of repealing the 1626 ban on foreign trade. Chinese made goods that were worth 100 bars of silver but merchants sold them
AP World History
Miss. Averitt
2014/11/18
2006 Free-Response Questions
The increased production and flow of silver during the mid-sixteenth century to the early eighteenth century caused many social and economic effects all around the world. It caused social class distinction in China, and caused negative social and economic effects in Spain.
First, Document 1, 3, 5 and 7 should be grouped together because they were all written by Chinese during the Ming dynasty. Document 1 was written by country official Ye Chunji. It was a order issued to limit wedding expenses. Upper class people wanted to spend more and more silver on wedding, while one bar of silver was enough for lower class people on wedding. The author noticed the social class distinction in the country, so he issued this order, trying to used his power to regulate the spending on wedding. He thought greedy people would waste silver, so wedding expenses need to be limited. Document 3 was written by Wang Xijue. He reported the reason of why grain was cheap to the emperor. Despite the poor harvests, the government required silver taxes but they paid little to people. The lacking of silver being given to the farm workers caused less production of grain and it also harmed the rights of underclassmen. The court official reported this because this was hurting the Chinese economy, which meant less money for him. Also, he needed the support for his home district, so he reported to the emperor and hoped this problem could be solved. Document 5 was written by Xu Dunqiu Ming. He pointed out that in the past, customers could pay for dying cloth with food, but now they must pay the bill with silver obtained from a moneylender. Therefore, moneylenders got benefit from it while customers need to pay more. Document 7 was written by He Qiaoyuan. He reported to the emperor on the possibility of repealing the 1626 ban on foreign trade. Chinese made goods that were worth 100 bars of silver but merchants sold them