The Impact of the Sugar and Silver Trade Webs on the Pertinent Nations and the Rest of the World (15-18th Century)
The Impact of the Sugar and Silver Trade webs on the pertinent nations and the rest of the world (15-18th Century)
The world we currently inhabit is one of fierce globalization, where international trade has been flourishing for centuries, and we find ourselves at a point in human existence where almost 90% of the goods such as electronic items sold in the United States are produced in Far East Asian countries such as China and Taiwan. A few centuries ago, though, the world was a far more closed place – there wasn’t even an accurate representation of the countries of the world on a map the 1500’s, and to delve into how the world became from almost ‘closed economies’ to having every product traded globally is fascinating. In their books, The Origins of the Modern World and Captives as Commodities : The Transatlantic Slave trade, Robert Marks and Lisa Lindsay respectively explore how the world developed from the early 16th century onwards, and look at the way the world, and in particular the nations that were heavily involved in trade were affected. Through the course of this paper, the focus will primarily be on the webs of sugar and silver trading established over the course of the 16th century, and beyond, and the affects this trade had on the countries involved, the people who inhabited these lands and helped establish the globalized world we live in today.
The painting in the prompt has a woman holding a silver tong and is using it to take sugar out from a bowl made from porcelain. Britain never and till date, doesn’t have a home grown supply of silver due to a lack of the natural resource. The silver tongs in the picture were probably manufactured using silver that was mined in South America. Silver was a resource in great demand in the 1500’s. Silver was used as currency in one of the world’s largest economies at the time – China#, and was also in growing demand across the continent of Europe. The European Nations at this time, though not far ahead of
The world we currently inhabit is one of fierce globalization, where international trade has been flourishing for centuries, and we find ourselves at a point in human existence where almost 90% of the goods such as electronic items sold in the United States are produced in Far East Asian countries such as China and Taiwan. A few centuries ago, though, the world was a far more closed place – there wasn’t even an accurate representation of the countries of the world on a map the 1500’s, and to delve into how the world became from almost ‘closed economies’ to having every product traded globally is fascinating. In their books, The Origins of the Modern World and Captives as Commodities : The Transatlantic Slave trade, Robert Marks and Lisa Lindsay respectively explore how the world developed from the early 16th century onwards, and look at the way the world, and in particular the nations that were heavily involved in trade were affected. Through the course of this paper, the focus will primarily be on the webs of sugar and silver trading established over the course of the 16th century, and beyond, and the affects this trade had on the countries involved, the people who inhabited these lands and helped establish the globalized world we live in today.
The painting in the prompt has a woman holding a silver tong and is using it to take sugar out from a bowl made from porcelain. Britain never and till date, doesn’t have a home grown supply of silver due to a lack of the natural resource. The silver tongs in the picture were probably manufactured using silver that was mined in South America. Silver was a resource in great demand in the 1500’s. Silver was used as currency in one of the world’s largest economies at the time – China#, and was also in growing demand across the continent of Europe. The European Nations at this time, though not far ahead of
Bibliography: Lindsay, Lisa. Captives as Commodities: The Transatlantic Slave Trade. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2008. Chapters 1-3 Robert Marks, The Origins of the Modern World, United States: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2007, chap. 1-3. Roger Rouse, World History Lectures, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA. September-October 2011