Ch.'s 14, 15, & 16

Blog:  Ch’s 14, 15, & 16

Learning history as a child from a very Eurocentric viewpoint, I learned of the European dominance over the remainder of the globe throughout the modern era.  China seemed to be this very foreign and long enduring country, very separate from the rest of the developments and actions of European powers.  What I have enjoyed about reading Strayer, is he makes it very clear that China has remained a fulcrum in the world economy since they arose as a civilization in the Ancient era.  Chinese tea, silk, porcelain, and South East Asian spices motivated Western European powers to search for other ocean going routes, bypassing the Muslim dominated merchant routes of the Indian Ocean.  Strayer states that “Europeans were increasingly aware of their marginal position in the world of Eurasian commerce” (pg. 406).  This statement holds a lot of weight.  Since the collapse of the Roman Empire, Europe had lost its dominance in the Eurasian affairs, and had no domestic product of interest to trade with.  If Europe had maintained competitive market dominance since the emergence of markets, such as I was under the impression,  in my younger historical learning,  then European powers would have had little incentive to venture outside of their own waters.  Europeans wanted access to the products of China but had nothing of interest to trade with.  The result was emerging new world colonies, in which their native populations, their land, and resources were exploited for European market advantage.  Strayer quoted a prominent world historian, “Without a New World to deliver economic balance in the Old, Europe would have remained inferior, as ever, in wealth and power, to the great civilizations of Asia” (pg. 409).  One could argue that the U.S’s thirst for foreign products derived from the European intensification of Capitalism during the early Modern Era. 

Commerce and mercantilism was expedited through the discovery of silver deposits in Spanish America Bolivia.  Potosi, Bolivia was the primary export site for silver during the early Modern Era.    85% of the world’s silver came out of Spanish America during the early Modern Era by the use of slave labor.  If you look at early Spanish drawings of Potosi, including the drawing Strayer included on page 443, and compare to present day photos of Potosi, one can see how the mountain of Potosi has depleted by centuries of mining.  Yet who really benefited from the new supplies of wealth found in the New World?   With Europe’s hunger for splendor and Chinese products, the majority of this new found and exploited silver bullion made its way into China by way of Manila.   Europe finally had a product to trade with.  The silver fed the Columbian exchange and Europe’s Industrial Revolution but the majority of the silver was used to pay for Asian goods that the French, British, and Dutch desired.   Strayer quoted a Portugese merchant from 1621, which I believe can still be applied to today’s economy, “silver wanders throughout all the world…before flocking to China, where it remains as if at its natural center” (pg. 443).  Europe finally acquired the goods of China and enjoyed the splendor and lifestyle its goods and products represented.  Yet with the benefit of hindsight, Europe acquired material goods that were consumed or depreciated in value while China benefited in the exchange for silver as this bullion became the basis of many economic systems, only appreciating in value.