Global Commerce & Trade

1450-1750

TOP TEN GLOBAL TRADE Commodities (2012)

Rank Commodity Value in US$

1 Mineral fuels, oils, distillation products, etc. $2,183,079,941

2 Electrical, electronic equipment $1,833,534,414

3 Machinery, nuclear reactors, boilers, etc. $1,763,371,813

4 Vehicles other than railway $1,076,830,856

5 Plastics and articles thereof $470,226,676

6Optical, photo, technical, medical, etc. apparatus

$465,101,524

7 Pharmaceutical products $443,596,577

8 Iron and steel $379,113,147

9 Organic chemicals $377,462,088

10 Pearls, precious stones, metals, coins, etc. $348,155,369

TOP TEN GLOBAL TRADE Commodities “Today”

TOP 5 Trade commodities 1450-1750?

• 5. FUR (Beaver, Deer, Sable, etc.)

• 4. TEXTILES (Cotton, Silk)

• 3. SLAVES

• 2. SPICES (Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Cloves,etc)

• 1. SILVER

CHANGE in Global Commerce

SILVER!

• Silver was THE ITEM that truly began GLOBAL TRADE

• Chinese demand for silver and new silver mines in Spanish America & Japan led to global trade movement.

CHANGE in Global CommerceTRANSATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE

(esp for sugar production)

• Massive movement of people through the slave trade from coasts of West Africa to the Americas led by Europeans (African supported).

• Slave trade to fill demand for labor in plantation agriculture in the Caribbean, Brazil, and N America.

“New” trade connections

FUR TRADE

• Luxury furs exported from Russia and North America .

• Variety of animal furs and varieties of peoples involved in the trade.

New trading empires

EUROPEAN TRADING POST EMPIRES

• European nation-states controlled ports and territories in the Africa, South & Southeast Asia

• Increasingly Europeans carried the trade goods of maritime trade…even the routes that had existed before European arrival

Spanish Empire 1600s

Portuguese Empire 1600s

Dutch East India Company

• Pool wealth for a common purpose

• 1500s and 1600s common purpose was colonization

• Profits and risks were high

• If there was failure the risk was spread out

• Dutch (Indonesia) and British (India)-received charters from the govt. granting trading monopolies and the power to make war and govern conquered people

Joint Stock Companies-Private

Economic Motives

The Commercial Revolution-16th and 17th Century Europe

• Capitalism– An economic system based

on private (not govt.) ownership and the investment of wealth for profit.

– Wealthy merchants reinvested their profits into new ventures

– A key role in the Industrial Revolution

• Mercantilism– An economic policy under

which nations sought to increase their wealth and power by obtaining large amounts of gold and silver and by selling more goods than they bought.

– The goal was self-sufficiency

JAPAN

• After a period of contact with Europeans, Japanese isolate themselves from outsiders while profiting from the silver trade and keeping “watch” on outsiders.

Make a map that has the main trade routes +

Oceans- Atlantic, Indian, & Pacific

Seas- Mediterranean, Caribbean, & Black

Empires- Label each separately…

–Qing (Strayer p644)

–Mughal (645)

–Ottoman (647)

–Russian (682)

–Spanish, French, Dutch, English, Portuguese territories. (682)

• Increase in economic activity leads to increase in $ supply.

• Inflation-steady rise in the price of goods

• Occurs when people have more money to spend and demand more goods and services

• Goods become scarce and more valuable and prices rise

Inflation