Silver, Companies and the Atlantic System
Introduced| English | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Mercantilist/ˈmɜːkæntɪlɪst/ | Aimed at increasing a state's wealth by controlling trade and accumulating bullion. |
| Joint-stock companies/dʒɔɪnt stɒk ˈkʌmpəniz/ | Joint-stock companies |
| cultural synthesis/ˈkʌltʃərəl ˈsɪnθəsɪs/ | The development of new cultural forms by combining elements from different traditions. |
Mercantilism and the joint-stock company
- Mercantilist 重商主义 policies and practices were used by European rulers to expand and control their economies and claim overseas territories.
- Joint-stock companies 股份公司, influenced by these mercantilist principles, were used by rulers and merchants to finance exploration and were used by rulers to compete against one another in global trade.
- A joint-stock company spreads a voyage's risk across many investors — which is what makes a losing voyage survivable.
A joint-stock company mattered because it...
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Which is what makes a losing voyage survivable.
Silver made the world one market
- The new global circulation of goods was facilitated by chartered European monopoly companies and the global flow of silver, especially from Spanish colonies in the Americas.
- That silver was used to purchase Asian goods for the Atlantic markets and satisfy Chinese demand for silver.
- So American mines, European companies and Chinese tax policy are one circuit — this is the clearest single case of a global economy in the period.
Put the silver circuit in order.
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Four continents, one circuit — and no single state designed it.
Regional markets kept working
- Regional markets continued to flourish in Afro-Eurasia by using established commercial practices and new transoceanic and regional shipping services developed by European merchants.
- The CED puts established practices and new services in the same sentence — continuity and change together.
- Economic disputes led to rivalries and conflict between states: Muslim–European rivalry in the Indian Ocean, Morocco against Songhai.
Which part of the global circuit is this?
Sort each item by where it sits in the period's economy.
Regional Afro-Eurasian markets collapsed under the new global circulation.
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They continued to flourish, using established practices and new shipping services.
Silver is not simply loot. The CED describes it circulating: mined in Spanish America, spent on Asian goods for Atlantic markets, and absorbed by Chinese demand for silver. An answer that stops at extraction has described one leg of a circuit and called it the economy.
The CED says all parties contributed to the Atlantic system's cultural ____.
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Which is what makes it a synthesis rather than an imposition.
The Atlantic system moved people
- The Atlantic trading system involved the movement of goods, wealth and labour, including enslaved persons.
- It also involved the mixing of African, American and European cultures and peoples, with all parties contributing to this cultural synthesis 文化融合.
- All parties contributing is the CED's own phrase, and it is what makes this a synthesis rather than an imposition.
Select all the regions the CED names for intensified peasant and artisan labour.
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Andean silver is mining under the mit'a, in subtopic 4.4.
Labour intensified, and families changed
- Peasant and artisan labour continued and intensified in many regions as the demand for food and consumer goods increased — western European wool and linen, Indian cotton, Chinese silk.
- Some notable gender and family restructuring occurred, including demographic changes in Africa that resulted from the trade of enslaved persons.
- So the global economy's effects reach into households, not only ports — which is what the objective's word society means.
Silver leaves a Peruvian mine, crosses to Europe or straight across the Pacific to Manila, buys Chinese silk and porcelain, and ends in a Chinese treasury because taxes must be paid in silver. The silk sells in Amsterdam. Four continents, one circuit — and no single state designed it.
Mercantilist policies and joint-stock companies financed exploration and let rulers compete. Chartered monopoly companies and the global flow of silver — Spanish American silver buying Asian goods and meeting Chinese demand — carried global circulation, while regional markets continued to flourish. The Atlantic system moved goods, wealth and enslaved labour, and produced a cultural synthesis all parties contributed to.
Write from Potosi silver at Manila
- Silver was mined at Potosi in the Andes.
- The Manila galleons carried silver across the Pacific.
How did American silver reach Chinese goods?
American silver became the money of a Pacific trade.
What did Potosi silver do at Manila?
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The galleons carried the silver to the Chinese market.