Marks, Robert B. 2007. The Origins of the Modern World: A Global and Ecological Narrative from the Fifteenth
to the Twenty-first Century, 2nd Edition. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Marks refers to the era before the Industrial Revolution as the “biological old regime.” The biological old
regime marked all of human history until well into the 1800s. Since humans were absolutely dependent upon the
environment, it limited human activity.
“Agriculture not only provided the food for the entire society, but most of the raw materials for whatever
industry there was, especially textiles for clothing. In China, silk and cotton reigned supreme; in India, cotton and silk;
and in northwestern Europe, wool: the raw materials all coming from farms. Fuel for processing these materials, as well
as for keeping warm, also came from forests. To this extent, the biological ancient regime was organic; that is, it
depended on solar energy to grow crops for food and trees for fuel. The biological old regime thus was one that limited
the range of possibilities for people and their history because virtually all human activity drew upon renewable sources
of energy supplied on an annual basis by the sun.
“All living things need food for energy to live, and increasing amounts of both to sustain larger populations.
What agriculture allowed people to do, in effect, was to capture natural processes and to channel that energy into the
human population. In the biological old regime, agriculture was the primary means by which humans altered their
environment, transforming one kind of ecosystem (say, forest or prairie) into another (say, rye or wheat farms, rice
paddies, fish ponds, or eel weirs) that more efficiently channeled food energy to people. The size of human populations
was thus limited by the amount of land available and the ability of people to use the energy from the land for their
purposes.
“Regardless of whether the Old World population was pushing environmental limits by about 1300, as some
historians think, the Black Death drastically reduced the global population, in particular in China and Europe. Then,
from about 1400 onward, the human population of the world began increasing again, and, as we will see, 350 years later
once again was reaching some of the limits imposed by the biological old regime. To be sure, by 1750, the population of
the world had reached some 750 million people, twice that of the medieval maximum of 360 million in the year 1300.
“To support twice as many people as before, something had to change in terms of the relationship of people to
the availability of land and their efficiency in working it. On the one hand, Europeans were to encounter a whole new
world, the Americas, and to populate it. Although this New World was already quite populated in 1400 and the land
already used by Native Americans, a massive biological exchange would radically alter those relationships, making the
Americas a relatively depopulated world by the year 1600. … On the other hand, global trading relationships became
reestablished, allowing a considerable increase in overall production and productivity as specialization allowed people
in one part of a regional trading network to produce goods that their environment was especially suited to, and to trade
via markets with countless others who were doing the same thing. Market specialization spread, thereby allowing
economies throughout the world to produce more than they ever had in the past, yet without escaping the limits of the
biological old regime” (pages 38-39).
Although Marks does not refer to the Columbian Exchange as a big part in allowing economies throughout the
world to produce more than they previously had, Charles Mann does. Below see a summary of his description of the
impact of the Columbian Exchange on China.
Mann, Charles C. 2011. 1493. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
The following information is based on Chapter 4 of 1493 by Charles Mann.
Chinese history began around 4000 years ago. Generally, historians divide it into dynasties. The last two were the
Ming (1368-1644) and the Qing (1644-1911). Until the last century of this period, China was the richest and most
technologically advanced nation in the world. During most of the Ming Dynasty, private sea trade was forbidden
because the court believed that unrestricted trade led to chaos. In 1525, Beijing ordered the destruction of all private
seagoing boats.
Fujian Province. Source: www.
China-Map-Guide.com
Fifty years later, Beijing changed its mind. There were two main reasons
behind this decision: first, trade restrictions had undermined government
authority by promoting smuggling and piracy; second, Beijing, which had
changed its currency to silver coins, needed more silver. The center for piracy
was Fujian Province, right across the East China Sea from Taiwan. This coastal
province is plagued by rugged topography and infertile soils. On the other hand,
the region has several fine harbors and was thus a center for maritime trade.
When Beijing banned the trade, the Fujianese had little recourse other than
piracy. Attempts by authorities to crack down on piracy was met by pirates
attacking and pillaging towns. Thousands of people died but the government
was too scared to intervene. At the same time, local merchants happily did
business with the pirates who had access to foreign goods. China had lost
control of its borders.
There are two kinds of money: fiat and commodity. Fiat currency’s worth is set by the government. The U.S. dollar is
fiat currency. The bills are essentially worthless but the government basically says what they are worth and guarantees
their value. That guarantee is good only so long as the people using the currency have faith in the guarantee. If the
government prints too many bills or behaves irresponsibly, the people using the currency may lose faith in it. With
commodity money, the currency has value because of what it is made of. Gold or silver coins had value because of the
value of the gold and silver itself.
During the piracy crisis, the Chinese people lost faith in the government’s
fiat currency. The pirates traded in silver ingots. These became the money
supply of China. Eventually, Beijing also adopted the system. In order to
get a supply of silver of its own, the emperors ordered people to pay an
increasing percentage of their taxes in silver. Demand for the metal
skyrocketed. China soon ran out of its own silver. The only nearby source
was Japan and the only people who had access to the Japanese market were
the pirates! “The Ming government was at war with its own money
supply” (p. 139).
So, the Mings were forced to legalize foreign trade. The Fujianese
Silver ingot. Source:
responded quickly, sending thousands of people throughout Asia to
www.moneymuseum.com.
establish a trading network. The Chinese thought they had found the
answer to their problems when they found Spanish galleons filled with
silver in Manila, in the Philippines. The Columbian Exchange had extended to China.
Starting in the 16th century, Spain began exporting huge amounts of silver from its mines in the Americas. By the 18 th
century, it had exported more than 150,000 tons, or 80% of the world’s output. Spanish pesos, known as “pieces of
eight,” became the main currency for the Portuguese, Dutch, and British Empires and were widely used on the continent
as well. After sixty years, there was so much silver in circulation that the value of silver fell by about 33%. On the
other side of the world, the Chinese were desperate for silver, and sold silk and textiles at very low prices.
Between a third and a half of Spanish silver ended up in China. Back in Spain, the government was concerned about the
balance of trade. There was too much silk and porcelain coming in and far too much silver going out. The king needed
the silver to pay for his wars in Europe. Further, cheap Spanish silk was undercutting the Spanish textile industry.
Spanish efforts to control the trade failed. For the Ming, Spanish silver was a source of wealth and power for the
empire. Chinese commerce flourished, leading to an economic boom. The economic boom set off an inflationary cycle
which hit the poor particularly hard. And eventually, there was so much silver in China that the price there dropped as
well.
In the early17th century, the Ming dynasty began to collapse. The Qing, also known as the Manchus, invaded from the
north. The wars between the Ming and the Qing took decades and millions died. By mid-Century, the new dynasty was
in place.
The following information is based on Chapter 5 of 1493 by Charles Mann.
By the 16th century, China had about a quarter of the world’s population and only a twelfth of the world’s arable land.
The major agricultural areas of China—then and now—are concentrated along the Yangzte and the Huang He, both of
which “are prone to catastrophic floods” (p.167).
The Columbian Exchange included more than just silver. The Chinese quickly adopted American food plants including
sweet potatoes, maize (corn), peanuts, and chili peppers. China now produces 75% of the world’s sweet potatoes and is
the second biggest corn producer after the United States. Sweet potatoes, which were introduced as the Ming dynasty
was collapsing, were a particularly important crop. The fighting that accompanied the dynastic collapse was
concentrated in the best agricultural areas. People were forced into the highlands where soil quality and rugged terrain
made traditional farming difficult. American crops had the advantage over wheat and rice because they would grow on
marginal land. Sweet potatoes are particularly tolerant of poor conditions.
After the Qing takeover, China entered Stage 2 of the demographic transition and the population soared. Remember
that in Stage 1, the two biggest killers are disease and famine. The Qings attacked both killers. China began
inoculations for smallpox. They also provided low-cost grain to the population. The climate, at the end of the Little Ice
Age, was also improving, which led to better crops. But, while it is true that wheat and rice production increased during
the Qing dynasty, the Chinese population was highly dependent upon sweet potatoes, corn, and potatoes. Further, the
Qings had a pronatalist policy, strongly discouraging female infanticide. With more marriageable women, there were
more marriages and more babies.
By 1800, China had 300 million people and there was more demand for resources. The price of rice quadrupled.
Rebellions broke out across China, leading to several million deaths. Part of the reason for rising prices was the huge
amount of silver pouring in from Spain. Part of the reason was the increased demand that resulted from the increased
population. Still another reason was a decrease in the rice supply because a lot of farmers had stopped growing rice in
favor of cash crops.
Tobacco was introduced in China by 1549. Demand for tobacco was probably even greater than that for silver. Many
Chinese were soon addicted. Throughout the 1700s, an increasing proportion of cropland was put into tobacco
production. Farmers used profits from the sale of tobacco to buy food grown elsewhere in China.
Tobacco quickly exhausts the soil. At first farmers exhausted rice paddies, and then they moved into the hills. The
Chinese cut down millions of acres of forests. Stripped of forest cover, nutrients easily washed downhill. Soil depletion
was much faster, requiring even more deforestation. Upland deforestation also set off catastrophic floods that destroyed
rice paddies and irrigation systems. (This mirrors what happened in the much less densely populated mid-Atlantic
region during the colonial period.) By the mid-1800s, China had “more than thirteen major floods a year—a Katrina
every month…” (p. 185). Food prices and natural disaster fueled unrest. This was the situation in China when the
English began to pour opium into the region.