HUMS 101:
Early
Modern
Economy
and
Commerce
I. Europeans and Asian Commerce
A. Portuguese Empire of Commerce
1. Economic weaknesses but military strengths
2. In 1498, Vasco de Gama reached India.
3. “Trading post empire” and cartaz pass
system
4. Mombasa, Hormuz, Goa, Malacca, and
Macao
5. Entry into Asian trade: created PortugueseAsian port culture
6. Decline after 1600
I. Europeans and Asian Commerce
B. Spain and the Philippines
1. Lure of the Spice Islands
2. Magellan’s voyage (1519–1521)
3. Spanish rule (1565–1898)
4. Mindanao and Islam as an ideology of
resistance
5. Manila and the Chinese: 20,000 Chinese
settled there; in 1603, Spaniards massacred
many of the Chinese.
I. Europeans and Asian Commerce
C. The Dutch and British East India Companies
1. Organized monopolies that could make war
2. Dutch East India Company, 1602-1799
a. Sent almost a million Europeans to work in Asia
b. 4785 ships
c. Brought back 2.5 million tons of goods from Asia
d. Colonized what became Indonesia and Taiwan
3. British worked with Mughals in India in textile
trade, because Dutch kept them out.
4. “Carrying trade” and bulk commodities
5. Trading posts became colonies.
I. Europeans and Asian Commerce
D. Asians and Asian Commerce
1. Limited European impact in Asia until 18th century:
a. controlled little territory
b. China and India had nothing to fear.
c. Siam expelled French missionaries/colonists in 1688.
2. Japan
a. initially (1550-1600) open, reflected internal strife:
daimyo lords and samurai warriors
b. Tokugawa Shogun united Japan (early 1600s) and
closed it (1650-1850): expelled Christian missionaries,
violent suppression of Japanese Christianity
c. Dutch (Calvinists) allowed to trade once per year.
3. Active Asians: Chinese, Southeast Asian women,
Armenians, and Indians
II. Silver and Global Commerce
A. Discovery of Bolivian and Japanese
silver deposits in 1500s
B. Spanish American silver (85% of world’s
silver) to Manila and then China
C. 1570s new tax law: Chinese taxes paid in
silver
D. Potosí (now in Bolivia): 160,000 people,
most poor Native mine workers
II. Silver and Global Commerce
E. Rise and fall of Spanish economy: massive silver
production led to inflation; Spanish aristocrats no great
entrepreneurs; monopolies; Catholicism did not welcome
Jewish and Protestant merchants; then silver’s value
dropped.
F. “General crisis” in 17th-century Europe
G. Japan’s silver management: shoguns used silver profits
to unify country; allied with merchants to create market
economy; slowed birth rate
H. China: Commercialization, specialization, and
deforestation (south consumed half of forests)
I. China and India out-produced Europe: Spaniards in
Americas bought Chinese, not Spanish silk; British bought
Indian cottons
III. The “World Hunt”: Fur in Global
Commerce
A. North American and Siberian fur sources
B. European population growth and “Little Ice Age”
C. European goods (guns, pots, whiskey) traded for
American furs: Dutch in Hudson Valley; French in St.
Lawrence valley
D. Impact on Native American societies: some were
enriched, but alcohol and disease were devastating; also
led to brutal inter-tribal wars.
E. Siberian furs to Europe, China, and the Ottomans
F. Impact on Siberians: disease, taxes, and hostagetaking; also more Russians hunted and trapped.
Little Ice Age, 1550-1850
IV. Commerce in People: Atlantic Slave Trade
A. The Slave Trade in Context
1. Varieties of slaveries before 1500: Slavic
and Africans were the slaves; Muslims the
merchants.
2. Uniqueness of slavery in the Americas:
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
12.5 million sent , 2 mill. died on the way
Primarily male, used for plantation agriculture
Slave status became hereditary
Slaves had no rights
Slaves were racially distinct.
3. Sugar and other plantation crops: tobacco
and cotton
Why Africans?
1. Great Dying: Native American labor scarce
2. Europeans affected by tropical
environment and diseases
3. Plantation owners looked to Africa,
geographically close
4. Portuguese had already discovered the
existing African slave markets
5. Pope sanctioned the slavery of Muslims
and pagans.
6. Racism: Europeans inherited some aspects
of Islamic racism and developed their own
racism.
IV. Commerce in People: The Atlantic Slave Trade
B.
The Slave Trade in Practice
1. African slave traders: Europeans did not become
slave raiders in Africa; they waited on the coast.
2. European and Indian goods to African consumers:
African slave traders exchanged slaves for weapons,
cowry shells, Indian cotton textiles.
3. Where did the slaves come from? Prisoners of war,
debtors, criminals, main sources were West Coast:
from Mauritania to Angola.
4. No pan-African identity at the time.
IV. Commerce in People: The Atlantic
Slave Trade
C. Consequences: The Impact of the Slave Trade in
Africa
1. Negative demographic and economic impact
2. Corrupting effect
3. Rising labor demands on women and polygamy
4. New opportunities for women
5. Options and choices for African states: Africans could
opt out; Benin did not engage in slave trade, while
neighbor Dahomey did.
V. Reflections: Economic Globalization—Then
and Now
A. Similarities with the past but our lives
are different
B. How old is globalization?
C. What is different about globalization
today?
D. Globalization tied to empire and slavery