Economic Systems, 1450-1750

Question 1

~European age of exploration

Answer 1

● Exerted a profound impact ont he world economy

● An early stage of economic globalization

Question 2

~Silk Road

Answer 2

● Never fell into complete disuse but because of hte relative slowness and expsne of overland transport compared to overseas transport, declined in importance after hte 1500s

Question 3

~Indian Ocean basin

Answer 3

● Increased in volume and was altered by the Europeans’ arrival in the 1400s and 1500s

Question 4

~Trading-post empire

Answer 4

● The portuguese came first
● Consisted of ports along the African coast and wherever in Asia they were strong enough to conquer or persuasive enough to negotiate territorial concession
● Key possessions included Oman (Arabian peninsula), Zanaibar and Mombasa (East Africa), Goa (India), Melaka/Malacca (Malay peninsula), Macau (China)

Question 5

~Influx of silver

Answer 5

● Had a noticeable impact on the region

Question 6

~Atlantic system of trade

Answer 6

● Include Columbian Exchnage

● Came into play after European explorations (smaller than Pacific ocean)

Question 7

~Columbian Exchange

Answer 7

● Introduced a large assortment of trade goods to the global economy, whether they were extracted from the New World or transplanted to it
● Staple foodstuffs taken from the Americas include manioc, corn and potatoes, cacao and tobacco also became desireable luxury goods
● THe arrival of coffee in the 1700s and cotton and sugercane impacted the Americas hugely
- Both crops requried backbreaking labor to cultivate that led to the rise and expansion oft he Atlantic slave trade

Question 8

~Triangular trade system

Answer 8

● European manufactured goods (metalware, cotton textiles, firearams, and processed alcohol such as gin and rum) would be brought to Africa’s west coast and exchanged for gold, ivory, and slaves
● THe voyage would continue to the Americas, where the slaves were sold in exchnage for sugar, tobacco, furs, cotton, and other raw materials
● These, along with the gold and ivory form Africa, woudl be shipped back to Europe

Question 9

~Harvesting of animal products

Answer 9

● FIshing and whaling led European ships to venture throughout the Atlantic, and into Arctic waters where possible
● Sea mammal hunting escaled, as did fur hunting

Question 10

~Sea mammal hunting

Answer 10

● For walrus ivory and for hte oil and pelts of seals

● Escalated sharply due to European exploration and rise in harvesting of animal products

Question 11

~Fur hunting

Answer 11

● Played an enormous role in the settlement of remote regions like Canada and Siberia

Question 12

~Monopoly charters

Answer 12

● Mariners, merchants, explorers and investors tended to operate under these, awarded by the state
● Those given the charter assumed hte costs nad risks of exploration or of trade that required long voyaging
● In return, they enjoyed exclusive rights to profit from new territories or markets

Question 13

~Board of Trade

Answer 13

● trade and resources extracted from Spanish Americas had to pass through the state-run board in Seville

Question 14

~Joint-stock companies

Answer 14

● A common way to share the expnese and hte risks invovled with exploration and overseas trade in most of Europe
● Early forerunners of the modern corporation, in which investors pooled their funds and received a hsare of the profit based on the size of their investment
● Not only were such entities in the business of makign money, they often became chiefly or even solely responsible for carrying out their home nation’s political and strategic will in overseas regions

Question 15

~Muscovy Company

Answer 15

● Founded in England during the mid-1500s to carry out trade with Russia via the Arctic port of Arkhangelsk
● A joint-stock company

Question 16

~Piracy

Answer 16

● Common in trade routes, especially int he Caribbean, the Indian Ocean, and the waters of Southeast Asia, and also along Asia’s Pacific coast
● Chinese government allwed the Portuguese to establish themselves in Macau as an award in suppressing piracy in the regions

Question 17

~Privateering

Answer 17

● Licensing of captains who owned hteir vessels privately to capture enemy ships or raid enemy ports and outposts
● When European states compete against each other, they relied not on their navies but also on the practice of privateering

Question 18

~Anglo-Dutch/Anglo-French rival

Answer 18

● Competition over parts of North America
● New York area in the case of Anglo-Dutch
● Canada in the case of Anglo-French
● Both won by the English in the 1600s and 1700s

Question 19

~Omani-European rivalry

Answer 19

● erupted in the mid-1600s, as hte Arab state of Oman rebelled against Portuguese colonial rule
● Not only did the Omanis expel the Portuguese from their own territory, they pushed the Portuguese out of Swahili ports such as Zanzibar and ruled them as thier own for many decades
● The Omani empire also competed with the British East India Company and other European commercial entities attempting to break into Indian Ocean markets during the 1600s and 1700s

Question 20

~Improvement of agricultural methods

Answer 20

● Better fertilizers came into wider use
● Scientific rotation of crops and fields which kept soil from becoming depleted too quickly or eaisly was practiced more commonly

Question 21

~Merchant classes

Answer 21

● Earning great wealth and rising to positions of social, cultural,a nd politicla prominence as trade abd banking became more important

Question 22

~Manufacturing

Answer 22

● Expanded with artisan and craftman classes growing in size and importance
● Worldwide, most manufacturing ocntinued to be done by hand and on a small scale
● By the 1600s and especially the 1700s, there was a noticeable rise in machine-assisted production, cattage industry and other fomrms of manufacturing that can be considered proto-industrial

Question 23

~Proto-industrialization

Answer 23

● Most prominent in Europe but also present elsewhere

● Helped to aly the groundwork for actual industrialization in the late 1700s and 1800s

Question 24

~Mercantilism

Answer 24

● Viewed all other nations as rivals and aimed to be self-sufficient
● Believe that state control over all economic activity was desirable, and if they possessed colonies, they viewed them as economic extensions of hte homeland
- A source of raw materials and a market for manufactured good

Question 25

~Capitalism

Answer 25

● Emphasized free trade and argued for less state control over hte economy
● Beggining to cath on by the second half ot he 1700s, at least in Europe

Question 26

~Coerced labour

Answer 26

● Global rise in productiviey and wealth rested on a foundation of coerced labour

Question 27

~Slave trade

Answer 27

● Atlantic slave trade was extensive and formed te heart of hte Atlantic world’s triangular trade
● So were the Arab slave trade and the market for slaves in Southeast Asia

Question 28

~Serfdom

Answer 28

● Common in Europe, especially in eastern regions like Russia

Question 29

~Plantation agriculture/Cash-crop agriculture

Answer 29

● Particularly the cultivation of sugarcane, cotton and coffee was based on unfree (or badly treated and poorly paid) labour
● Especially in the Americas

Question 30

~What did the incorporation of the Americas into Afro-Eurasia’s existing networks of exchange lead to?

Answer 30

● First time a turly global economic system emerged

● Raw meterials and finished products now circulated globally, and the worlwide demand for both grew steadily

Question 31

~How did modes of production change during this period?

Answer 31

● Majority of people worked as agriculturalists and lived in rural settings
● This contined to be the case until well into the industrial era, and agricultural production increased throughout these years
● Other sectors of hte economy expanded
- Trade, banking, manufacturing became more important during these years, generating a great deal of wealth and encouraging significant growth among urban populations

Question 32

~What trade routes became less relevant?

Answer 32

● Silk Road

Question 33

~What was mainlyEuropean’s economic role in Asia and why?

Answer 33

● Involved moving goods from one Asian market to another
● Pumpting silver into Asian economcs in exchange for goods to sell back home
● Europe’s colonical presence in Asia was still quite small

Question 34

~How did Europeans work to gain thorough and widespread control of India Ocean sea lanes?

Answer 34

● Cambat piracy
● Compete against one another, as well as against Muslim fleets
- THe naval escalation paved hte way for a larger European military presence in Asia and eventually for full-scale colonization there

Question 35

~How did Spnish and Portuguese extraciton of precious metals (esp silver) from the Americas affect economies around the world in 1500s and 1600s?

Answer 35

● THe huge and sudden influx of silver and gold bullion into so many places at once created a harmful glut of precious metals throughout Afro-Eurasia
● Severe inflation resulted not just in Europe but in places as diverse as North Africa and China

Question 36

~What were considered to belong tot he nation granting the charter?

Answer 36

● New discoveries

● A share of earnings might be owed to the government

Question 37

~How did Russia fund its explorations?

Answer 37

● In Russia, the mapping and settlement of Siberia was begun by merchant clans authorized by the tsars to search eatward for precious metals and fur-bearing animals

Question 38

~What were the famous and influential joint-stock companies?

Answer 38

● British East India Company (1600)
● Dutch East India Company (1602)
● Company of New France (1664)
● Hudson’s Bay Company (1670)

Question 39

~Where did most European powers quarreled over?

Answer 39

● Island colonies and shipping lanes in the Caribbean, or “West Indies”
● Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent

Question 40

~What did Columbian Exchange do in temrs of agriculture?

Answer 40

● Crops transplanted as a result tended to flourish in their new homes, especially int he case of corn, potatoes and manioc brought to Afro-EUrasian from the Americas