Empires and Commerce

1450-1750

Economic Motives

Colonization! The Commercial Revolution-16th and 17th Century Europe

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

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

“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.

Portuguese Empire 1600s

Spanish Empire 1600s

New trading empiresEUROPEAN TRADING POST EMPIRES

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

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

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

Dutch East India Company

JAPAN After a period of contact with

Europeans, Japanese isolate themselves from outsiders while profiting from the silver trade and keeping “watch” on outsiders.

Japanese Act of Seclusion 1636

CHANGE in Global Commerce

TRANSATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE began Massive movement of people through

the slave trade from coasts of West Africa to the Americas led by Europeans.

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

Part of the Atlantic trade triangle

CHANGE in Global Commerce

SILVER! Silver was THE ITEM that really began

GLOBAL TRADE Chinese demand for silver and new

silver mines in Spanish America & Japan led to global trade movement.

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

Oceans- Atlantic, Indian, & PacificSeas- Mediterranean, Caribbean, & Black

Empires- Label each separately…◦Ottoman (647) & Mughal (645)◦Russian (682)◦British, French, Portuguese, Dutch (the Netherlands) & Spanish (682)

◦Qing (Strayer p644)

Make a map that has . . .