White Plains Public Schools / Overview



The following question is based on the accompanying Documents 1-8.

Using the documents, analyze the social and economic effects of the global flow of silver from the mid-sixteenth century to the early eighteenth century. Explain how another type of document would help you analyze the effects of the flow of silver bullion in this period.

Historical Background: Spanish colonial America and Tokugawa Japan led the world in silver production from 1500 to 1750. In the early 1570’s, the Ming Chinese government required that all domestic taxes and trade fees be paid in silver.

• Did you read the question carefully and underline the words that will help ensure that you fully answer the question?

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The Main Ideas:

• Document 1

- POV – County official during the Ming dynasty – 1570s

- Be frugal and you will always have enough

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• Document 2

- POV – Spanish scholar –1571

- High prices ruined Spain

- Attracted Asian goods

- Spanish silver flowed out of Spain to China

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• Document 3

- POV – Ming Court official – Report to Emperor – 1593

- Government requires taxes in silver

- But government returns little silver to the economy

- Not enough silver in circulation

- Grain is cheap because of scarcity of silver

- When grain is cheap, people farm less land

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• Document 4

- POV – British merchant – 1599

- Portuguese trade with Japan to get silver

- Portuguese take their silver to buy Chinese goods

- Portuguese use silver trade to their advantage

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• Document 5

- POV – Chinese writer –Writing about the commercial city of Hangzhou –1610

- In the past, barter was allowed

- Could trade chickens for the dying of cloth

- But now, only silver to buy goods

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• Document 6

- POV – Spanish priest – Compendium and Description of the West Indies –1620

- Potosí silver mine in Bolivia

- Rich in silver

- American Indians work in the mines

- Exploited

- The mine is huge in its wealth

- And some of the silver is secretly taken from the mines

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• Document 7

- POV – Ming dynasty court official – Report to the emperor on the possibility of repealing the 1626 ban on foreign trade – 1630

- Europeans want Chinese goods

- Europeans will pay mountains of silver for the goods

- Unlike Asian merchants of the Indian Ocean who trade goods for goods, the Spaniards will pay silver for Chinese goods

- Hint: Remember the Philippines was a Spanish colony

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• Document 9

- POV - English scholar – Regarding the debate on a bill in Parliament to restrict Indian textiles –1697

- Europe only buys luxury goods from Asia

- Nothing of real use

- And Europe sends silver to Asia which stays in Asia

- But still it is advisable for England NOT to quit this trade

- For if England does, another European nation will profit from it

- Since the taste for these goods will not leave Europe

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Grouping: Responses to Influenza

First Group Second Group Third Group

|Economic Effect – The Negative Impact of the |Another Economic Effect – The Positive Impact |Social Effect – Changing People’s Lives |

|Silver Trade on a Nation’s Economy |of the Silver Trade on a Nation | |

|Document 2 – |Document 4 – |Document 1 – |

|High prices ruined Spain as silver flowed out |Portuguese use silver trade to their advantage |A frugal man always has enough even if there is|

|of Spain |– trade with Japan for silver and use Japanese |a scarcity of silver |

| |silver to buy Chinese goods | |

|Document 3 – | |Document 6 –Indigenous people forced to mine |

|Less land in cultivation in China as all taxes |Document 7 – |the silver in dangerous conditions in the |

|are paid in silver |China should trade directly with Europe – will |Americas |

|And government disburses little silver to the |get silver instead of goods in Indian Ocean | |

|economy and thus the people – scarcity of |Trade | |

|silver has reduced the price of grain | | |

| |Document 8: English should stay in silver trade| |

|Document 5 – |as even though silver is being “buried” in | |

|People once bartered but now because of Ming’s |China at least England can profit from the | |

|Single Whip Tax must pay in silver |trade rather than some other European nation | |

Thesis Statement:

There were diverse social and economic effects of the global flow of silver from the mid-sixteenth century to the early eighteenth century in that the silver trade negatively harmed the economies of Spain and surprisingly China, economically benefitted nations who dominated the trade, and socially changed the lives of people, particularly the indigenous miners in the Americas and the Chinese peasants.

Missing Document:

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Who is not present?

- A Chinese peasant

- An indigenous miner

And do not forget Point of View Analysis:

Who said it and why it matters that such an individual said it?

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