Social and Economic Effects of the Flow of Silver in the Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries

Jacob Gonzalez AP World 11/29/10 DBQ Even though the economic affects of the flow of silver from middle Sixteenth century to the beginning of the Eighteenth century seem to play out nearly the same in the different countries, the social affects are way more custom based on the source’s pov. Documents 4 & 5 show that silver was the preferred way of pay even though the sources weren't from the same points of views (British and Ming respectfully), however; documents 2 ; 7 show that Spanish ; Chinese have different views on their homeland affects.

These documents that are in terms of economy prove to be limited such as document 4 which has an outsider’s view from Britain who is anallyzing the Portuguese use of silver for Chinese goods. In document 5, the Ming writter portrays a statement that in previous years, a simple trade for dyed cloth would suffice, but since the economy is becoming more desiring for silver, comon shops are begining to complicate things with good payments of silver. For the Spanish view point, the priest states strait facts saying that according to official records, there was a crazy amount of silver going around.A document that would add to the understanding of the economical effects would be a report from an official document-keeper in Manila that has the ratio between the silver going out vs. the amount of goods from China in order to show who has the advantage in the trade to show something that has a professional view. By contrast to the non opinionated economic affects, the social affects of the silver going around differs thoughts that represent each society involved. Taking a look through the Ming Dynasty’s point of view, they beleive that the greed involved in the silver is corrupting their lives.

Interesting enough, all of the documents that are considered “Social Chinese”, they all are from the Ming officials. In document 1 the Ming official is arguing that if you become too obsessed with silver, you develop a undeniable desire for the silver and you will keep on needing more and more. He is trying to limit the amount of silver the common man will recieve because that same man will be over run by sgreed. In document 3, also by a Ming official, he reports that the respectable olders are blaming the government for the poor amounts of wheat and grain.This document is a little less biased than document one because it shows equal representation of the people to the ruler. The last Ming official document (7) is stating that they should allow foreign trade because the Spanish are making a huge profit selling the Chinese products in the Philippines. His request shows that they would rather have money instead of the country’s pride.

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For the Spanish, document 2 is from a scholar. This man is whining about the government’s spending. He is saying that the government is spending way too much silver for the Chinese goods: soo much that it is ruining Spain.Finally, document eight is from an British scholar. This scholar is in essence on the same boat as the Spaniard. He is saying that Europe has become too involved in the Asian commodities as well. The difference in his argument is that they are giving away money for worthless, small materials that basically have no point to Europe when it matters.

Also, he states that the money that the government is putting into this indulgence will never be refunded to Europe causing them to be in debt.An additional document that would help the best for this is a journal of a traveler that went to the Americas. Because they is from a different society, they would be impartial to the situation, they would be able to give an accurate analysis of the social effects from the silver thrading. Based on the given documents, the economic affects of the silver flow look to be evaluated primarily the same in the accounts from the different societies included, where in social tense; the vantages are different depending on the place they are from and the position of the source in the social heirarchy.

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