A Splendid Exhange; Chapters 1-7 Notes

8/3/2019 A Splendid Exhange; Chapters 1-7 Notes

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Chapter 1: Sumer

1. Farmers defended with maces- first weapons solely used on humansa. Attackers of the harvest used copper helmets as protection- farmers would

replicate -> beginning of arms raceb. Smelting saw light in 3500 B.C., bronze around 2800 B.C.

i.

Search for tin around asia, through franceii. Straits of Gibraltar starts trade2. Trading

a. Trade along two rivers in Mesopotamiai. Tigris

ii. Euphratesb. In order to survive, humans worked with toolsc. Rivers had only soil for crops- had to depend on trade in order to

live/build functioning society

Chapter 2: The Straits of Trade

1.

Peloponnesian Wara. Athens wanted to build empire for grain and fertile lands (poor soil in city-states)

i. Modern west with control of vital trade routes (water)ii. Colonized Alexandria, Sicily, and Bosporus (trade choke points)

iii. 700 BC450 BC fight for control of waters (navies begin to patrol)Chapter 3: Camels, Perfumes, and Prophets

1. Camelsa. Up until 1500 BC, donkey had been beast of burdenb. Pre-Islamic Arabians develop saddle between 1300 BC100 BCc. Uses

i. Transporting silk and incense2. Incense

a. Frankincense and myrrh from Arabia (Aden, fertile patch of land)b. Used as luxury fragrant to mask pungent smells of ancient worldc. From Arabia Felix to Fertile Crescent to Pax Romana

3. Religiona. AD 500- Arabs had a lot of contact with Christians and Jews

i. Abyssinia converts to Christianity, Yusuf Asai (Jew) killsChristians, 525 AD, Abyssinians retaliate and overwhelm Bab elMandeb

ii. Arabs -> Islam, defend against Qussay (Wealthy traders),Christians, and Jews

Chapter 4: The Baghdad-Canton Express

1. Getting to Asiana. Roman and Han Empire encourages trade

i. IslamTang Empire trade was more profoundb. Tea


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i. As a drink/herb, spreads through middle east to Europe1. Sugar and spice trade along with tea

c. Trade shifts westward to the power of Europeans (briefly Chinese)Chapter 5: The Taste of Trade

1.

Spicesa. Pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, clovesi. Long distance trade in medieval period revolves around spice trade,

slave trade, and mastery of Bosphorus and Dardenellesii. Spices from the Spice Islands (Moluccas- unknown until 15th

century)

Chapter 6: The Disease of Trade

1. Trading moved diseasesa. Plague- rats on ships and fleas

2. Europea.

Potato famineb. Spaniards going to Aztecs- left small pox

Chapter 7: Da Gamas Urge

1. Splits world into Spain and Portugala. Tordesillas Line influences Portugese explorationb. Da Gama finds route to India around Cape of Good Hope

Chapter 9: The Coming of Corporations

1. Francis Drake worked for Queen Elizabeth of Englanda. Hated Iberians, as he had once been double-crossed by a group of themb. For Queen Elizabeth he was to: repeat Magellans circumnavigation,

establish trade with Spice Islands, plunder Iberian shipping.c. Did all of this, also brought home intellectual capital: celestial navigation

in the skies below the line in the southern hemisphere.d. Piracy was going out of fashion; took him 5 months to be knighted

2. VOC- first corporationa. English East India Company (EIC)second corporation

3. James Lancaster plundered during a three-year voyagea. When he returned to London, he became a mover in the EICb. Set out in 1601

4. Development of VOCa. Differed from EIC

i. van Linschoten wrote a book,Itinerario, on the geography ofsoutheast Asia

ii. four Amsterdam merchants used his book and founded Companyof Far Lands, sent out four ships, returned with small cargo ofpepper

iii. made profit; Far Lands and competing companies sent 22 ships toAsia


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iv. The Dutch were pleasedv. They made a single company to hold a monopoly and handle all

commerce to the Indiesthe VOC5. VOC (more)

a. Allowed to handle military affairsb.

Picked off the Portuguese and Spanish settlements in the Indiesc. Half their genius came from minimizing riskinvestors sometimes had1/28 share.

d. Largest economy in the world at timee. English could not catch up

6. EICa. Unlike VOC, English companys capital wasnt permanent had to be

returned to investors as soon as ships returnedb. Sometimes paid back investors in spices rather than moneyc. English had 28 ships vs. the Dutchs 83 d. EIC was decentralizedeach member traded on his own account; no

cooperatione. Disputes broke out in Asia; no one to resolve them. Vs. the Dutch, whohad a strong governor-general with authority who resolved stuff whileabroad

7. VOC becomes corrupta. VOC had more maritime technologyb. Decided to monopolize the entire worlds spice tradec. Pushed the Spanish out of Moluccasd. The Bandanese on the Spice Islands prospered, so the VOC hoodwinked

the Bandanese into yielding their nutmeg exclusively with VOC.Bandanese were dependent on neighbors for food, so with no nutmeg totrade they starved.

e. Islanders killed 47 Dutch officers and soldiers.Chapter 10: Transplants1. Boston Tea Partyno taxation without representation- but ACTUALLY smugglers

who were mad that they were losing profit to the EIC, who could now sell directly tothe US

2. Monopolies were outdated, as peaceful free trade served economic interests best3. Coffee became popularfirst cafes opened

a. People of all classes could eventually afford it by 1700b. English outranked Dutch nowc. Cotton became widespreadEngland further progressedd. Cotton was high-end, became affordable due to cheap Indian labor

4. Henry Martyna. Wrote Considerations upon the East India Tradeb. Said mercantilists, by equating gold with wealth, were dumb. Nations wealth

defined by how much it consumed5. English government fought to make people wear wool, not cotton6. Many laws backfired until government gave up


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7. Slaverya. Slaves were being transportedb. 9.5 out of 11 million survived the horrible middle passagec. Confined in tight, unsanitary areas on shipsd. Most went to maintain sugar crops in the Caribbean

Chapter 11: The Triumph and Tragedy of Free Trade

1. The Opium Wara. Canton System

i. Limited European merchants to only a few Chinese companies duringthe months between the winter and summer monsoons.

1. The Europeans were mad because the Chinese were self-sufficient; if the English wanted tea, they had no goods to tradethe Chinese for itthey had to pay in silver

a. Decided to get Chinese citizens of the late Chingdynasty addicted to opium so that they would have

something to tradeb. Chinese smoked instead of swallowed, so it was moreaddictive

c. Chinese government outlawed itd. Europeans smuggled it in

2. Opium War ends - famous 1842 Treaty of Nanking: awardedBritain monetary recompense, eliminated hong monopoly, setChinese export and import tariffs at a low rate, opened 5 ports,gave British immunity from Chinese laws

3. Second Opium Wara. Ended with Chinese paying the English more money

2. Law of Comparative Advantagea. lets say an attorney gets hourly fee of$1,000also skilled woodworker who

can do work in half the time of a normal carpenter. Worth $50/hour, asopposed to normal carpenters $25/hour. If attorney needs new kitchen,shouldnt he do it himself, since hes twice as fast as normal carpenter? Not ifhis legal skills are worth $1,000/hour. In the hundred hours it work take himto do the kitchen (compared to 200 hours with normal carpenter), he couldhave earned $100,000 in the office. Rule of comparative advantage. Theattorney work is the advantage, but the woodworking is a comparativedisadvantage.

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A Splendid Exhange; Chapters 1-7 Notes