The Silver Trade

The Silver Trade was a large, and popular process that began in the mid-sixteenth century that lasted for a very long time. It had major impacts on countries like Spain, Japan, and China. These countries had many social and economic changes that would change the people and the government. Silver was very valuable during these times, and caused economic changes, like decreasing the value in grain, and allowing the Portuguese to excel economically during these times. Despite the economic changes, there were many social changes like causing the Indians to work vigorously in silver mines. These economic and social changes the silver trade caused helped shape society into what it is today.

A big social change that occurred from the Silver Trade was the demand for more Silver, and on how important it was. For instance in document 4 He Qiaoyan, a ming dynasty court …show more content…
For instance, document 1 states “As the price of grain falls, tillers of the soil receive lower returns on their labors, and thus less land is put into cultivation,” this demonstrates because many people were scarce with silver coins poor harvesting was beginning to develop. This then lead to more land not being cultivated or not being prepared for farming which would cause more problems economically in the future. Despite this negative economic effect, there were many positive effects like the Portuguese empire soaring economically. For example, document 2 states “They have a ship that goes to Japan every year, and brings back more than 600,000 coins,” this shows how the portuguese were doing really well in these times economically, collecting silver which would make the country rich and stronger. Portugal becoming stronger with more silver and China suffering because of the lack of silver demonstrate economic effects that the Silver Trade had on some