MYP3 America and its connection with the rest of the world

MYP3 

America and its connection with the rest of the world

Vocabulary Research

Artisan

Barter

Booty

Bourgeoisie

The American booty

At the end of the fifteenth century, artisan production supported commercial life in Europe. The first transactions took place thanks to barter, but since not all the objects had the same value and were not easily interchangeable, there was a need to establish compensations in internationally accepted values, such as gold, silver and precious stones. Commerce depended on precious metals, therefore, the States tried to control by all means the territories rich in these resources. The search for these metals was, precisely, one of the motivations that drove the Conquest. With the mercantile expansion, America exported precious metals, tropical products, sugar, spices, corn, potatoes and tobacco, and imported manufactures and agricultural products unknown in the continent, such as wheat and grapes, indispensable for the elaboration of wine (Garrido. 2001).

The beginnings of capitalism

The commercial reactivation in Europe was the precursor of the Industrial Revolution. America contributed gold, silver, raw materials and aboriginal labor. Africa supplied the slave labor that replaced the exterminated Native Americans, and Europe, on the other hand, commercialized the manufactured products and monopolized transactions.

Spain and Portugal did not directly benefit from this process, although their colonies provided the silver and gold that made this expansion possible. Both Spain and Portugal lacked an industrial bourgeoisie. The enormous amount of wealth that came from America consolidated the monarchy, which enjoyed a short prosperity; but the final destiny of the American riches were the French, Flemish and English manufacturing bourgeoisies.

To sustain their military expenses, the Spanish kings sold in advance the shipments of gold that came from America. This allowed the bankers and merchants to become the owners of countless precious metals, which in one way or another, regulated the economy.

The start of production in America

The Creole merchants imported textiles, paper, wine and iron; however, due to the high prices of the products and the lack of continuity necessary to satisfy the demand, in several colonies they began to elaborate some of these goods.

The Spanish Crown prohibited and tried to limit its production, but the corresponding laws were ignored, and many viceroys not only allowed the creation of local industrial and agricultural enterprises, but also protected them. For example, by the end of the sixteenth century, viniculture production had expanded so much in the Peruvian viceroyalty that the wines, spirits and vinegars produced in their territories were consumed even in Mexico.

Colonial trade

The silver and the corresponding currencies were the motor of the commerce between Spain and its colonies, reason why the routes for these transactions had like center the zones where this metal was produced. From there, silver was sent, in the form of bullion and coins, to Spain, in exchange for manufactures and luxury items that the colonies did not produce.

Spain implanted the commercial monopoly in America. That is, he prohibited his new territories from trading with other European nations. Only a few American ports were authorized to make exchanges with Spain. To ensure compliance with commercial controls and prevent pirates and corsairs from attacking their ships, the Spanish Crown regulated colonial trade and created a system of fleets and galleons.

Once a year, from Seville to the Caribbean, a fleet of cargo ships, protected by warships, departed. In the Caribbean, the fleet was divided. One part went to the port of Veracruz, in Mexico, from where the goods were distributed throughout the viceroyalty of New Spain. The other route reached Cartagena de Indias, in present-day Colombia, and Panama. From there, by land and sea, the products arrived in Lima, whose merchants distributed to other ports, such as Buenos Aires.

The most important commercial circuit in the south was developed around Potosi. The cities of Cuzco, La Plata, Arequipa and La Paz stood out in this circle. Around these cities, the production and commercialization of certain agricultural products, such as coca and vine, was very popular in the city of Potosi. For example, the area of ​​Arequipa became a producer of wine, and in the jungles of Cuzco and La Paz concentrated the production of coca that supplied the Andean population of Potosi (Stein, 1970). The colony trade was slow and complicated; therefore, from very early on, it was challenged by the appearance of smuggling or illegal trade, which, in some areas of the Spanish Americas, had important proportions. For example, Buenos Aires became the seventeenth century, a focus of smuggling under the control of Portuguese merchants. 

The colonial economy was ruled by merchants, mine owners and large landowners. The ruling classes had no interest in diversifying the economy or modernizing technology. Thus, the development of an internal market was hindered, which ended up being one of the main causes of the economic collapse.

Collective actors – Pirates

They were the ones who assaulted Spanish ports and ships in America, in search of jewels and precious metals. When the European kings were at war, they resorted to pirates against the enemy army.

The monarch granted them a permit to assault enemy ships with the condition that they give him half the booty. This contract between the king and the pirates was called the Corsican patent, and the pirate who accepted it, corsair.

Questionnaire-

1.    What goods (products) did America export to Europe?

2.    Did America´s incorporation into world trade have an impact on Europe´s economy? Explain how America´s wealth contributed to Europe´s economic reactivation? 

3.    What commercial actors benefited from trade between the Americas?

4.    Why local industries (in America) did started elaborating products that originally were imported from Spain?

5.    What was a main cause for the economic collapse of the Spanish colonies? Why did this happen?

Bibliography

Santillana S.A. (2017). América y su vinculación con el resto del mundo. En Gonzalez y Bustos, Estudios Sociales Guía del Docente EGB9 (págs. 64-66). Quito: Santillana S.A.