16th Century Trade

What strikes me about the Portuguese approach to trading in the Indian Ocean during the 16th century was how forward thinking their methods were, even if they came about only because of military and naval inferiority. The idea that the world could be controlled through commerce rather than military conquest is a relatively modern one; in an age where warfare for the sake of gaining power and territory is no longer considered acceptable, having a controlling stake in the global economy allows a country to exert huge influence over other nations without the fear of reprisal that military action brings. It is unfortunate for the Portuguese that they did not have claim to any superior technology or export of any real value, and instead sought to monopolise existing trade routes through bullying and piracy - something that they could never maintain for long with other nations holding superior naval power.

            Global commerce during this time really became the roots of capitalism; with European nations taking great measures to acquire material wealth. It seems strange to consider that a lot of the exploration and founding of settlements far overseas was simply to discover a way of bankrolling the purchase of commodities such as spices, porcelain and silk in the east.  In particular, the high demand for silver in China gave rise to the Spanish construction of a settlement in Bolivia so large it rivaled that of London or Amsterdam, despite the area being essentially barren aside from its silver deposits. And within resided the wealthy European elite, and the impoverished slaves that handled the physical labour - not too far from the wealthy business owners and the relatively poor grunt labourers of the present day.  With silver sources being relatively few, true global commerce erupted, as European nations bought, sold and traded across the globe to acquire the silver needed to do business with China and those prized exports. It almost seems like a missed opportunity to me, with the world turning on the silver coin it could have set the foundations for the formation of a single global currency.

            The destructive element of capitalism became evident by the 17th century, where demand for furs had a catastrophic effect on parts of North America and Siberia. With European goods being so easy to trade to the native people, it wasn't long before they began to abandon their traditional ways and focus on hunting in order to trade in greater and greater numbers with the European nations they were steadily becoming dependent on. Such was the greed for furs in the west that populations of beaver and deer were almost wiped out by zealous over hunting, along with native people and cultures being destroyed by the reliance and exposure of European goods such as firearms and alcohol, and increased conflicts among tribes competing for this valuable resource. It saddens me to think we haven't learned anything from this; that hundreds of years later natural resources are used up, rain-forests cut down and certain species being driven to near extinction, all to satisfy our greed. In the 16th century, we truly became people of consumption.