History Of The Age Of Exploration

The Age of Exploration brought together people from Europe, Asia, and the Americas, for the first time. When people met they culturally diffused with the other societies around them. This age spread biological and cultural exchanges. These exchanges affected people everywhere. The Age of Exploration brought commodities that changed the lives of people and the outcomes in Spain, China, and the Americas.

Silver was a commodity found in the Americas that altered the course of two very different countries, Spain and China. The Spanish found silver in Potosí in Peru as well as in the Andes. They produced around one billion troy ounces of silver, which made the Spanish appear wealthy. They had believed that storing all this silver would make them

Silver was swapped out for Ming China’s failing paper money. This commodity ended the coinage problem and it became the currency. Utilizing silver was better than using coins, which eventually lost their value. Merchants bought and sold products with ingots or sycees of silver. To receive silver, China had to lift off their international trading ban and partially let go of their zhongguo mentality. China refused to trade for anything else besides silver. Once the Spanish took control of Manila, an international silver trade began. The Chinese were very careful about their silver. They had silver masters known as Kanyinshi, who charged a fee for the evaluation of the silver and whether person was cheated. Although, silver did boost trade and made the economy grow as well, the “treasure of the world” ultimately led the society of China to fall. The Chinese were dependent on the Spanish because they were the ones who supplied them with silver. If they did not have silver, they would not be able to pay anything. Chinese civilians needed silver to pay their taxes as well. Eventually, the price of silver decreased due to international trade. This also resulted in inflation in the country. When the Spanish stopped their silver trade with the Chinese, they had no money to finance a national army to fight the invading tribes from the north. Silver, definitely, left a long lasting affect on Chinese society and that is

Food such as maize, sweet potatoes, chili peppers, pineapples, and cassavas all arrived in China. The potato was the most important crop that reached China however. Because potatoes grew well in the mountains, the Chinese were encouraged to settle in mountainous areas. The sweet potato became the third most important crop in China, after rice and wheat. The vegetable was nutritious and easy to grow. A specific type of field was not needed to nurture it and there was not a lot of work involved. It tolerated strongly acid soils with only a few nutrients. Potatoes helped people create a stable food supply and as a result the population surged. People even ate the roots of the potatoes to get as much as they could from it. It had quickly become an essential part to peoples’ diets. Chili peppers were used more often in their diet. There was an increase of people in China due to new American foods that arrived in the area. Hakka refugees came to China, mainly planted potatoes in their hills and then had them with almost everything. As China was affected by the American food that they had received, Europe had changed the food in the