The flow of silver from 1500 to 1750 C.E. drastically improved the economies of Latin American nations, which in turned allowed for a global shift in currency and altered trade. Also during this time period there was also a greater desire for global expansion and imperialism, as seen when Europe expanded towards the Americas. Interconnected trade allowed for more contact between various nations, but it also supported the idea that certain nations were superior. While Latin America was the source of the economic prosperity that occurred in this time period, nations such as Europe benefited largely as well; since Spain and Portugal still had control over the areas where silver was being mined, they were able to take the rewards and distribute for their benefit.
Documents 2 and 4 describe how silver has become the leading trade object in East Asia. Document 2 is from a British merchant writing about Portuguese trade in the China, trying to express the advantage of trading in Japan for the exchange of silver. Document 4 is best understood in the context of silver mining becoming Latin America’s main source of trade and revenue. Through the production of
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Document 5 explains the labor needed to produce all the silver that leave Potosi; the purpose of the document is to show the public how, in order to have 326,000,000 silver coins produced for the economy, Indian workers must struggle every day. In document 1, the major silver mines are located largely in Spanish-owned territories and the metal is then traded to areas in England such as the Netherlands, Great Britain, Spain, and Portugal. These are some countries which benefitted the most from the flow of silver because they were able to trade in Russia, the Ottoman Empire, the East Indies, and Ming China; this is why the arrows extend from one central point, England, and go to other nations from there