The silver trade had multiple significant positive effects on the economic systems between the mid-sixteenth centuries to the early eighteenth century, as opposed to a few significant negative impacts on the social systems.
Silver had a few, but significant effects on the socials systems of the world. Antonio Vazquez de Espinosa [Document 6], a Spanish priest, talked much about how inhumanly the Spanish were treating the enslaved Indians; “…more than 3000 Indians worked away hard with picks and hammers…” and, “…the poor fellows, loaded down with ore, climb up these ladders or rigging, some like masts and others like cables, and so trying and distressing that even an empty- handed man can hardly get up them.” This shows that the Spanish didn't care about the social equality of the Natives, even in their own home.
The greed for silver was so overwhelming that the Spaniards took all the silver from the enslaved peasants and used it to dominate the elite end of the social class [their class]. Tomas de Mercado [Document 2], a Spanish scholar, seems to agree that the greed for silver was very bad for Spain, “High prices ruined Spain as the prices attracted Asian commodities and the silver currency flowed out to pay for them.” Both of these sources support that hunger for so much silver was unhealthy and ended up being bad for Spain.
The social effects of the Americas indirectly affected the economic growth the countries on the Eastern Hemisphere. The efforts of the enslaved laborers help get all the silver into the Eastern Hemisphere, which started the whole global trading system. The Indian slaves of South America and the African slaves, who were brought over by the Spaniards and Portuguese [the African slaves], provided the backbone of the labor force. They labored day in and day out in horrible conditions to get the world trade rolling. From there the silver was then taken to Europe, to be distributed. From there it traveled to the main, vast markets of Asia. There it was used as currency [China], and collected as taxes. This can be seen in all of the documents written by Ming [Chinese] officials. In Document 1, Ye Chunji explains how the amount of wealth that silver is causing in the main reason for the silver inflation.
In Document 3, Wang Xijue reports to the emperor that wheat was cheap because of the scarcity of silver. Though one contradicts the other, in that one calls to spend less, whereas the other calls to spend more, to get more silver into circulation; both support the fact that Ming China is mainly dependent on silver. The other documents written by Ming officials also support the prior statement. But they differ in that Xu Dunqui Ming [Document 5] is indirectly saying that the new silver system was not as preferred as the old system in which the customer could pay in what the seller wanted. This meant that with this system [the silver system], neither the buyer nor seller really benefited, rather than before when the seller got something he wanted in return for a service or a product.
In Document 7, He Qiaoyuan also explained that China's main goal was getting as much silver as they possibly could. They would trade some of their things in southeastern Asia, and Africa for about 100 silver coins, as opposed to going to the Philippines, ripping them off for 200-300 silver coins. The three sources [Documents 1,3,5,7] stated in this analysis of Ming China, are placed into a group of sources that explains that Ming China's depended on Silver for all of their financial needs, and that they would try to get as much of it as they could from anywhere in the world.
Documents 4 and 8 are from western [European (British)] perspectives. Ralph Fitch [Document 4] wrote about the Portuguese, and how they took advantage of cheap Chinese luxuries. But by the time that Charles D'Avenant came to write “An Essay on the East-India Trade” [Document 8], Portugal was not as big a player in international trade anymore. So he decided to write about how Europe was now more important than Asia. Chinese, and Asian markets had “nothing of solid use; only materials to supply luxury”. Though this may have been true, D'Avenant says, “But since Europe has tasted of this luxury, since the custom of a hundred years has made Asian spices necessary…Asian silks are pleasing everywhere…their dyed cotton is useful wear at home…it can never be advisable for England to quit this trade, and leave it to any other nation.” Europe was still in much need of the Asian commodities. The English used to pay for all of these goods still with silver and gold, “which is there buried and never returns.” This showed that China was still much in need of silver.
Though the social effect greatly impacted the economic system, there would have been no need for a change or effect on the social system if the people were not power hungry and money mongers. In theory, the Spanish did accomplish their goal in that they were looking to get rich quick. They grabbed a bunch of Indians, and Africans, got them to do the hard labor, and got rich quick. The social system may have been sacrificed [by exploiting the naivety of the Natives], but they got money; the world had become materialistic. Though the positive impact on the economy only lasted a short while, and the negative impact on the social system lasted for centuries afterward [Africans remained slaves in the United States until 1865 when the end of the Civil War abolished slavery]; the silver trade had changed the face of global trade.
Other sources that may have been useful to the analysis of the Silver Trade would be first hand documents from other points of view than just the Spanish, Chinese, and British. If we could hear from the perspective of a native of the Americas, that could really help analyze a lot of the social impacts it had in the Americas. Since the African were also enslaved and imported to the Americas o help mine, a document from an enslaved African would be useful as well.
