Silver

It was fairly common believe in mainland China that with arrival of large amounts of silver would bring prosperity but with such an thoroughgoing amount of this precious metal coming into one are caused problems. The Ming Dynasty say that all taxes must be payed in silver. This created great disruption in the thriftiness since silver coins were scarce at this period many population were unable to pay their taxes. To suffice the demands of the government a great piling of people would get their silver through middle-men. This exchange for silver bring down the value of Ming goods (Doc3).Wang Xijue, a court official, foresees the possible problems the large amounts of silver that the Ming would defend coming into it if they began to dispense with Europeans (Doc7). Inflation was a large concern for Xijue. This business concern soon became a reality and the uncontrolled flow of silver into Ming China hurt the economy. Ye Chunji, a county official during the Ming Dynasty, ordere d a limit to spousals expenses in the 1570s (Doc1). If these frugal ways would obtain been instilled in the Ming people, the economy wouldnt have had such a downfall.Furthermore, now shops would send bills for give and must be paid with silver obtained from a moneylender (Doc5). During this metre moneylenders thrived while the Chinese economy suffered. Initially the silver demand champion Spain but long term weakened the empire. High prices ruined Spain as the prices attracted Asian commodities and the silver currency flowed out to pay for them (Doc2). Contrastingly, the middle-men were largely benefiting from the trade of silver. Ralph Fitch, a British merchant, stresses this point by saying that the Portuguese sure luxurious goods in return for silver in China (Doc4).In Document 8 Charles DAvenant, an English scholar describes the trade England would have with Spanish colonies of luxury goods for silver for gold (Doc8). He expresses this trade a profitable. In conclusion, th e increase in silver production in japan and the Spanish Empire from 1500 to 1750 benefits the middle man instead of the consumer and supplier. An additional instrument with numerical evidence of to what extreme the silver trade increased during this time period would be useful to further understand the extent in which this all took place.