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Great chart in the pdf link. But it doesn't really show where England got silver, especially from the mid 17th century onward. Profits from English slave traders selling slaves to Spanish and Brazilian planters is one possibility. Piracy is another, but is an intermittent and declining source. One of the characteristics of English colonies, especially in the "new world" was the relative absence of significant sources of gold.

Of course, with the relative decline in the purchasing power of gold and silver from 1500 through 1650, export goods could buy more silver than before. But that silver would have to be gotten out of the hands of the merchants who received it, who had to use something to pay those who sold them the goods which they exported.

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."

by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Mon Apr 11th, 2011 at 02:16:52 PM EST
[ Parent ]
The Spice Traders, the various "East India Companies," took over an existing system where the ruler of the country, e.g. Bandam, where the spice, e.g., nutmeg, grew already held the growers of the spice in economic peonage.  They replaced the ruler with themselves and kept the local system intact.

This resulted in the very nice, for the "East India Companies," situation where they sold the spice in Europe at a 1,000% to 4,000% percent mark-up over cost (purchase, shipping, etc.,) took some of the money and shipped it to, e.g., Bandam, where they paid themselves for the nutmegs they, effectively, stole from the growers.  

Part of the money was used to purchase tea, porcelain, lacquer ware, and other products from the Chinese merchants who arrived at Bandam to purchase nutmegs.  (For instance)  Of those goods, porcelain was the most lucrative; the upper crust went bananas over porcelain ware and would pay through the nose to acquire examples, an exact example of Veblen's conspicuous consumption for exactly the reasons he presented.

One reason the trading companies were able to do this because the European economy was on the up and up and able to support increased manufacturing of goods beyond local demand since the large trading companies could fill their ships with European manufactured goods and sell them in their colonies because the locals there weren't permitted to produce, as they had before, for their local market.

With European manufactured goods being shipped overseas and the steady increase of the amount of silver sloshing around in Europe due to the silver mining the Hartz mountains, the silver strike near Joachimsthal in Bohemia, and the silver flowing from the Spanish mines in the Latin and South Americas the total amount of silver being bid against a much slower rise in available goods led to a slow decline of the former versus the latter.

The supply of gold increased at a much slower rate and, thus, shared in the general price (in silver) rise.


She believed in nothing; only her skepticism kept her from being an atheist. -- Jean-Paul Sartre

by ATinNM on Mon Apr 11th, 2011 at 02:57:55 PM EST
[ Parent ]
But So that silver would have to be was gotten out of the hands of the merchants who received it those who could afford the imported luxury goods, by the BEIC who had to use something used some of the silver to pay for mercenaries in India and elsewhere and used other goods from other places or used English exportsto pay those who sold them the goods which they exported imported from the spice islands or elsewhere..

Sort of like Ollie North's "neat" little scheme to use the proceeds the sale of Columbian drugs to the USA and weapons to Iran to provide arms and money to the Contras. "The System of the World" as it were.  

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."
by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Mon Apr 11th, 2011 at 04:06:40 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Yeah.

I didn't 'Go There' to reduce the length of my comment.

Same old thing repeated endlessly.

She believed in nothing; only her skepticism kept her from being an atheist. -- Jean-Paul Sartre

by ATinNM on Mon Apr 11th, 2011 at 04:19:14 PM EST
[ Parent ]
The silver from Hartz Mountain mines via porcelain, etc. sold to German nobles would be a much more accessible source to English companies than would be the silver from Mexico, and Bolivia. The china porcelain for the Catholic countries more likely came from the Spanish Philippines and the Jesuit Black Ship from Japan, via Acapulco and portage across Mexico.  

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."
by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Mon Apr 11th, 2011 at 04:20:51 PM EST
[ Parent ]
The British East India Company was found smack in the middle (1600) of the period we're discussing.  For a couple of decades they screwed around unsuccessfully trying to oust the Dutch East India Company.  Eventually they decided to plant their butts in India ...

and the rest is history.

The unbelievable profits the BEIC reaped from India was the trigger and sustaining force for the British Empire allowing, among other things, the Brits to conquer more territories with equally lucrative resources.  As an example, ONE 10,990 square kilometer (4,243 sq mi) Caribbean island - Jamaica - returned more yearly profit than ALL of their North American colonies put together.  

The trade in, what we would call basic commodities, was the Oil Wealth of their time.


She believed in nothing; only her skepticism kept her from being an atheist. -- Jean-Paul Sartre

by ATinNM on Mon Apr 11th, 2011 at 04:47:02 PM EST
[ Parent ]
basic commodities...

such as sugar and indigo.

But the BEIC got a leg up after the Dutch became involved in their long struggle with Louis 14th and the English got past the Civil War and Protectorate period. Charles II's Queen Consort, Catherine of Braganza's dowry included the port cities of Tangiers and Bombay and good relations were maintained with the Mughal Emperors from 1612 until the mid 18th century.

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."

by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Mon Apr 11th, 2011 at 08:09:45 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Out of links, I will have to rely on scetchy recollection. As I was tought, the standard model was something like this:

  • Spain plunders America.
  • England and Netherlands gets a little from pirating Spains silver transports and a lot from producing stuff like wool and selling to wealthy Spainish.
  • Inflation unseats land-owning nobility in favor of new merchant/entrepreneur-class (in particular England, Netherlands was already merchant-dominated).
  • So money landing in England and Netherlands is re-invested in trade.
  • First Netherlands, then England takes over world trade and extracts rent from basically everything.


Sweden's finest (and perhaps only) collaborative, leftist e-newspaper Synapze.se
by A swedish kind of death on Mon Apr 11th, 2011 at 05:32:36 PM EST
[ Parent ]
That was the consensus and for all I know is still taught as the consensus.  But it's not quite, quite, accurate.

For example, the political leadership of England during most of this period was Monarchy supported by and supported land-based Aristocracy.  While the great merchants gained power during this period they never achieved Decision Making power.  An example of this, was a continuous un-met demand by the merchants for the King to do something about pirates infesting the English Channel.  It was only when the mayor of London fitted out a fleet, out of his own pocket, that piracy faded.  


She believed in nothing; only her skepticism kept her from being an atheist. -- Jean-Paul Sartre

by ATinNM on Tue Apr 12th, 2011 at 12:48:58 PM EST
[ Parent ]
It does omit the profits from gaining a share of the East and South Asian carry trade. After selling your fine woolens for silver, your big money comes from taking that silver to the East, where it can be used to buy into the trade among the most productive, highest income economies in the world. And you can reap your profits from that trade in the form of goods to send back to Europe to sell for more silver to finance further expansion.

There's a reason why it's "sailing the Seven Seas" rather than "sailing to the Seven Seas" ~ there was a lot of money to be made plying the waters of the Andaman, Java, Banda, Molucca, Celebes, Sulu and South China Seas.

I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.

by BruceMcF (agila61 at netscape dot net) on Tue Apr 12th, 2011 at 11:43:35 PM EST
[ Parent ]

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