Transcript Period 4 (1450-1750) Aim: How did European companies

Period 4 (1450-1750) Aim: How did European
companies facilitate new global circulation of goods
and maintained established regional markets in
Afro-Eurasia?
• Do NOW: 1. What is Columbus discussing? 2. Who is it
addressed to? 3. Why does he use this tone? EVIDENCE?
• In reference to the transportation of gold from the island to
Castile, that all of it should be taken on board the ship, both that
belonging to your Highnesses and the property of every one
else; that it should all be placed in one chest with two locks,
with their keys, and that the master of the vessel keep one key
and some person selected by the governor and treasurer the
other; that there should come with the gold, for a testimony, a
list of all that has been put into the said chest, properly marked,
so that each owner may receive his own; and that, for the
faithful performance of this duty, if any gold whatsoever is found
outside of the said chest in any way, be it little or much, it shall
be forfeited to your Highnesses.
Royal Chartered Companies
Companies enabled merchants to band together to
undertake ventures requiring more capital ($)
than was available to any one merchant or
family. WHY?
Formed from the sixteenth century onwards by
groups of European investors to underwrite and
profit from the exploration of Africa, India, Asia,
the Caribbean and North America
Usually under the patronage of one state, which
issued the company's charter.
British East India Company
• Commonly associated with
trade in basic commodities,
which included cotton, silk,
indigo dye, salt, saltpetre, tea
and opium WHY these items?
• The Company received a
Royal Charter from Queen
Elizabeth in 1600, making it
the oldest among several
similarly formed European
East India Companies- Why
were other countries
involved? How does this
differ from China’s trade?
Dutch East India Company
• It is often considered to
have been the first
multinational corporation
in the world. The first
company to issue stock.
• It was also arguably the
first megacorporation,
possessing quasigovernmental powers,
including the ability to
wage war, imprison and
execute convicts,
negotiate treaties, coin
money, and establish
colonies
• Dutch Verenigde
Oostindische Compagnie
(VOC) had military and
naval forces of their own
that dwarfed even the
average European state's
armed forces, and adequate
funds to buy the best men
and equipment, in effect
making them a state within
a state. BENEFITS?
Drawbacks?
Silver from the Americas
• European merchants’ role in Asian trade was characterized
mostly by transporting goods from one Asian country to
another market in Asia or the Indian Ocean region.
• Commercialization and the creation of a global economy
were intimately connected to new global circulation of silver
from the Americas
Spanish Galleon Trade Routes (Silver
Ships) – Effect on Spain? Global Economy?
• The new global circulation of goods was
facilitated by royal chartered European
monopoly companies
• They took silver from Spanish colonies in the
Americas to purchase Asian goods for the
Atlantic markets
• But regional markets continued to flourish in
Afro-Eurasia by using established commercial
practices and new transoceanic shipping
services developed by European merchants.