Great voyage： the formation of the world trade system

The Outline of New World History, edited by Qian Chengdan, a professor of Peking University History Department, is the final result of a major special research project of humanities and social sciences of the Ministry of Education. This project aims to explore China’s knowledge system of world history and build a framework for writing China-style world history textbooks. "Outline" is equivalent to the curriculum standard, which provides ideas, expands the connotation on the basis of "Outline", and can form a rich and comprehensive knowledge system of world history, thus spreading the correct view of world history to Chinese people and providing complete knowledge of world history. This article is taken from the Outline of New World History and reprinted by The Paper with authorization.

With the arrival of the mercantilist period, the expansion process of the west began. Mercantilism theory holds that precious metals are the embodiment of wealth, so seeking gold and silver overseas has become the main policy goal of western European governments. They encouraged their nationals to explore the sea, to explore overseas trade and to rob colonies. Colonies are of special significance to the mercantilist policy. Colonies bring markets as well as commercial profits, gold and silver to the home country.

Portuguese navigators first entered the Atlantic Ocean, and they opened a sea passage from Europe to eastern Asia in a century. In 1415, the Portuguese captured the Arab city of Ceuta in northern Morocco, which marked the beginning of European exploration and control of overseas territories. In the 15th century, most of the gold that arrived in Europe came from West Africa and the Ashanti black community near Ghana today. Muslim merchants brought gold from Africa and then took it north across the Sahara to Mediterranean ports. Portugal intervened in this gold business by force. Under the rule of King Joao II (reigned from 1481 to 1495), the Portuguese established trading ports and border trading posts on the coast of Guinea, and entered the mainland directly to Timbuktu. Portuguese ships arrived in Lisbon loaded with gold and controlled the circulation of gold in Europe by 1500.

Portugal established more than 50 trading ports between Africa and East Asia, and established the earliest commercial port empire. In San Giorgio da Mina, they engaged in the slave trade in West Africa; In Mozambique, they tried to control the gold trade in South Africa; In the Strait of Hormuz, they controlled the entrance to the Persian Gulf; In Goa, they sell Indian pepper; In Malacca, they supervise cargo ships from the South China Sea of China to the Indian Ocean; Through Ternat Island, they also controlled the clove and nutmeg trade in Maluku spice islands. Alfonso de Abuquiki, commander of the 16th century Portuguese Indian Ocean Corps, led the fleet to capture Hormuz in 1508, Goa in 1510 and Malacca in 1511, thus controlling the trade in the Indian Ocean, forcing all merchant ships to buy safety passes before they could dock at Portuguese trading ports. Ships without passes will be confiscated together with the goods. Like Portugal, British and Dutch businessmen also set up commercial ports on the coast of Asia, seeking to establish trade routes through commercial ports, but they have not yet thought of controlling freight on the high seas. In 1565, the Spanish army came to the Philippine Islands and named it after King Philip II of Spain. During 1603-1819, Spanish colonists had six large-scale conflicts with Filipinos and China businessmen in Manila, killing thousands of China businessmen.

The original purpose of European navigation was to find a new route to the East. Columbus, an Italian navigator, loved sailing adventures since he was a child. He read The Travels of Marco Polo and longed for India and China. At that time, the theory of the earth circle was very popular, and Columbus believed it. He successively asked the kings of Portugal, Spain, England, France and other countries for funding to realize his plan of sailing westward to the eastern countries, but all of them were rejected. Finally, he persuaded the Spanish king on the grounds of oriental products such as silk, porcelain, tea and spices, and was able to make it. In 1492, under the orders of Spanish King Isabella and Ferdinand, Columbus took the credentials to Emperor China, led three ships and 87 sailors to sail from Barros Port and crossed the Atlantic Ocean, but ended up in Bahamas, Cuba and Haiti. In the next three voyages, I visited Jamaica, Puerto Rico and the coastal areas of the American continent. He crossed the Atlantic four times and "discovered" America, becoming a famous navigator in history. The Spanish immediately entered these areas for early colonization. They conquered South America, robbed local wealth, slaughtered local residents, and sent a large number of blacks from West Africa to America to engage in slave labor, thus developing America. These activities quickly wiped out the Indians in South America. When Columbus came to Hispaniola in 1493, the population there was nearly 100,000. By 1570, there were only 300 people left.

In 1519, the navigator Ferdinand Magellan (1480-1521) sailed westward, hoping to find a route to the southeast coast of Asia. Magellan traveled from San Roca to Brazil, passed through the strait between the South American continent and Tierra del Fuego, and crossed the Pacific Ocean, Guam and the Philippines in 1521. He was killed by local residents for interfering with the infighting on the island. After Magellan’s death, the voyage continued. In 1522, the Victoria returned to Spain via the Indian Ocean, the Cape of Good Hope and the Atlantic Ocean, completing the first voyage around the earth in human history. This voyage verified the theory that the earth is spherical and brought back a huge amount of information about the Pacific Ocean.

The above-mentioned exploration activities triggered the competition between Portugal and Spain for overseas colonies. In 1494, Spain and Portugal signed the Tolde-silas Agreement, which demarcated the north-south boundary 370 leagues west of Cape Verde Islands. It was stipulated that Spain’s sphere of influence was to the west and Portugal’s sphere of influence was to the east, which was the first time that western countries divided up the world.

Colonization opened the way for primitive accumulation of capital in Europe. According to statistics, from 1493 to 1600, the Portuguese plundered more than 270,000 kilograms of gold in Africa alone. From 1521 to 1600, Spain plundered more than 200,000 kilograms of gold and 18 million kilograms of silver from America. Most of the capital in western Europe comes from gold and silver in America, which is related to Spain’s overseas colonization and monopoly of trade with the East to some extent. During 1519-1521, Spain conquered Mexico and Peru, began to plunder gold and silver there in 1531, and began to organize mining in America with new technology in 1540. In the trade with the East, the king of Spain levied a 20% trade tax, so Spain gained huge wealth from overseas trade. However, Spain did not keep this wealth. On the contrary, gold and silver flowed into other European countries, which promoted the development of capitalism in other regions.

Later, British and Dutch businessmen also came to Asia to set up commercial ports on the coastline and establish maritime trade lines through these commercial ports. The activities of the colonists promoted commercial development and established a global trading system in a real sense. Before that, the world’s commercial trade was regional, but the expansion of European countries at sea connected the world in the same trading system. The products made in Europe crossed the Atlantic Ocean westward in exchange for silver from Mexico, minerals from Peru and agricultural products such as sucrose and tobacco in the Caribbean. European textiles, guns and other manufactured goods went south to West Africa in exchange for African slaves and then transported them to work in tropical and subtropical plantations in the Western Hemisphere. China’s silk and porcelain are directly transported to Europe, and are warmly welcomed by the courts and upper classes of various countries; Tea and spices were shipped to Europe and America and eventually became mass consumer goods. Through the establishment of the global trading system, "the transformation from history to world history" has begun.

In early modern times, the trade routes in Europe were basically the same as those in the previous two centuries. Northern Italy and Flanders are the most developed cities and industrial centers in Europe, and they are both suppliers of woolen clothes in the European market. Northern Italy is also a producer of silk and other valuable clothing materials, while Flanders produces linen, ribbons and carpets. These two regions also have advanced shipbuilding and metal processing industries. Venice monopolizes the eastern trade through the eastern Mediterranean countries and islands. The goods from the east are mainly spices and other luxury goods, which are sold in Europe by Italian and German businessmen. They can go southwest to France and Spain and northeast to Germany and Baltic countries via the Italy-Flanders axis. The British route on the Italian-Flemish axis is mainly responsible for transporting the semi-finished clothes from Britain to Flanders and brabant for processing.

Gold and silver from America entered the northwest of Europe through Spain, making these places eventually become the most developed economic centers in Europe, including low-lying countries, northwest France and southeast Britain. The "lowlands" used to be the commercial meeting place between Italy and the Hanseatic League, but Spain’s tight financial situation and huge trade deficit made businessmen and bankers in the lowland countries, Italy and Germany become the actual leaders of international trade. The low-lying countries were the bridge between the North and the South in the Middle Ages, so Antwerp became the trade center of Spain, Portugal and Germany. In the 16th century, Antwerp was the largest international financial market in Europe, and every move here affected the whole European economy. The delay of Spanish and Portuguese cargo ships can cause commercial chaos in Antwerp, and even lead to bank failures in augsburg and Ulm. After gaining independence, the Netherlands followed Portugal and Spain and rapidly expanded its overseas trade. It monopolized the spice trade and controlled the eastern routes by crowding out Portugal’s forces in the East through war. In the Atlantic, it can also squeeze into Spain’s sphere of influence and insert a foot in trade. The 17th century became the "century of Holland", and Holland was the "sea coachman" at that time. Britain and France also rapidly expanded overseas after the reunification of the country. They successively established colonies in America, Asia and Africa, and replaced the Netherlands in the second half of the 17th century, becoming the protagonists in the struggle for world commercial hegemony in the next century.