Bullion For Goods

The spectacular rise in world trade following the great discoveries of the closing years of the fifteenth century had important implications for each of the major segments of the newly emerging early modern international economy. As far as Asia was concerned, the commercial operations of the European corporate enterprises as well as private traders in the Indian Ocean region between the sixteenth and the eighteenth centuries had far-reaching consequences for the economies and the polities of the countries of the region. Asian merchants engaged in the Indian Ocean trade interacted with the European intruders into the Ocean in a variety of ways. The twenty-one essays included in this volume are firmly embedded in original archival sources. They deal mainly with issues arising out of the Europeans' commercial presence in the Indian Ocean region and the interaction they had with their Asian counterparts. The volume discusses how over a span of three centuries, the Indian economy was integrated into the world economy as a result of these interactions. The macroeconomic implications of the European encounter for the Indian economy are analysed in detail. Another important area explored at some length is the monetary history of the subcontinent in the early modern period. This collection of essays will be of interest of the historians of India and of the Indian Ocean. It will also have a great deal of appeal for the historians of early modern Asia as well as Europe. Those interested in what is being increasingly described as world history will also find the volume useful.

Precious metals played a key role in inter-continental trade between Europe and Asia in the early modern period. An assured supply of these metal was indeed a pre-requisite to the procurement of Asian goods such as spices, textiles and raw silk. Once these metals had been imported into Asia, they were converted into the coinage of the country concerned. The 'bullion for goods' pattern of trade had important implications for the level of output, income, employment and prices in the Asian societies. This collection of essays by Professor Om Prakash explores these issues in relation mainly to the Dutch East India Company. Given the scale of its operations, as well as its unique character as the only European corporate group to engage in large scale intra-Asian trade as an integral part of its overall trading strategy, the VOC is a particularly appropriate medium through which to analyse these issues. Les métaux précieux jouèrent in rôle clef dans le commerce international entre l’Europe et l’Asie au début de la période moderne. La présence d’un stock assuré de ces métaux était, en effet, un facteur nécessaire afin de se procurer des produits asiatiques tels les épices, les textiles et la soie grège. Une fois importés en Asie, ces métaux étaient convertis dans le monnaie du pays concerné. La structure commerciale du bullion for goods avait des implications importantes en ce qui concernait le niveau de production, l’emploi et les prix au sein des sociétés asiatiques. Cette collestion d’essais du professeur Om Prakash explore ces questions en relation plus particulièrement avec la conpagnie hollandaise d’Inde Orientale. Etant donnée l’envergure de ses opérations, ainsi que son caractère unique en tant que seule corporation européenne engagée dans un commerciale, le VOC est un particulièrement bon exemple à travers lequel analyser ces questions.

This dissertation studies trade connections in the Viceroyalty of the New Kingdom of Granada (present-day Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, and Western Venezuela), one of the largest global gold producers, during the Age of Revolutions (1780-1840). It interweaves a unique, broad set of quantitative sources to analyze the direction, magnitude, and dynamics of interregional flows of three sets of goods: precious metals (silver and gold in both bullion and coins), domestic staples (textiles, manufactures, and cash crops), and global goods (textiles, foodstuffs, and manufactures of Asian and European provenance). The dissertation examines how the urban triad conformed by Bogotá, Popayán, and Quito intertwined a thick set of interregional trade ties that encompassed mining belts, highland producers, and entrepôts in the Caribbean and Pacific lowlands.The dissertation explores the mechanisms through which increased/decreased export income was transmitted to other sectors of the North Andean economy. It states that during the second half of the eighteenth century the region experienced a process of market deepening and widening, with the flows of gold and commodities promoting Smithian growth through specialization, polycentric connections, and the expansion of the market and monetary economy. By integrating gold flows into the analysis of trade patterns in the Americas, the dissertation challenges the silver-centered nature of the literature and provides insights into the way in which bimetallic exchanges oiled the wheels of continental-wide supply chains.The research also demonstrates that the military conflicts that plagued the Age of Revolutions transformed the late colonial market expansion, with the region experiencing an important process of trade disruption and deviation. Conflicts led to economic contraction, but the dissertation argues that the post-independence crisis has been overestimated by scholars. Instead, it offers an image of an economy reorganizing itself, readjusting old ways to interact with the world economy, and deploying key institutional reforms throughout the 1820s and the 1830s. I argue that warfare constituted not only a conduit of political and social change but also a huge mobilization of manpower, coins, and resources that spurred sectoral transformations. The dissertation, then, analyzes a region pivotal to global bullion markets within a context of political change.

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1888 edition. Excerpt: ... 2. In the sense of cost of production. The country gets the same quantity of the imported article with a less expenditure of labor and capital. This dependson 2 above. In case3, p. 56, England gets her corn cheaper by 74 days' labor through trade. CHAPTER XV. OF MONEY, CONSIDERED AS AN IMPORTED COMMODITY. Money is usually an imported article, and is consequently governed by the law of international values. p. 404. Money enters a country in two ways. 1. It is imported as bullion like other merchandise. 2. It is imported as a medium of exchange to pay debts due the country. This last is peculiar to money and renders special exposition necessary. When the precious metals are imported as articles of commerce, they conform to the same laws as other foreign products, and are usually a regular article of export from the mining countries. The quantity of produce which a country, as England, will give for a certain quantity of bullion depends on the intensity of her demand for bullion compared with the strength of the demand of the mining country for England's products. The total of England's imports, including bullion, must just balance her exports. The demand for money increases with the cheapness in a regular way. p. 406. The cost of bullion depends, -- 1. On the quantity of goods given in exchange. 2. The expense of transporting the goods over and the bullion back. Both these depend on the distance from the mines, and the former is much influenced by the bulkiness of the goods. Both countries bear a part of the cost of carriage, the exact amount being determined by the adjustment of international values. Prices are highest, i. e. bullion is cheapest, in countries whose exportable products are: (1) Most in demand abroad. (2) Which contain the..

Dated September 1993