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9 - Silver in a global context, 1400–1800

from Part Two - Trade, Exchange, and Production

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 May 2015

By
Dennis O. Flynn
Edited by
Jerry H. Bentley ,
Sanjay Subrahmanyam  and
Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks
Jerry H. Bentley
Affiliation:
University of Hawaii, Manoa
Sanjay Subrahmanyam
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Angeles
Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
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Summary

World silver production flowed relentlessly into China because tremendous profits accrued to those who transferred silver toward/to end markets within China. This chapter portrays silver's progression through space and time via application of supply and demand mechanisms that elucidate market forces that drove and continue to drive production and relocation of monetary and non-monetary items alike. The supply-demand approach contrasts sharply with the traditional historical depictions that portray region-to-region physical transfers of silver coins as responses to alleged trade imbalances. Supply and demand mechanisms were constructed in order to analyze monetary and non-monetary products within a single theory that can be described as a Unified Theory of Prices (UTP). Three versions of the UTP exists namely a mathematical version, a graphical version and an intuitive, visual Hydraulic Metaphor version. The chapter explores visualization of global silver markets via Hydraulic Metaphor mechanisms.
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge World History , pp. 213 - 239
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2015

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References

Further Reading

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