How Did The Europeans Change The Patterns Of Commerce

While the Europeans did not head out in search of the unknown Americas, the continent emerged in front of them offering a multitude of new things which the peoples of the Eastern continent had never seen previously. Thus, the Europeans were able to transform earlier patterns of commerce by doing what no other country had done: traveling across the Atlantic Ocean and moving completely new product back and forth across the continents. They were also able to change patterns of commerce by creating an explosion of global commodity trade, particularly in stimulants, such as sugar and coffee, and in African slaves. In these ways did the Europeans change connections of commerce, however since the Europeans had nothing of value to trade in China, they had to assimilate into their trading network through tribute, by giving …show more content…
However, when silver was found in the “enormously rich silver deposits in Bolivia, and simultaneously in Japan,” (611), it created the first legitimate global network of commerce. Thus, the silver trade was the first way the Europeans were able to change, and advance earlier patterns of trade.

Though slavery and human trafficking was not a new invention to the peoples of the Eastern hemisphere, since most societies practiced some form of slavery, the African slave trade to the Americas was unlike anything previously witnessed. Generally in the past, slaves were prisoners of war from neighboring city-states. The African slave trade was substantially different since African slaves were seen as a human commodity for plantation owners in the Americas; approximately 20 million people were bought and transported across the Americas, with only 12 million surviving the