Port Cities In The 17th Century Essay

The late 16th and 17th century experienced one of the most rapid spikes in not only population, but economic growth. In Economics, trade is king and global trade became a major aspect in the 17th century. There is little micro history on trade in terms of port cities. As a collective group we view port cities in terms of a trading epicenter, yet socially why did some port cities hinder at acquiring certain items more than others. These port cities formed one of the biggest foundations for major empires to barter and create global relationships. Merchants, retailers, wholesalers, agents, shopkeepers, manual laborers, and seamen all formed part of the population of these port cities . These port cities differed in their ethnic and racial composition, …show more content…
As history would prove the decline in Seville, Spain was due to another port of Cadiz in lower Spain to be granted the same rights of trade. The “monetary” view of the price revolution is questioned by historians who attribute the secular increase of commodity prices to population and income growth as well as urbanization and wars.9 The misrepresentation of that information is that it fails to explain the economic structure of value. If population increases in a city and the capital income of the city is stable more people will find value in money because there is a need for money to buy any commodity. If there is an increase in population and an increase in money (silver) being flooded into the market then items in essence lose value because of abundance. Price Revolution does not just affect cities, but whole countries all the way down to landowners. With a constant rising price and fixed rents many landowners found it difficult to make payments. The construction of the House of Trade and Consuldo did in fact bring wealth to Spain, yet the overproduction could be a hypothesis to say that the economic and accounting was under a higher rule that affected the whole well-being of the