Chapter Summary Of The Seventeenth Century

1. Europeans were supplied their coffee through the Arabs. This is evidenced in the text, “After permeating the Arab world, it had been embraced throughout Europe…” (page 150). Although there are many different stories surrounding the origin of coffee, all agree that it was found in the Arab world and then spread to the Europeans. The way it spread to Europe was through travelers. The book sates, “By the early seventeenth century, visiting Europeans were commenting on the widespread popularity of coffeehouses in the Arab world, and their roles as meeting places and sources of news” (page 140). Through visitation with the Arabs, Europeans may have grown fascinated by the coffeehouses and their ideas. This may have spurred the Europeans …show more content…
Coffee had an effect n the global balance of power by helping to create new commercial powers. As is evidenced in the book, “Arabia was unchallenged as supplier of coffee to the world” (page 146). Increased wealth was brought to the Arabian world. The quality of life probably also increased, as well. The spread of commercial power is shown in, “First to break the Arab monopoly were the Dutch, who displaces the Portuguese as the dominant European nation in the East Indies during the seventeenth century, gaining control of the spice trade in the process and briefly becoming the world’s leading commercial power” (pages 146-147). A large amount of the world’s wealth and power had shifted to the Dutch at this time, removing the Arab monopoly. This caused the power to disperse. Furthermore, the book states, “…and production exceeded so domestic demand that the French began shipping excess coffee from Marseilles to the Levant” (page 149). Once France joined in on the production of coffee, power spread even more throughout Eurasia. Commercial power was distributed amongst a much larger area than it had been initially. A final spread of power can be found in the text, “Ultimately, Brazil became the world’s dominant coffee supplier, leaving Arabia far behind” (page 150). Once again, power was scattering across the globe. Commercial power was spreading all around the world and many areas had their own suppliers. Power, at this point, was sufficiently balanced amongst …show more content…
In much the same way as it did with the scientific revolution, coffee advanced the development of the financial revolution. According to the text, “The coffeehouse spirit of innovation and experiment extended into the financial sphere too, giving rise to new business models in the form of innumerable novel variations on insurance, lottery, or joint-stock schemes” (page 163). Like with the scientific coffeehouses, financial ones allowed people to exchange thoughts and ideas and to build upon each other. With a large gathering of people, they were able to improve existing ideas and better suit them to their needs. An example of a successful financial idea in a coffeehouse is, “Lloyd began to collect and summarize this information, supplemented with reports from a network of foreign correspondents, in the form of a regular newsletter…established the Society of Lloyds, which survives today as Lloyd’s of London, the world’s leading insurance market” (page 163). This was a small business idea which eventually blossomed into a large venture, all within a coffeehouse. Further evidence to support coffee’s role in the financial revolution can be found in the text, “Coffeehouses also functioned as stockmarkets…In protest, the stockbrokers abandoned the exchanged and moved into the coffeehosues in the surrounding streets” (page 164). Due to the convenience of coffeehouses, they quickly became the new meeting places of stockbrokers. Because of this, coffeehouses had a leading