Xu Xiaodong x surging asked
The great geographical discoveries around 1500 are regarded as the beginning of the modern era in the West. European adventurers used ship models, charts, and instruments to travel across the sea, bypass Africa, discover the Americas, bring the "New World" to Europeans, and bring the Golden Age to the Netherlands in the 17th century. Tulips, spices, herbs, acupuncture... Trade exchange not only allows the circulation of goods around the world, but also drives the dissemination of knowledge and culture and the rise of the information economy, and ultimately promotes the formation of the modern world.
In the age of great navigation, how can countries communicate with each other? How did the Dutch Golden Age drive the rise of modern medicine and science? Why is the history of the scientific revolution a history of exchange? The surging question invited Xu Xiaodong, a doctor of history at leiden University in the Netherlands, to "review" the era of great navigation together.
"Revisit" the great voyage
@Dancing Van Gogh: Wasn't it the Spanish-Portuguese explorers who first discovered the new route? Why did other European countries develop more than them later?
Xu Xiaodong: Spain and Portugal were pioneers of exploration in the Age of Discovery, and were the first countries to establish colonial strongholds in the New World, Africa, Asia and other places. The two countries had a "first-mover advantage" over the Netherlands and Britain, but began to be surpassed by the latter after entering the 17th century. The analysis of the reasons for its decline from all walks of life at home and abroad is also relatively in place, summarizing: For Portugal, its shortcomings are that the domestic market is small and lacks a strong industrial base; There is not enough maritime military power to defend its loose overseas colonial strongholds; The eastern business empire that had been formed was too fragmented to be substantially controlled. For Spain, the problem was that it was often involved in continental Europe and maritime wars, and its wealth and national strength were extremely expensive; Severe restrictions and control over the colonies, which hindered the development of colonial industry and agriculture and population growth, resulting in Spain's lack of colonial assistance in the war for hegemony in Europe; Domestic industry is backward, national strength is sluggish, and there is a lack of economic support.
In addition, David Landers has some interesting views on this issue in Rich countries and poor countries, sharing the following: Before agriculture and manufacturing were robberies and plunder. Columbrian exchange redistributed wealth as well as fauna and flora—from old rich to new rich in one step. However, the infusion of wealth from overseas contributed to the initial economic boom, but its impact was uneven. Some people only know how to consume when they get rich, while others save and invest. The same is true of countries: some countries end up only a little richer than they were at the beginning; Some countries, on the other hand, use their new wealth to make more profits (Rich in The Poor, Xinhua Publishing House, p. 180).
The Dutch painted the New Netherlands in the 1650s at its height to claim territory
@Surging netizen UvYbqu: If China invented navigation technology earlier, would it be China that opened the era of great navigation?
Xu Xiaodong: It is no accident that the age of great navigation began in Europe, nor is it the active attempt of Europeans. To some extent, Europeans may have ushered in the age of great navigation while being forced to go overseas. On the one hand, gold and missionary work were important motivators to attract Europeans to try to travel to the East, and the accumulation of knowledge of the sea and navigation by Western Europeans over a long period of time made it technically possible; But on the other hand, in the 15th century, Europe gradually recovered from the "great plague", the population began to increase, the pressure to survive began to increase, and Western Europeans needed to go overseas to gain new space for development.
Back in China, in fact, there is no question of "China inventing navigation technology earlier." After all, in the 14th century, the Ming Dynasty had Zheng He's feat of seven voyages to the West, reaching as far as the east coast of today's Africa. Whether it was shipbuilding technology or navigation technology, the Chinese people at that time were obviously ahead of the world. The reason why the Age of Discovery did not begin with Chinese may be because China did not need to make such a difficult and dangerous sea journey for gold, spices and development space. The opening of the sea route from Europe to the East in the Age of Discovery cost the lives of a large number of Europeans.
Global trade and great exchange
@Lost Train: What were the things traded on the Big Sailing Route at that time? After Europe opens up a route to the Americas, will the Americas use the route to travel in reverse to Europe, or will the initiative only be in the hands of Europe?
Xu Xiaodong: In fact, after entering the era of great navigation, the world gradually formed a unified whole, and a global trade network began to appear, and this global network was composed of a number of different levels of trade networks: there was a global trade network between the East and the West, there were regions, and this regional trade network, which were all part of the big network.
The commodities that flow through these trade networks are basically products with comparative advantages produced in different countries and regions, such as Silk, Porcelain and Tea in China, Pepper and Spices in Southeast Asia, Cloth in India, Gemstones in the Middle East, Industrial Products in Western Europe, Grain in Eastern Europe, Rum in North America, Precious Metals, Coffee, Sugar, etc. in the New World, slaves in Africa. The regional and global movement of goods and populations led to the modern Grand Exchange, the sudden exchange of organisms, crops, races (including Europeans and black Africans), cultures, infectious diseases, and even ideas between the Eastern and Western Hemispheres. It has become an important event in the history of human development.
As for the routes between Europe and the Americas, they were basically dominated and monopolized by Western European commercial companies. In fact, not only between Europe and the Americas, but also the ships that sailed the global seas in the Age of Discovery were basically the ships of Western European countries. Of course, there is one place where Chinese ships still cross the sea, that is, the South China Sea.
Triangular trade between Europe, Africa and the Americas
@ Little Bunny Rabbit: Where did the shipping profits of the Great Navigation Era come from?
Xu Xiaodong: The so-called "shipping profiteering in the age of great navigation" should actually be the windfall profit of "commodity trade". Take the Dutch East India Company as an example, especially in the early days of the company, pepper, spices, porcelain, tea, etc. were extremely popular in the European market, and the profit margins were extremely high. Some ships have a profit return of up to 400% after completing a single voyage. Of course, due to the subsequent decline in the price of spices (its price was inelastic in the European market) and the company's own problems, after entering the mid-to-late 17th century, the Dutch East India Company also fell into a state of loss.
Spices in particular were more expensive in Europe before they failed to supply on a large scale. Not only in Europe, but also in China. Studies have shown that spices were also used as salaries to pay officials in the early Ming Dynasty.
@agrande: What crops were introduced in China during the Age of Discovery? What is the situation of growing in China?
Xu Xiaodong: This is a very interesting topic. Throughout China's history, there has always been crop exchange between China and other regions. In the modern era of the world (compared to China's Ming and Qing dynasties), there are also many crops imported into China from abroad, which has an important impact on China's social and economic development. Representative ones include sweet potatoes, corn, potatoes, peanuts, tomatoes, peppers, sunflowers and so on. Later in the late Qing Dynasty, onions, ginger, etc. were introduced. Many times we can also intuitively know from the names of these crops that they come from abroad, so these foreign crops mostly have the word "fan" or "foreign". For example, sweet potatoes are called sweet potatoes, tomatoes are called tomatoes, and so on. Among them, sweet potatoes, corn, etc. have the advantages of easy planting and high yield, and have been promoted and planted on a large scale in China, which has played a certain role in enriching China's food sources and supporting population growth.
Dutch with tulips
@ Sleepy Grape Eye: I remember that some time ago the Netherlands seemed to officially announce the official name of the Netherlands, what is the difference between the two words? After changing, the corresponding translation name does not seem to be changed?
Xu Xiaodong: This is an old news story. Two years ago, the Dutch government decided to use the official name "Netherlands" (Netherlands) to the outside world, no longer use "Holland" (Netherlands), and replaced the old logo containing "Holland" with a new national logo containing "Netherlands". This move seems to be the Netherlands to change the name of the country from "Holland" to "Netherlands", but it should be pointed out that the official name of the Netherlands is Koninkrijk der Nederlanden (The Kingdom of the Netherlands), and "Netherlands" as the name of the country has not changed.
When the Netherlands first became independent, "Holland" was one of the seven provinces, and due to its strong economic strength, its position within the Netherlands was very important, and people often referred to Holland as holland. To this day, there are still north Holland and South Holland in the Netherlands. Therefore, the so-called "name change" is actually just the Dutch government to promote and strengthen the "Netherlands" to the outside world, not to really change the name of the country. As for the Chinese translation name naturally does not need to be modified. In fact, the translated name of "Holland" was introduced from Japan.
@Gun girl: Aren't tulips from the Netherlands? Why the high price?
Xu Xiaodong: Wild tulips are distributed from the Pamir Plateau to the foot of the Tianshan Mountains, that is, in the border areas of Tibet, Russia and Afghanistan in China. In the 10th and 11th centuries AD, the Turks began to cultivate tulips artificially for ornamental purposes. The first to discover and promote its appreciation value were the monarchs of the Ottoman Empire. Around the mid-16th century, tulips entered Europe and spread westward from Austria.
In 1562, tulip bulbs were accidentally brought from Istanbul to Antwerp, then part of the Low Countries, and thereafter with Crusius to Leiden, tulips began to gain great admiration in the Netherlands. The Dutch at that time had a fanatical love for tulips mainly because of the scarcity of tulips: the first was the scarcity of quantities, especially in the early days, the supply of tulip bulbs was extremely limited; The second is the scarcity of excellent varieties, especially tulips, which are considered to have better ornamental value. For this reason, the Dutch at that time also named these precious varieties of tulips as The Eternal Augustus, the Governor, the Red and Yellow of Leyton, and so on. There is also another important reason, during the Dutch Revolution, immigrants from the south of the Low Countries poured in and brought enough wealth, and with the development of Dutch overseas trade, Dutch folk wealth accumulated sharply, and tulips became a symbol of wealth and taste of the Dutch elite. For tulip fever in the Netherlands, you can read and refer to Mike Dash's Tulip Fever.
@ Zi Non Fish: Tulip fever is purely because of the economic bubble caused by the rarity of things? Which countries had the greatest impact at the time?
Xu Xiaodong: I have not studied tulip fever in particular, and I can only subjectively talk about the understanding of this phenomenon, which is not necessarily correct.
First of all, the emergence of tulip fever reflected the Dutch people's understanding and development of appreciation value at that time, and contributed to the emergence of new groups such as florists, florists, and connoisseurs;
Secondly, the development of trade and the accumulation of wealth in the Dutch Golden Age were an important material basis for the rise of the tulip fever, and tulips became the favorite flower varieties of the Dutch elite, and even the handicraft practitioners at the bottom of the city had spare money that could be used for investment;
Third, as more and more people and money are invested in tulip trading and gradually lose their minds, the sharply increasing demand pushes prices to new highs, leading to bubbles;
Fourth, the emergence of new financial instruments in the Netherlands during this period, such as stocks, futures, high leverage, etc., not only supported tulip trading, but also boosted the emergence of tulip bubbles.
Things in Exchange: The Revolution of Commerce and Science in the Age of Great Navigation, by Ke Haode and translated by Xu Xiaodong, CITIC Publishing Group, March 2022.
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Editor-in-Charge: Huang Yazhu
Proofreader: Yijia Xu