Category China’s Silver Century: A Global Catalyst

In the late 1500s and early 1600s, Chinese demand for silver catalyzed the creation of the first truly global trade network. The Ming Dynasty’s reliance on silver as the backbone of its economy integrated economies across the Americas, Europe, and…

By the late 1500s, the Ming Dynasty transformed global trade by adopting silver as its primary currency. This monumental shift, spurred by tax reforms that required payments in silver, created an insatiable demand for the precious metal. Silver became the…