Chapter 14 - Blog #3

After reading about the Sweet Nexus and the process of sugar being exported, in Chapter 14 second paragraph, it briefly discusses silver and it’s process as well, which completely approbates the idea of commodities back in the day underwent long processes to be profitable. Reading more about the Portuguese, it is evident that their main goal was to control the commerce within the Indian Ocean. By doing so, they had different bases set up around the Indian Ocean from Mombasa, to Hormuz, to even Macao on the south east coast of Asia. The result of their failure is pretty funny; hundreds of the Portuguese escaped their government and settled in Asian or African ports considering that Asian Traders outnumbered them. Their failure also resulted in exposure to local languages and converted to Islam. Now it seems like Portugal lost direction and not only do the Asian, but also other European countries, are against Portugal’s decision to monopolize the spice trade to Europe. Eventually other commodities such as silver and fur became popular in the markets but with high demand from other countries resulted in the decreased value of silver and depletion of animals such as beavers. One last thing that was interesting about the reading was the significance that women obtained by marrying European traders. They were able to gain economic power by serving as guides, translators and negotiators when it came to travelling. Soon they controlled the trade in wild rice and maple syrup.