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1. Introduction The great importance of animals to humans, as food, means of transport and propulsion, and prestige objects and status symbols, was reflected in a complex animal trade in the early modern period. Distinctions can be made between the trade in animals for slaughter (Cattle, Sheep, Pig) to supply urban populations (Livestock), the trade in horses as a versatile riding, draft, and working animal (see below, 3.), and the trade in exotic animals in the context of elites’ appetite for lux…

Within a few years of the discovery of the sea route to India by Vasco da Gama in 1497/98, the Portuguese had built an extensive network of bases in the Indian Ocean stretching as far as the Strait of Malacca in the east. Although word of the wealth of China and Japan had fired the imaginations of Europeans since the reports of Marco Polo, forging commercial relations with these empires initially proved difficult.When the first Portuguese arrived in Japan in 1543, the country was riven by conflicts between regional princes ( daimyo). Some of them welcomed the Portuguese as tradin…

1. The beginnings of trade-relations between native Americans and Europeans After the Spaniards had subjugated the great indigenous empires of continental Central and SouthAmerica (Conquista), they set up a colonial government and secured for themselves the control over productive land as well as the affiliated trade monopolies (Colonial empire); the trade with the native population was more or less restricted to barter in hard-to-access frontier regions. In pre-1600North America, however,  all European a…

1. Definition In the early modern period, a great variety of commodities were traded, but only a limited range of them can be called global commodities in the sense that they played a significant role in intercontinental trade in quantity and value. There were several reasons for this. Danger of spoilage imposed limits on trade in many foodstuffs and other perishable goods (Foodstuffs, conservation of), as did transportation costs of goods whose price differential between place of origin and final destination was small.Varying consumer preferences (Consumption) and tastes a…

1. The Portuguese (16th century) The Indian subcontinent was already woven into wide-ranging commercial networks by the time the sea route from Europe to Asia was discovered. Merchants from Gujarat exported goods including rice to Malindi in East Africa and Hormuz on the Gulf of Persia. They also pursued trading relations with Sumatra and Malacca. Arabian merchants transported Indian pepper (Spices), silk, and precious stones to the ports of the Persian Gulf and Red Sea, from where the car…

1. EuropeanSee Herbals; PharmacyMark Häberlein2. Non-EuropeanAsian spices were valued in Europe since the Middle Ages not only as recreational stimulants but also for their prophylactic and therapeutic effect [4. 107–110]. With the opening of a sea route to India in the 16th century, the Portuguese gained direct access to the Asian markets for spices and medicinal plants which previously had been imported to Europe via Venice (Maritime trading routes). At the same time – like the Spanish in America – they came to know …

1. Introduction The resurgence of the European population after the plague epidemics of the 14th and 15th centuries, which also brought about a revival of long-distance trade (see Trade, long-distance), led to rising demand for copper, the softness, durability, and malleability of which made it suitable for many different applications (see below, 3.). European expansionism overseas made copper and brass goods important commodities in the Portuguese Africa and Asia trades from the 16th century (World economy) [3. 335, 337, 347 f.]. The development of new refining metho…

1. Introduction Before the innovations in navigation technology in the 14th and 15th centuries and the subsequent voyages of discovery, long-distance trade between global regions mostly took the land route. The arid regions of the Asian interior, the Orient, and the Sahara presented considerable obstacles here, and traders had to deal with extreme fluctuations of temperature, scarcity of food and water, and a terrain that generally offered few navigational landmarks. From Antiquity until the 20th…

1. Europe The term  factory was much more common in Europe in the high and late Middle Ages than in the early modern period. The Italian word  fattoria, the etymon of the loanword, first appears in connection with the great Tuscan trading companies of the high Middle Ages; it denoted a fortified outpost or “branch” of a trading company in a foreign commercial center, headed by a factor (Italian  fattore) [6]. The network of factories of the great South German companies (Fugger family; Welser) with permanent offices in the major European commercial centers (A…

Pearls (probably from Vulgar Latin  pernula; “haunch,” “sea-mussel”) - accretions of mother-of-pearl, generally around the size of a pea and spherical or pear-shaped, that form in response to irritation in freshwater and seawater bivalves, became exceedingly popular jewelry items and status symbols for the social elites of Europe and Asia in ancient times and have remained so ever since (cf. also Crown [symbol of sovereignty]). Until the early modern period, oriental pearls from the Gulf of Persia an…

1. DefinitionPlantations are large agricultural operations, found mostly in the tropics and subtropics, that produce commodities for trans-regional markets. In contrast to haciendas, which mostly produced grain and cattle for regional markets, early modern plantations concentrated on cash crops like sugar, tobacco, cotton, and coffee, whose production was usually highly labor-intensive; they also contributed little to self-sufficiency. Also in contrast to haciendas, it was unusual on plantations …

1. Africa In the late Middle Ages, the high material and symbolic value of gold in Europe, helped by a generally low price point, led to rising demand that the Central- and Eastern-European deposits could no longer supply. This shortage made the search for gold deposits outside of Europe attractive; the centuries-long phenomenon of African gold arriving in the Mediterranean from the Sahara via the caravan trade was an important motivation for the Portuguese voyages of discovery (see Expansionism) …

1. DefinitionThe term  enclosure denotes the allocation of agricultural land formerly worked in common to individual property owners and the associated transformation of the English countryside by the erection of fences, walls, and hedges, along with the layout of new roads and paths. Enclosure also superseded tithes;  the beneficiaries were compensated with land.Mark Häberlein2. HistoryIn England enclosure began in the late Midle Ages; in the southern Midlands, by the late 17th century a third of the agricultural land had already been enclosed.…

1. Counterfeiting 1.1 Criminal aspectsThe theory of criminal law and legislation of European states in the early modern era defined and sanctioned crimes of counterfeiting in very different ways. In German criminal-law theory from the 16th to the 19th century, the application of Roman law (Ius commune) was of primary importance, which recognized a series of  crimina falsi such as false witness, falsification of documents (charter), falsified boundaries, counterfeit coin, and falsification of weights and measures. The medieval Italian jurisprudence…

1. BegriffP. sind v. a. in den Tropen und Subtropen vorkommende landwirtschaftliche Großbetriebe, die Güter für überregionale Märkte produzieren. Im Unterschied zur Hacienda, die überwiegend Getreide und Vieh für regionale Märkte erzeugte, konzentrierten sich die nzl. P. auf für die Selbstversorgung unbedeutende cash crops wie Zucker, Tabak, Baumwolle und Kaffee, deren Erzeugung meist sehr arbeitsintensiv war. Anders als bei der Hacienda war die Bindung von Arbeitskräften durch Schuldknechtschaft und Pacht (sowie die damit einhergehende Verbindung v…

1. Einleitung 1.1. Europa der Frühen NeuzeitAm Beginn der Nz. stellte Europa noch keinen einheitlichen H. dar; vielmehr lassen sich mehrere Regionen kommerzieller Interaktion identifizieren, die sich hinsichtlich ihrer Bevölkerungsdichte, ihres Urbanisierungsgrades und der Intensität der wirtschaftlichen Austauschprozesse stark unterschieden. Aufgrund der technischen und politischen Probleme des Überlandhandels (Straßenverhältnisse, Zoll-Schranken) bildeten sich Räume intensiven kommerziellen Austausc…

1. AllgemeinDie große Bedeutung, die Tieren für die menschliche Ernährung, als Transport- und Fortbewegungsmitteln sowie als Prestigeobjekten und Statussymbolen zukam, fand in einem differenzierten T. der Nz. Niederschlag. Dabei kann zwischen dem Handel mit Schlachtvieh (Rindern, Schafen, Schweinen) zur Versorgung städtischer Bevölkerungen (vgl. Nutztiere), dem Handel mit Pferden als vielseitig einsetzbaren Reit-, Last- und Arbeitstieren (s. u. 3.) sowie dem Austausch exotischer Tiere im Kontext der …

1. AllgemeinVor den Innovationen der Navigations-Technik im 14. und 15. Jh. und den darauf folgenden Entdeckungsreisen erfolgte der Fernhandel zwischen Großregionen überwiegend auf dem Landweg. Die ariden Zonen im Inneren Asiens, im Orient sowie in der Sahara stellten dabei bedeutende Hindernisse dar, galt es doch, mit starken Temperaturschwankungen, mit geringen Nahrungsmittel- und Wasserressourcen sowie einem Terrain zurechtzukommen, das meist wenig Orientierungshilfen bot. Die Organisation in Karawanen war vo…

1. EuropaSch. bezeichnet den illegalen Transport von Waren über eine Grenze unter Umgehung der anfallenden Zölle, Steuern und Gebühren. Er ist in diesem Sinne eine Form des Unterschleifs, sofern man diesen als rechtswidrige Zueignung fremder beweglicher Sachen definiert. Eng verwandt mit dem Sch. ist deshalb die Unterschlagung produzierter Güter zum Zwecke der Umgehung einer Produktions- oder Verbrauchssteuer, etwa der Akzise. In Gebieten mit hoher territorialpolit. Zersplitterung wie dem Alten Reich der Frühen Nz. waren Sch.-Anreize bes. ausgeprägt. Insbes. nac…

01. Allgemein 1.1. Definition»Eine Weltwirtschaft«, so Fernand Braudel, »weist im Zentrum ihres Geschäfts- und Versorgungsnetzes stets einen städt. Pol auf, eine Stadt, in der Informationen, Waren, Kapitalien, Kredite, Menschen, Aufträge und Geschäftsbriefe zusammenströmen und von der sie wieder ausgehen; eine Stadt, in der vielfach unermeßlich reiche Großkaufleute den Ton angeben« [1. 24]. In dieser vielzitierten Definition bringt der franz. Wirtschaftshistoriker prägnant zum Ausdruck, dass Weltwirtschaften (= Ww.) durch hierarchisch strukturierte, großräumige Han…