Silver, Trade, and War

Silver, Trade, and War PDF Author: Stanley J. Stein
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press+ORM
ISBN: 0801876958
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 600

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Book Description
A look at the interaction of America, Spain, and Europe between 1500 and 1750, focusing on Spain’s role in Europe’s expansion across the Atlantic. The 250 years covered by this book marked the era of commercial capitalism, bridging late medieval and modern times. In 1500, Spain brought American silver back home across the Atlantic in exchange for European goods. Spanish colonialism, the authors suggest, was the cutting edge of the early global economy. America’s silver enabled Spain to bring elements of capitalism into its late medieval society. However, the authors argue, silver gave Spain illusions of wealth, security, and dominance, while its system of “managed” transatlantic trade failed to monitor silver flows that were beyond government control. While Spain’s intervention reinforced Hapsburg efforts at hegemony in Europe, it also led to proto-nationalist state formations, notably in England and France. 1714’s Treaty of Utrecht emphasized the lag between developing England and France, and stagnating Spain, and the persistence of Spain’s late medieval structures. These were basic elements of what the authors term Spain’s Hapsburg “legacy.” Over the first half of the eighteenth century, Spain under the Bourbons tried to contain expansionist France and England in the Caribbean and to create policies competitors seemed to apply successfully to their overseas possessions, namely, a colonial compact. Spain’s policy planners (proyectistas) scanned abroad for models of modernization adaptable to Spain and its American colonies without risking institutional change. The second part of the book analyzes the projectors’ works and their minimal impact on the changing Atlantic scene until 1759. By then, despite its efforts, Spain could no longer compete with England and France in the international economy. Silver, Trade, and War is about markets, national rivalries, diplomacy, conflict, and the advancement or stagnation of states.

Silver, Trade, and War

Silver, Trade, and War PDF Author: Stanley J. Stein
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press+ORM
ISBN: 0801876958
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 600

Get Book

Book Description
A look at the interaction of America, Spain, and Europe between 1500 and 1750, focusing on Spain’s role in Europe’s expansion across the Atlantic. The 250 years covered by this book marked the era of commercial capitalism, bridging late medieval and modern times. In 1500, Spain brought American silver back home across the Atlantic in exchange for European goods. Spanish colonialism, the authors suggest, was the cutting edge of the early global economy. America’s silver enabled Spain to bring elements of capitalism into its late medieval society. However, the authors argue, silver gave Spain illusions of wealth, security, and dominance, while its system of “managed” transatlantic trade failed to monitor silver flows that were beyond government control. While Spain’s intervention reinforced Hapsburg efforts at hegemony in Europe, it also led to proto-nationalist state formations, notably in England and France. 1714’s Treaty of Utrecht emphasized the lag between developing England and France, and stagnating Spain, and the persistence of Spain’s late medieval structures. These were basic elements of what the authors term Spain’s Hapsburg “legacy.” Over the first half of the eighteenth century, Spain under the Bourbons tried to contain expansionist France and England in the Caribbean and to create policies competitors seemed to apply successfully to their overseas possessions, namely, a colonial compact. Spain’s policy planners (proyectistas) scanned abroad for models of modernization adaptable to Spain and its American colonies without risking institutional change. The second part of the book analyzes the projectors’ works and their minimal impact on the changing Atlantic scene until 1759. By then, despite its efforts, Spain could no longer compete with England and France in the international economy. Silver, Trade, and War is about markets, national rivalries, diplomacy, conflict, and the advancement or stagnation of states.

The Story of Silver

The Story of Silver PDF Author: William L. Silber
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691208697
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 360

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Book Description
"This is the story of silver's transformation from soft money during the nineteenth century to hard asset today, and how manipulations of the white metal by American president Franklin D. Roosevelt during the 1930s and by the richest man in the world, Texas oil baron Nelson Bunker Hunt, during the 1970s altered the course of American and world history. FDR pumped up the price of silver to help jump start the U.S. economy during the Great Depression, but this move weakened China, which was then on the silver standard, and facilitated Japan's rise to power before World War II. Bunker Hunt went on a silver-buying spree during the 1970s to protect himself against inflation and triggered a financial crisis that left him bankrupt. Silver has been the preferred shelter against government defaults, political instability, and inflation for most people in the world because it is cheaper than gold. The white metal has been the place to hide when conventional investments sour, but it has also seduced sophisticated investors throughout the ages like a siren. This book explains how powerful figures, up to and including Warren Buffett, have come under silver's thrall, and how its history guides economic and political decisions in the twenty-first century"--Publisher's description

Tea, Silver, Opium and War

Tea, Silver, Opium and War PDF Author: Guotu Zhuang
Publisher:
ISBN: 9787561508626
Category : China
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description


Silver

Silver PDF Author: Mihir Bose
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781781553718
Category : Espionage
Languages : en
Pages : 350

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Book Description
Silver was the codename for the only quintuple spy of the Second World War, spying for the Italians, Germans, Japanese, Soviets and the British. The Germans awarded him the Iron Cross, Germany's highest military decoration, and paid him �2.5 million in today's money. In reality Silver deceived the Nazis on behalf of the Soviets and the British. In 1942 the Russians decided to share Silver with the British, the only time during the war that the Soviets agreed to such an arrangement. This brought him under the control of Peter Fleming who acted as his spy master. Germans also gave Silver a transmitter which broadcast misleading military information directly to Abwehr headquarters in Berlin. Silver was one of many codenames for a man whose real name was Bhagat Ram Talwar, a Hindu Pathan from the North West Frontier province of then British India. Between 1941 and 1945 Silver made twelve trips from Peshawar to Kabul to supply false information to the Germans, always making the near-200-mile journey on foot over mountain passes and hostile tribal territory. Once when an Afghan nearly rumbled him, he invited him to a curry meal in which he had mixed deadly tiger's whiskers killing the Afghan.

Bonds of War

Bonds of War PDF Author: David K. Thomson
Publisher: UNC Press Books
ISBN: 1469666626
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
How does one package and sell confidence in the stability of a nation riven by civil strife? This was the question that loomed before the Philadelphia financial house of Jay Cooke & Company,&8239;entrusted&8239;by the US government with an unprecedented sale of bonds to finance the Union war effort in the early days of the American Civil War.&8239;How the government and its agents marketed these bonds revealed a version of the war the public was willing to buy and buy into, based not just in the full faith and credit of the United States but also in the success of its armies and its long-term vision for open markets. From Maine to California, and in foreign halls of power and economic influence,&8239;thousands of agents were deployed to&8239;sell&8239;a clear message: Union victory was unleashing the American economy itself. This fascinating work of&8239;financial and political history&8239;during&8239;the Civil War&8239;era&8239;shows&8239;how the marketing and sale of bonds crossed the Atlantic to Europe and beyond, helping ensure foreign countries' vested interest in the Union's success. Indeed, David K. Thomson demonstrates how Europe, and ultimately all corners of the globe, grew deeply interdependent on American finance during, and in the immediate aftermath of, the American Civil War.&8239;

Edge of Crisis

Edge of Crisis PDF Author: Barbara H. Stein
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 0801890462
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 637

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Book Description
This authoritative study of colonialism in the Spanish empire at the end of the eighteenth century examines how the Spanish metropole attempted to preserve the links to its richest colony in the western Atlantic, New Spain (Mexico), in the face of international developments. Continuing the approach in Silver, Trade, and War and Apogee of Empire, Barbara and Stanley Stein detail Spain’s ad hoc efforts to adjust metropolitan and colonial institutions, structures, and ideology to the pressures of increased competition in the Old and New worlds. In reviewing the attempts at reform, the authors explore networks of individuals and groups, some accepting and others rejecting the Spanish transatlantic trade system. They provide accounts from both sides of the Atlantic to show how economic policy, imperial goals, and consequent social divisions and factionalism in New Spain and Spain undermined the government’s efforts at economic and political adjustments. The Steins draw on a wide range of archival material in Mexico, Spain, and France to place the waning of the Spanish empire in an Atlantic perspective. They also show how Spain came to the verge of collapse in a time of revolution and at the beginning of the transition from commercial to industrial capitalism. Comprehensive and carefully researched, Edge of Crisis explains the broad array of factors that led up to the French invasion of Spain in early 1808.

Power and Plenty

Power and Plenty PDF Author: Ronald Findlay
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400831881
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 648

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Book Description
International trade has shaped the modern world, yet until now no single book has been available for both economists and general readers that traces the history of the international economy from its earliest beginnings to the present day. Power and Plenty fills this gap, providing the first full account of world trade and development over the course of the last millennium. Ronald Findlay and Kevin O'Rourke examine the successive waves of globalization and "deglobalization" that have occurred during the past thousand years, looking closely at the technological and political causes behind these long-term trends. They show how the expansion and contraction of the world economy has been directly tied to the two-way interplay of trade and geopolitics, and how war and peace have been critical determinants of international trade over the very long run. The story they tell is sweeping in scope, one that links the emergence of the Western economies with economic and political developments throughout Eurasia centuries ago. Drawing extensively upon empirical evidence and informing their systematic analysis with insights from contemporary economic theory, Findlay and O'Rourke demonstrate the close interrelationships of trade and warfare, the mutual interdependence of the world's different regions, and the crucial role these factors have played in explaining modern economic growth. Power and Plenty is a must-read for anyone seeking to understand the origins of today's international economy, the forces that continue to shape it, and the economic and political challenges confronting policymakers in the twenty-first century.

Making Patton

Making Patton PDF Author: Nicholas Evan Sarantakes
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
ISBN: 0700618627
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
Forever known for its blazing cinematic image of General George S. Patton (portrayed by George C. Scott) addressing his troops in front of a mammoth American flag, Patton won seven Oscars in 1971, including those for Best Picture and Best Actor. In doing so, it beat out a much-ballyhooed M*A*S*H, irreverent darling of the critics, and grossed $60 million despite an intense anti-war climate. But, as Nicholas Evan Sarantakes reveals, it was a film that almost didn't get made. Sarantakes offers an engaging and richly detailed production history of what became a critically acclaimed box office hit. He takes readers behind the scenes, even long before any scenes were ever conceived, to recount the trials and tribulations that attended the epic efforts of producer Frank McCarthy—like Patton a U.S. Army general—and Twentieth Century Fox to finally bring Patton to the screen after eighteen years of planning. Sarantakes recounts how filmmakers had to overcome the reluctance of Patton's family, copyright issues with biographers, competing efforts for a biopic, and Department of Defense red tape. He chronicles the long search for a leading man—including discussions with Burt Lancaster, John Wayne, and even Ronald Reagan—before settling on Scott, a brilliant actor who brought to the part both enthusiasm for the project and identification with Patton's passionate persona. He also tracks the struggles to shoot the movie with a large multinational cast, huge outlays for military equipment, and filming in six countries over a mere six months. And he provides revealing insider stories concerning, for example, Scott's legendary drinking bouts and the origins of and debate over his famous opening monologue. Drawing on extensive research in the papers of Frank McCarthy and director Franklin Schaffner, studio archives, records of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, contemporary journalism, and oral histories, Sarantakes ultimately shows us that Patton is more than just one of the best war films ever made. Culturally, it also spoke to national ideals while exposing complex truths about power in the mid-twentieth century.

Global History with Chinese Characteristics

Global History with Chinese Characteristics PDF Author: Manuel Perez-Garcia
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 9811578656
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
This open access book considers a pivotal era in Chinese history from a global perspective. This book’s insight into Chinese and international history offers timely and challenging perspectives on initiatives like “Chinese characteristics”, “The New Silk Road” and “One Belt, One Road” in broad historical context. Global History with Chinese Characteristics analyses the feeble state capacity of Qing China questioning the so-called “High Qing” (shèng qīng 盛清) era’s economic prosperity as the political system was set into a “power paradox” or “supremacy dilemma”. This is a new thesis introduced by the author demonstrating that interventionist states entail weak governance. Macao and Marseille as a new case study aims to compare Mediterranean and South China markets to provide new insights into both modern eras’ rising trade networks, non-official institutions and interventionist impulses of autocratic states such as China’s Qing and Spain’s Bourbon empires.

The Opium War, 1840-1842

The Opium War, 1840-1842 PDF Author: Peter Ward Fay
Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press
ISBN: 0807861367
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 439

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Book Description
This book tells the fascinating story of the war between England and China that delivered Hong Kong to the English, forced the imperial Chinese government to add four ports to Canton as places in which foreigners could live and trade, and rendered irreversible the process that for almost a century thereafter distinguished western relations with this quarter of the globe-- the process that is loosely termed the "opening of China." Originally published by UNC Press in 1975, Peter Ward Fay's study was the first to treat extensively the opium trade from the point of production in India to the point of consumption in China and the first to give both Protestant and Catholic missionaries their due; it remains the most comprehensive account of the first Opium War through western eyes. In a new preface, Fay reflects on the relationship between the events described in the book and Hong Kong's more recent history.