Growth of Trade in Asia

While Europe struggled with religious warfare, Asian empires flourished.

Changing European Relations With Asia

New World riches allowed Europe new status in Asia. The Portuguese spearheaded Europe’s presence in Asia. Arriving at Macao in 1557, they enjoyed Europe’s only direct access to China. Noting Portuguese success, other Europeans followed. Spain reached Asia from the Pacific side, establishing itself in the Philippines and using American silver to buy Chinese goods. High demand for silver in China and Chinese goods elsewhere allowed trade to expand and connect the entire globe.

The English, Dutch, and French were not to be left behind. In England, investors formed the English East India Company, which then moved to replace the Portuguese in the Arabian Sea and the Persian Gulf before moving on to India. Despite these new contacts with Asia, however, European influence still remained a distant second to that of the great Asian powers.

Mughal India and Commerce

Powerful and wealthy, Mughal India barely even noticed the European presence. The military might of Babur only increased under his grandson Akbar, who also consolidated control through marital alliances and power-sharing with Hindu princes. Noting India’s remarkable diversity, Akbar ruled with tolerance. While Europeans slaughtered each other over religious differences, Akbar’s tolerant policies allowed different religions to coexist in peace. Mughal India also grew wealthy through trade, which all Europeans eventually came to enjoy despite Portugal’s efforts to monopolize it. Trade provided sufficient revenue for Mughal leaders to shift taxes from goods to monetary payments, thus creating a more efficient and effective system and supplying the throne with more funds. Commercialization allowed the court to tax as much as one-third of all rural produce.

Mughal treasuries filled, allowing more for military and luxury spending. In the latter, the Mughals were unsurpassed. Grand architecture and art, gold, silk brocades, pearls, carpets, perfumes, and so forth, decorated palaces and elite homes throughout the empire. In short, the grandeur and power of Mughal India still far surpassed that of Europe and kept Europeans on the outskirts of the empire.

Prosperity in Ming China

Similar developments could be found in China. As Japanese silver suppliers gave way to Europeans bearing New World silver, China’s economy expanded. Bans on foreign trade were ignored as Chinese goods were exchanged for silver. As in India, the availability of silver stimulated commercialization and the exchange of money instead of goods. With more money available, the Chinese could improve agriculture and develop industries like textiles. Prosperity stimulated population increases, which reached 250 million or over one-third of the world’s total. China’s huge cities continued to expand with even more palaces, temples, educational institutions, and other associations. European Jesuit missionaries seeing China’s greatness firsthand marveled at the wealth and liveliness of the cities.

Attracted to this wealth, Europeans came in large numbers, either to trade or preach. Anxious to keep them under control, the Ming confined the Portuguese to Macao and even built a wall separating the small isthmus from the rest of China. Europeans thus largely remained on the margins.