The main argument made in the article, International Bullion Flows and the Chinese Economy circa 1530-1650 by William Atwell, is that during the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, an influx in the demand of silver and foreign demand of Chinese goods led to the fall of the Ming dynasty. Chinese merchants traded for large quantities of silver. It started off as simple supply and demand. However, as the supply stopped rising, the demand kept rising causing inflation in China. By looking at charts that show the relationship between the year and the amount of silver imported, I will be able to support my belief that major factors to the fall of the Ming dynasty was the collapse of foreign trade and the over-dependency on silver as monetary funding.
In addition, the fact that the US government has recently open doors to Chinese steel companies to operate businesses in the US, this may start to influence the economic environment of the US steel industry as well. Fluctuations in the value of the U.S. dollar also affect the steel industry. A strong U.S. dollar makes imported metal products less expensive, resulting in more imports of steel products into the U.S. Economic difficulties in some large steel producing regions of the world have lead to decreased local demand for steel, and thus steel products have been exported to the U.S. at lower prices. This makes steel products made within the U.S. more expensive than imported steel. In the social environment there has been a push towards going green and recycling which is very beneficial for the steel industry as steel is 100% recyclable.
Under Tang rule, land reform was redistributed to the peasants. Large landowners had less power while peasants could contribute by paying taxes. Foreign trade expanded under both dynasties and canals were built to encourage transportation. Chinese merchants traded with India, Persia and the Middle East. The arts were very important during the Tang and Song Dynasties.
It had a strong and peaceful government during the Qing Empire and imperial powers such as Britain and the U.S. were interested in Chinese goods. By the late 1700s, however, China was experiencing internal strains with the population and with the government (columbia.edu). China had often looked down on foreigners and did not accept their cultures, but in 1793, the Chinese emperor agreed to meet with an English ambassador. The ambassador brought with him modern gadgets of that time such as clocks and instruments (Beck 371). The emperor was not interested and then the British realized they would have to find a product to trade with China so they could balance out the trading with China; that product was opium (Beck 371).
One can draw parallels between these factors and the American society today and we should learn from the history of Rome so as not to follow the same path. The first factor that I find extremely important is the economic factor. One can draw many parallels between the Empire of Rome and our economic woes that we are feeling today. During Rome’s decline, the military was overstretched and underfunded. Emperors overtaxed the population and overregulated the market place and would often purposely debase their currency by reducing the precious metal content.
The Chinese peasants and lower class suffered the most. In 1917, the Beijing government declared war against Germany in the hopes that the Allies would return China into Chinese hands. Unfortunately, the Treaty of Versailles stated that Japan would be given the territories and privileges that the Chinese sought. This enraged many Chinese, and the May Fourth Movement occurred. Middle class people: workers, manufacturers, students, shopkeepers and Mao Zedong (who would later become China’s greatest revolutionary) supported it.
Chiang faced many problems during his period as Nationalist leader, one of which being the insurance that all warlords were defeated, especially the powerful warlord Zhang Zuolin of Manchuria, and that China would be united under one leader. Additionally, Chiang had to deal with the treat of both the Communists and the Japanese. However, Chiang did pass many policies in his period as leader in order to stabilise the Chinese economy due to the vast inflation
A reason for the fall of the Qing Dynasty was Imperialism, or the practice of conquering and developing another area usually for trading purposes. The Sino-Japanese war was very humiliating for the Chinese people because it once again highlighted defeat on China by a foreign power, and as well internal troubles, this increased the prejudiced feeling toward outsiders, which resulted in a lot of resentment for foreigners, which meant that leaders such as Cixi who were opposed to foreigners and modernization gained a lot of support from the population. There was a high demand for China's tea in Great Britain but a low demand for Britain's goods in China. Great Britain was in debt with China and they had to do something to get out. As a result, they turned to selling silver to make the imbalance
The fed has to set a lower reserve requirement, which allows banks to loan out more money, which generates more interest, which could lead to periods of inflation and could have worse consequences if the government does not react quickly enough. Inflation would decrease the purchasing power of an individual's money, which would lead to more saving and less spending. (Fried) Less spending would mean less money being injected into the circular flow of our economy and would lead to economic crisis. However, many critics also use this to determine how national debt does not have a huge impact on the economy. A huge national debt has no effect on the money market.
As deflation started, both the Argentine government and many private companies found it was difficult to pay their debts. Tax revenues fell, while public spending increased. Interest rates payments went primarily to overseas investors, thus further draining the economy. When Argentine banks were pressured to buy government bonds, a bank run began. Following the government’s default on its debt, the currency board was abandoned, and the peso was allowed to float against the dollar.