HIST 102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Economic Efficiency, Zheng He
Document Summary
Oceanic travel and the effects on the globe. Increased contact between europe and the rest of the world. 450 million people unevenly distributed across the globe because some places were more conducive to agriculture than others. Some places had not adopted large scale agriculture. Vast majority were peasants - people who live via agricultural production. People whose families remain in one place working the land that their communities grew crops on, sometimes maintaining animals. Systems had been developed by force and coercion to make sure the wealth of the peasants land did not remain in the hands of the peasants. Crops were: retained as seeds for the next year, food for family, sold for cash to provide rent to landlords, taxes to government, and surplus cash for other necessities. The vast amount of cash generated by the sale of crops had to be handed off to landowners or governments.
