HIS284H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Feudalism, Ming Dynasty, Eurocentrism
Document Summary
Silver-based economy: to prevent forgeries, required a huge amount of silver, the chinese demand for silver drove the world economy, for the first time the world was directly connected. The myth about the rise of the west and the decline of the east . Cultural uniqueness of europe: the miracle : adventurous, trade, science. Industrial capitalism was a global phenomenon, developments across the world allowed this to happen. Old narrative: what was wrong with china/japan/asia: looking for similarities and differences. The myth about the decline of china and japan. Confucian culture was not interested in trade. Chinese (ming dynasty) trade records aren"t as available as european ones due to a majority of it being private records. A lot of similarities between the manchu and the mongols (1644-1912) Similar to ming, similar rituals and culture: only for show, they didn"t do the same outside of china.
