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International Trade Dbq

Decent Essays

When studying trade and commodities of Empires in any period of time, it is important to look at the changes that the trade created within the involved nations. What crops were popular enough to grow commercially in the empire, what the increase of trade did to the population demographics, and how the global system influenced the interactions of the countries involved can be found through close reading primary sources. Through sources like Trade and Travel in the Far East by G.F. Davidson and Tearful Conversation over the Mulberry Fields and the Sea by Nguyen Thuong Hien, scholars can determine the impact these factors had on the lives of those who experienced empirical trade. In comparing these two documents, the most prominent focus is on …show more content…

“Tearful Conversation’s” author is a Vietnamese man decrying the affect Western foreigners have on the lands their trade dominates. Comparing the two documents allows for a readers to understand the scope and effect of global trading by examining both the native and foreign reactions to nations’ changing populations and landscapes. Document Two describes that “a full description of the inhabitants of Singapore would fill a volume, they are of so many countries.” As Robert E. Elson describes in his article, the crop commodity systems of South Asia encouraged the increased immigration of young workers from across Asia and the West to meet demands. Just as the writer of the document traveled Eastward, many other Westerners found themselves in countries like Singapore to obtain official positions and secure connections to Eastern markets for Western nations. Although diversity increased, ethnicities often did not intermix; migrant populations in Southeast Asia tended to separate themselves in distinct areas of the city, which is also referenced in the document. Perhaps due to the fact that they felt more comfortable living with those who shared their backgrounds, or due to the layout of the land and housing markets, different nationalities tended to remain together when abroad. For the most part, these different groups only interacted for business …show more content…

From this, readers are aware that French men held important roles in Vietnam’s crop development system. This again matches Elson’s article which states that when European populations decide the official positions of natives in the trading system, or hold the power themselves, the native populations are often further exploited and overworked. For the sake of higher profits in the trade network, working conditions of the Asian producers were difficult and often deadly, especially compared to their Western managers. In the views of the author, the French owners in Vietnam treat the Mandarin workers as “their servants; they treat them no better than their dogs.” For their own business development and for the prospect of greater Asian trade relations, the Western powers would stop at nothing to enhance their profit through Asian trade

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