If you ever watch the news on TV with your parents, you may hear about something called the 'global economy.' What is that? When did it start? Is it good or bad?
Since it's on TV, it must be something pretty new, right?
Well, yes and no.
The term 'global economy' refers to the fact that countries all over the world depend on each other for trade. It's something that the Boomerang Box is part of every day as it carries toys or lumber, airplane parts or almonds from port to port.
When we talk about the 'global economy,' we often talk about the speedy container ships, quick communication by phone and e-mail, and jet airplanes that speed products and ideas around the world. Those technologies are all new and exciting.
But the global economy existed long before computers, containers, and cell phones. In fact, many people believe that people on earth have been living in a global economy - dependent on trade around the world - since the 1400s and 1500s. That was a long time ago!
The 1400s and 1500s (between 500 and 600 years ago) were a time of great world exploration. Explorers and traders from countries all over Europe and Asia set out around the world in search of adventure, knowledge, new trade routes, and new products.
Do you think you would like to have joined them?
During this time, Christopher Columbus set out to cross the Atlantic Ocean from Spain, intending to find India and its valuable spices. Columbus thought he could get to Asia by traveling west from Europe across the Atlantic. Of course, Columbus didn't find India, but he did bump into America!
Soon, traders from Spain, Portugal, England, and France, were claiming parts of North, Central, and South America for their own. To them, this New World was so valuable, it more than made up for the trade route to Asia that Columbus never found.
But traders from these countries didn't just travel to America. They kept trying to find their way by sea to Asia. Portuguese sailors were the first to succeed. They, for the first time, managed to sail south around the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa and then back up to India and Asia. European countries quickly set up regular trade routes - and colonies - to transport valuable spices, tea, silk, and porcelain back to Europe.
European and Asian traders had been traveling back and forth for many hundreds of years before this. They had traveled over land, using the Silk Road and camel caravans to transport goods from place to place. But the new sea route around Africa was quicker and safer. And it led to an explosion of world trade that involved people in Europe, the Americas, Asia, and the Middle East.
We have just learned about the Ottoman Empire, which was based in Turkey, and which held great power in Europe and North Africa during this time. You will probably not be surprised to learn that traders from the Ottoman Empire were a big part of world trade during the 1400s and 1500s. From their base in Istanbul, they traveled easily between Europe and Asia, bringing people in both continents new products to try.
All this world exploration was very exciting. But it also led to problems. Sometimes, people and countries got greedy, and wanted to control a certain product for themselves. Then they fought with each other about who had the right to sail a certain trade route or trade a certain product. Even simple things that we take for granted today - such as tea and chocolate - became the subject of fights between countries. But, despite these fights, people kept trading. They liked to be able to get new and exotic things from other places. And they liked knowing about places in the world that they hadn't even imagined existed.
As you can see, there really was a 'global economy' during the 1500s. For the first time, people were learning about the geography of the entire world. They were able to travel to far-away lands. They were able to meet people from different cultures and religions. And they were able to sail to the Americas for silver and corn and cocoa; to China for silk and porcelain; to India for spices; and to Europe for clocks and chocolate.
Buying things that were made in other parts of the world is commonplace for us today. But during the 1500s, it was still new. The voyages that traders from Europe, Asia, and the Middle East made in search of adventure and trade really changed the world. And they created a global economy that we are part of today.
Check out past Trade Topics entries!
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