Well hey there and welcome back to Heimler's History. Now if you're just joining me, we've been going through Unit 2 of the AP US History curriculum, which covers the time periods 1607 to 1754. And in this video we got to talk about trade, and more to the point we're going to talk about the causes and effects of the transatlantic trade over time. Mmm, saucy.
Let's get to it. So in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, trade really became global, and so we're going to need to consider how a transatlantic economy was developed. Trans means across and Atlantic means Atlantic Ocean. So how did a global economy develop across this ocean right here?
That is an unusually perceptive question and I've got the answer. So first let's talk about how the trade was done. And for that I need to introduce you to the Triangular Trade.
It was thus named because merchant ships followed a three part journey which when being sketched out roughly makes a triangle. And it was much more complex than what I'm about to explain, but let me just give you a taste of how this works. Merchant ships would start in New England, for example, and then carry rum to West Africa.
There they would trade rum for enslaved laborers for whom demand was spiking in the Americas, and then they would depart from West Africa and sail what was called the Middle Passage, which was famous for its brutal conditions. Now, let's stop for a minute. Before we continue on this section of the triangular route, this image is a very famous one, and you're going to see it nearly every time someone talks about the harsh conditions enslaved people had to endure on the Middle Passage. We look at that image and we're horrified by what we see, but what you almost never hear anyone talk about is that this diagram was actually a reform image. The British Parliament passed the Slave Trade Act in 1788, which limited the number of enslaved people that could be stuffed into the hull of a ship, and this diagram was the result of that reform.
Like, this was the compromise. Stacking people like this was the better version of what was previously happening before the law was passed. So hopefully that helps you see how awful the conditions were that these Africans endured as they crossed the Atlantic Ocean.
Now back to the triangular trade. Once the ships packed with enslaved Africans arrived in the British West Indies, those slaves were then traded for sugarcane, and from there the merchant ships headed back to New England where they traded the sugarcane for rum and the whole thing began all over again. So that's how the transatlantic trade worked in a very simplistic form, but now we need to talk about what economic principles drove this whole thing.
And for that I need to introduce you to mercantilism. Now mercantilism was the dominant economic system in Europe during this time, although at this point we're starting to see other economic models emerge. But this new global trade makes no sense unless you understand how this economic system worked. First, it's going to be important for you to know that in the mercantilist worldview it basically assumed that there was only a fixed amount of wealth in the world. And the reason for this is that they measured wealth in terms of gold and silver.
So obviously if that's how you measure wealth, there's only going to be so much. So the main goal of a mercantilist system was to maintain a favorable balance of trade, and this meant that a nation wanted to have more exports than imports. And that makes sense. If you're exporting goods, what's coming in?
Gold. If you're importing goods, what's going out? Gold.
So if there was only a fixed amount of wealth in the world, then the mercantilist states wanted to get as big a slice of that pie as they could because hey, there's only so much pie. And you know mama liked pie. Another important feature of mercantilism was the establishment of colonies.
This had a two-fold benefit. First, it gave mercantilist powers access to raw materials that they couldn't find in their own country. And second, those colonies could then become markets for their manufactured goods.
And so to this end, during this period, the British government tried to increasingly weave the center of the empire together with its colonies. And one way they sought to do this was through the passage of a series of laws called the Navigation Act. These laws required merchants to engage in trade with English colonies exclusively in English ships, and also certain valuable trade items were required to pass through exclusively British ports where they were taxed. Again, all of this was done in order to assure that the British were not forced to trade British could have maximum gold and silver coming into their coffers. The last thing we need to talk about is how this trade fundamentally changed colonial societies.
Like, this transatlantic trade generated massive wealth for the elites of society, which included merchants and investors and plantation owners. Additionally, it transformed America's seaports into thriving urban centers. And these two effects combined created a further effect, which was the consumer revolution in North America. Affluent families began to buy more goods, and that actually had the effect of changing the way society was shaped.
And prior to this, one's place in society was tied strongly to what family that person was from. So after this consumer revolution, societal status was more tied to financial success and a refined lifestyle. So the consumer revolution meant that you were respected in society not because of your family pedigree, but whether or not that beaver skin hat was poppin'today.
So all that to say, the transatlantic trade created a truly global trade network, fueled by the principles of mercantilism that fundamentally altered the societies in which it functioned, whether those societies were European or African or American. Alright, that's what you need to know about Unit 2 Topic 4 of the AP US History curriculum. And if you're struggling in your class, then you know Heimlich got you.
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