Age of Discovery

===Economic impact in Europe===
{{Main|Commercial Revolution|Renaissance|Renaissance in the Low Countries|Great Divergence}}
{{Renaissance}}
As a wider variety of global luxury commodities entered the European markets by sea, previous European markets for [[luxury good]]s stagnated. The Atlantic trade largely supplanted pre-existing [[Maritime republics|Italian]] and [[Hanseatic League|German]] trading powers which had relied on their Baltic, Russian, and Islamic trade links. The new commodities also caused [[social change]], as sugar, spices, silks and chinawares entered the luxury markets of Europe.

The European economic centre shifted from the Mediterranean to Western Europe. The city of [[Antwerp]], part of the [[Duchy of Brabant]], became "the centre of the ''entire'' international economy",<ref>[[#Braudel 1985|Braudel 1985]], p.&nbsp;143.</ref> and the richest city in Europe.<ref>[[#Dunton 1896|Dunton 1896]], p. 163.</ref> Centred in Antwerp first and then [[Amsterdam]], the "[[Dutch Golden Age]]" was tightly linked to the Age of Discovery.

By 1549 the Portuguese were sending annual trade missions to [[Shangchuan Island]] in China. In 1557 they managed to convince the [[Ming dynasty|Ming]] court to agree on a legal port treaty that would establish Macau as an official Portuguese trade colony.<ref>[[#Brook 1998|Brook 1998]], p. 124.</ref> The Portuguese friar [[Gaspar da Cruz]] (c. 1520-70) wrote the first complete book on China published in Europe; it included information on its geography, provinces, royalty, official class, bureaucracy, shipping, architecture, farming, craftsmanship, merchant affairs, clothing, religious and social customs, music and instruments, writing, education, and justice.<ref>[[#AAS 1976|Aas 1976]], pp. 410–11.</ref>
[[File:DelftChina18thCenturyCompanieDesIndes.jpg|thumb|[[Delftware]] depicting Chinese scenes, 18th century. [[Ernest Cognacq Museum]]]]
From China the major exports were silk and porcelain, adapted to meet European tastes. The Chinese export porcelains were held in such great esteem in Europe that, in English, ''[[wikt:china|china]]'' became a commonly-used synonym for ''porcelain''. [[Kraak porcelain]] was among the first Chinese ware to arrive in Europe in significant quantities; only the richest could afford these early imports.<ref>For a study on foreign objects in Dutch paintings, see [[#Hochstrasser 2007|Hochstrasser 2007]], ''Still life and trade in the Dutch golden age''.</ref> Soon the [[Dutch East India Company]] established trade with the East, having imported 6 million porcelain items from China to Europe between the years 1602-82.<ref>[[#Volker 1971|Volker 1971]], p. 22.</ref><ref>[[#Brook 1998|Brook 1998]], p. 206.</ref> Kraak, mainly the [[blue and white porcelain]], was imitated all over the world by potters in [[Arita ware|Arita, Japan]] and [[Iran|Persia]]—where Dutch merchants turned when the fall of the Ming dynasty rendered Chinese originals unavailable<ref>[[#Howard 1978|Howard 1978]], p. 7.</ref>—and ultimately in [[Delftware]]. Dutch and later [[English Delftware]] inspired by Chinese designs persisted from about 1630 to the mid-18th century alongside European patterns.

[[Antonio de Morga]] (1559–1636), a Spanish official in [[Manila]], listed an extensive inventory of goods that were traded by Ming China at the turn of the 16th to 17th century, noting there were "rarities which, did I refer to them all, I would never finish, nor have sufficient paper for it".<ref>[[#Brook 1998|Brook 1998]], pp. 205–206.</ref> Ebrey writes of the considerable size of commercial transactions: In one case a galleon to the Spanish territories in the New World carried over 50,000 pairs of silk stockings. In return China imported mostly silver from Peruvian and Mexican mines, [[Manila galleon|transported via Manila]]. Chinese merchants were active in these trading ventures, and many emigrated to such places as the Philippines and Borneo to take advantage of the new commercial opportunities.<ref name="Ebrey 2006, p. 211"/>

The increase in gold and silver experienced by [[Habsburg Spain|Spain]] coincided with a major inflationary cycle within Spain and Europe, known as the [[price revolution]]. Spain had amassed large quantities of gold and silver from the New World.<ref>[[#Walton 1994|Walton 1994]], pp. 43–44</ref> In the 1540s large scale extraction of silver from Mexico began. During the 16th century, Spain held the equivalent of US$1.5 trillion (1990 terms) in gold and silver from [[Viceroyalty of New Spain|New Spain]]. Being the most powerful European monarch at a time full of war and religious conflicts, the [[Habsburg Spain|Habsburg]] rulers spent the wealth in wars and arts across Europe. "I learnt a proverb here", said a French traveller in 1603: "Everything is dear in Spain except silver".<ref>[[#Braudel 1979|Braudel 1979]], p. 171.</ref> The spent silver, spread throughout a cash-starved Europe, caused widespread inflation.<ref>[[#Tracy 1994|Tracy 1994]], p. 655.</ref> The inflation was worsened by a growing population with a static production level, low salaries and a rising cost of living, which damaged local industry. Increasingly, Spain became dependent on the revenues flowing in from the mercantile empire, leading to Spain's first bankruptcy in 1557 due to rising military costs.<ref>[[#Braudel 1979|Braudel 1979]], pp. 523–25</ref> Philip II of Spain defaulted on debt payments in 1557, 1560, 1575, and 1596. The increase in prices as a result of currency circulation fuelled the growth of the commercial [[middle class]] in Europe, the ''[[bourgeoisie]]'', which came to influence the politics and culture of many countries. One effect of the inflation, particularly in Great Britain, was that tenant farmers who held long-term leases from lords saw real decreases in rent. Some lords opted to sell their leased land, giving rise to small, landowning farmers such as [[yeoman]] and gentlemen-farmers.<ref>
{{cite book|title= Agricultural Revolution in England: The transformation of the agrarian economy 1500–1850|url= https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780521568593|url-access= registration|last=Overton|first= Mark
|year=1996 |publisher =Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-56859-3}}</ref>