Another reason Spain did not permanently dominate the European economy was that for centuries most of the silver they shipped from Peru and Mexico ended up in China, where silver was the basis of the earth’s largest economy. China’s economic dominance helped the Asian population increase from 60% of the world’s people to 67% between 1500 and 1800. In addition to the Mings in China, the Mughals in India ruled an empire of 150 million people, and they were very interested in expanding trade with the West. India was also highly productive; between the two empires, Asia produced 80% of all the world’s goods. Even though we are concentrating in this chapter on the Atlantic World and the intersection of Africa, Europe, and the Americas, until the mid-1700s, it is important to remember that China and India dominated world commerce and industry. ![[Poblanas.jpg]] _Women of 19th-century Mexico, wearing the “China Poblana” dress that was originally contraband from China_ Chinese silks and Indian cotton goods were the world’s best quality and lowest-cost textiles, and clothes made from them were worn throughout the world – even in Spain’s colonies where the law required people to trade only with the home country. The national costume of Mexico is called the China Poblana; it was originally a contraband silk dress worn by women of the towns. The British were so intimidated by Asian textiles that they imposed high tariffs to try to protect their own weavers from being driven out of the business. Mercantilism, in which colonies served the home country both as a market and as a source of raw materials in a closed economy, was actually not a primitive economic system that evolved into free market capitalism. It was an attempt to shield British and European merchants from an already-existing international free market in which they were too often the losers to the dominant Asian powers. ----- Next: [[4.27 - Primary Source 1]] Back: [[4.25 - Spanish Armada]]