David R. Ringrose's Expansion And Global Interaction, 1200-1700
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During the early modern period, many different countries tried to pursue economic success through the colonization and even exploitation of different lands like the Americas. The Spanish and Portuguese, for example, sought to pursue financial, cultural and religious prosperity by branching out through sailing and colonization to all corners of the world. This brought them great amounts of wealth, but with countries like the Spanish and Portuguese, monetary wealth was not all that mattered. Although this means was certainly a successful way of attaining prosperity, the cultures around the North Sea did not find the uncontrollable need to share their religion or culture with other parts of the planet. Their diligence and perseverance was driven…show more content… They began trading goods in Asia during the late 16th century with their own company known as the Dutch East India Company. David R. Ringrose writes in his book, Expansion and Global Interaction, 1200-1700, “The first preliminary Dutch voyage took place in 1597. The trade was so profitable that in 1601 fourteen companies dispatched 65 ships to Asia, a situation that threatened to drive up prices in Asia and glut the market in Europe. To regulate this trade, in 1602 the Dutch organized the Dutch East India Trading Company.” The Dutch started to take over control of the trading market around Asia and eventually they became so economically powerful that other countries that had trading networks around Asia, like Portugal, were unable to compete with the Dutch’s extremely efficient way of trading because they did not have the resources to maintain these globe-spanning domains. Actually, the Portuguese arrived in Asia before the Dutch and for many years they controlled the spice market around the Spice Islands in South Western Asia. Portuguese explorer Vasco Da Gama, who made a very powerful trading network around Asia guided them, but eventually the Dutch became so powerful in that area that the Portuguese were unable to compete and the Asian spice trade fell into Dutch hands. Many different types of goods were traded from the Spice Islands to…show more content… The Dutch became a dominant fishing powerhouse when the invention of gibbing came along. Invented by Willem Beuckelszoon, a Dutchman, gibbing was the process of removing the fish’s gills and other organs. This would eliminate the harsh taste and with this process, fishermen were able to cure the fish inside a barrel. It was way more efficient than curing fish with salt and then letting them dry in the sun. With the use of a barrel, fishermen could salt fish in mass quantities and also do it onboard a sailboat. This primarily allowed the Dutch to not only trade in the North Sea, but also to expand to further lands outside the North Sea like off the coast of