Portuguese Commodity Exchanges

Portuguese merchants cornered an intermediary market between china and japan. Japanese copper and silver were exported from nagasaki to makao on portuguese ships in exchange for gold, silk and porcelain. The effects of these widening contacts caused ripples across the world system. A lens could travel from germany to china. An elephant from shilanka to austria. A wealthy mer ant in portugal could order a dinner service emblazoned with the arms of portugal from a ming potter. Cloves that would be sold in morocco made the journey from tenate in eastern indanesia via malaca, cochin and l