Creating an Atlantic System and a Global System
Trade Products of Time Period IV (1450 – 1750)

No Innocent Spice: NPR Nutmeg Show Questions

  1. Label on your map the location of nutmegs. Label the location of the Netherlands.
  2. According to the culinary historian, why do people like spices like nutmeg so much?
  1. What did people think about health, your body, and food back in the colonial period?
  1. Nutmeg “has a dark and bloody history,” according to the radio hosts. Who ate nutmeg during the Medieval and Colonial Periods of Europe?
  1. Where did nutmegs grow? Who first found the Spice Islands?
  1. What did the Dutch do to gain a monopoly over nutmegs?
  1. What percentage of the population of the islands on which nutmegs grow, die?
  1. How did nutmeg fall in price?
  1. How is nutmeg connected to New York City?

Potosi Silver Pieces of Eight Reading Questions

  1. Label the location of Potosi on your map.
  2. In what locations did the Spanish find silver in the New World?
  1. Describe the mountain of Potosi and why it was important. What dangers did it pose to the people who worked its slopes?
  1. Describe the path the silver took & the locations it was exchanged to after it left Potosi.
  1. A) How did it enrich Spain? B) How did it create a new global economy?
  1. In what ironic ways did American silver ruin Spain? Be specific.

Tea Questions

1. Label on the map where tea was produced, where it moved and where it was consumed.
2. Answer the following questions using the lesson introduction and Student Handouts 4.2 and 4.3:

a. Who is the producer of the tea? What does the producer get for trading or selling the tea?

b. Who is the mover of the tea? What do movers get for transporting the goods?

c. Who is the consumer? What do consumers give in order to get the goods they want?

d. How did the tea trade benefit the people who produced the tea, transported it, and consumed it?

Comic Book Questions

  1. Label on your map the location of the fur trade in the Cartoon. Think back in our course…label the other location of fur production your group remembers, as well!
  2. According to the reading, what nation first colonized Canada and what sect of Christianity did they follow?
  1. What were the Jesuits doing in Canada? What were they doing elsewhere (in particular, Matteo Ricci)?
  1. Describe how Canada became a profitable royal colony for the crown of France.
  1. What economic theory says that colonies should always benefit the mother country’s balance of trade?  (you should know this from our classwork, not from the comic!!)
  1. What did the royal charter company that ran Canada dictate about beaver skins?
  1. What actually began happening?