Robert Marks, The Origins of the Modern World: A Global and Ecological Narrative 1

Chapter One: The Material and Trading Worlds, circa 1400

Introduction: (This deals with the state of affairs about the time we start in World
History 2)
In this chapter, Marks argues that most changes in history are the result of
huge processes that are hardly detectable, arising from shifts in social,
economic, political, and cultural structures
The focus is on two major structural aspects of the world in 1400
o Material and natural conditions under which most people lived
Overwhelming agricultural
Terms this the biological old regime
o The trading networks that connected most of this Old World
together
o These two are in some ways opposing forces
A material (agricultural world) in which most people lived
restrictive lives
A trading and commercial world that increasingly brought
parts of the world into greater contact
o He also hope to show how these two dimensions interacted, through a
discussion of the mid-fourteenth century Black Death.
Marks also introduced key concepts that will be used throughout the book
o Civilizations refer to the large empires, based on the agricultural
revolution.
In them there is an explicit relationship between
Cities and countrysides
Ruling elites and peasants (agriculturalists or villagers)
These relationships form the foundation of what Marks refers
to as the Biological Old Regime.
o This chapter also examines the World System as it existed at the time
In some senses, this is the first phase of modern globalization
There are two features of viewing this trade system
Polycentric: a world trade system with many centers
Core and Periphery: each part of this system consisted of
an empire with a core which provided wealth and and a
periphery, which supplied labor and raw materials
Marks endeavors to prove in this chapter that in fact the
world trading system was polycentric, comprised of
empires, each with a core and a periphery
What was the world like in the 15
th
Century (1400s)?
Regardless of where you lived people had a basically similar material world
o Everyone (peasants and elites alike) relied upon agriculture to survive
o With similar structures and needs, they faced similar problems
Life in the Biological Old Regime
o In 1400, there were about 350 million people 6% of our current
population (by 1800 it had doubled)
o 80% were peasants, directly tied to the land
o Population was rural and the availability of land to produce food was
a constraint on population size.
o Nevertheless, there was a population increase from the 1400s to the
mid-1600s following the plague.
Climate Change was the cause of this population increase
Warmer conditions allowed better harvests because of warmer
temperatures and higher rainfall
o The 350 million people were clustered in a few pockets of high
density.
They live on 4.25 million square miles out 60 million of 7% of
the land.
Most land was not farmableswamp, steppe, desert, or ice
These dense areas consisted of just 15 highly developed
civilizations, primary among them wer
Japan, Korea, China, Indonesia, Indochina,
India
Islamic West Asia
Europe (Mediterranean and Western Europe)
Americas (Incas and Aztecs)
Astoundingly, 70% of todays population lives on those same
4.25 million square miles.
Densest concentrations of population were (and still are)
Eurasian Continent: China in the East, Europe in the
West, India in the South
The population of China and Europe were about equal
over most of this period
o China alone represented 25-40% of the worlds
population
o These three centers together accounted for 70%
of the worlds population in 1400
Europe was 25%
India was about 20%
o From this it is apparent that much of what
happened during this period was the result of
the actions of China and India
All densely population areas shared the same important
feature, the relationship between those who lived in the
countryside and produced food, and those living in the cities
consuming the surpluses of that food production.
This relationship changed little from since the
agricultural revolution 10,000 years earlier.
By the 1400s, however, this system had given rise to
the most powerful system of government, empires
o Towns and Cities in the 1400s
25 largest cities in the 1400 are very similar to what it is today
Robert Marks, The Origins of the Modern World: A Global and Ecological Narrative 3

however, at the time they represented 1% of the
population
9 of the largest cities were in China, Nanjing was the
biggest
Vijayanagar in India was second, Cairo 3
rd
, and Paris 4
th

Europe had only 5 cities in the top 25
Other large cities included Constantinople
(Mediterranean), Samarkand (Central Asia) Baghdad
(Iraq), and Fez (Morocco)
These cities ranged from 80,000 to 500,000 inhabitants
Towns were very different from the villages where the
other 99% lived
o Had people with great wealth and possessions
o To peasants, these people did no work, as they
did not farm, but lived off peasant agriculture
o They did resent the taxes, tithes and rents the
peasants paid to city landlords and official.
o Nomads, too, envied the wealth of the cities
Lived on the steppes, which was not farmland
Made a living by hunting gathering, and following their herds.
Mobility was a way of life for them, but they were not
completely self-sufficient
Traded for things produced in the citysalts, pots and
pans, textiles
In return they traded horses, meat, honey or products
they could gather.
Thus nomads and cities relied upon one another
This symbiotic relationship was not always peaceful
Nomads were fierce warriors who often raided
civilizations, who considered them barbaric
Often nomads were recruited to defend empires, often
leading to the nomads conquering them (Han and
Roman Empires stand as examples
The Chinese distinguished between the nomads (raw)
and civilized people (cooked)
o Wildlife
Although by 1400 humans had migrated to nearly every part of
the planet, there was still ample room for wildlife
Wolves roamed most of Europe (Grimms Fairy Tales),
and attacked people in Paris
Tigers inhabited most of China and periodically carried
away piglets and babies
North America had wildlife in astronomical numbers
As the population expanded, peoples appetites for new foods
increased, and wearing fur became fashionable, wildlife,
although plentiful, nevertheless declined.
However, with each cold winter or influx of disease,
human population waned and wildlife increased.
Still, beginning in the 1400s wildlife was increasingly
left with less and less natural habitat

Although traditional and agricultural, the 1400s was a period of change; change in
the Old Biological Regime can best be understood in the interaction between
population growth and available land, and the factors that affected both (famine,
peasant revolts, epidemics)
Population growth and decline each offered society benefits and difficulties
o An increase in population means greater success in obtaining food
from the ecosystem
o Higher populations allowed the greater technological advances of
civilizations
o Thus, population growth is good, up to the point where it taxes
societys ability to feed that population
o On the other hand, a decline through disease and famine restored a
healthier balance between food supply and population
One of the limits of the Biological Old Regime then was the ability to produce
food, which could only be increased in 3 ways
o Bringing more land under cultivation
o Increasing the ability of existing land to produce (more labor, better
seeds)
o Increasing the amount of water or fertilizer
China tackled this problem by increasing the amount of land farmed, and by
tilling and fertilizing it.
o Still there were limits to how much this could be done
o The cultivation of new lands produced human migrations
Often expansion was limited to sparsely protected and less
productive land
In many cases, such as Europe, strong neighbors (Turks,
Tartars, Mongols) prevent expansion.
Difficulty of claiming new land, along with famine, war, and other disasters
kept populations relatively low, and life expectancies as well
o In advanced empires life expectancy was 30-40 of what it is today
o This is largely due to a huge infant mortality rate; once one lived past
childhood, they could expect to live until sixty, if crops were good.
Famine was an important factor affecting population
o Food shortages, dearth, and famine were a constant feature of the Old
Biological Regime
Robert Marks, The Origins of the Modern World: A Global and Ecological Narrative 5

It was especially acute because peasants had to give up to of
their harvest in the form of rent and labor service to the
landowner.
In good times they might have a surplus to sell and
acquire more land
However, in bad weather, they would fall behind in
payments and lose their lease on the land
Thus, famine was just as much a social phenomenon for
the peasants, a result of the empires social structure.
Eventually this would lead peasants to develop new
political concepts about their rights and relationship to
landowners and government
Peasant revolts were another factor affecting life in the Biological Old
Regime, as many of the food shortages affecting them were due to the
existing economic and political structure.
o However, no matter how dire the conditions, revolt depended upon
two factors
Whether the government had sufficient force to subdue them
Their unity and capacity for collective actions
o Revolts did occur
In Japan from 1590 to 1871 over 3,000 instances of peasant
revolt
China had fewer but larger uprisings such as the Taiping
Rebellion of the 1800s
Russia had the Pugachev uprisings in the 1700s
The French had a peasant-led revolution in 1789
o Thus, peasants constantly found ways to resist the ruling elite, and
resistance was precipitated by the agricultural conditions, even if
these revolts seldom resulted in major changes.
Epidemic Disease was likewise a major factor affecting population in the Old
Biological Regime
o In essence, all life depended upon the agriculturalists, and there were
two types of parasites that lived off them
Macroparasites: the ruling elite that relied on their food to
sustain cities and civilizations (this is what we have discussed
to date in this section, leading to famine and revolts)
Microparasites: the plague bacteria, smallpox, influenza.
o The latter affected the entire population, although most virulent to the
peasants who comprised 99% of the populations
o Diseases traveled more quickly as the world became more
interconnected during this time period.
The Black Death spread from China to Europe in a matter of
years
Once in Europe, it engulfed the entire region in 3 years.
o To understand how this happened, we need to understand the trading
networks that linked most parts of Eurasia and made it possible for
goods, ideas, and germs to travel from one end to the other.



The World and its Trading System circa 1400
Trade Routes in the 1400s
The Old World-Eurasia and Africa-was connected by eight interlinking
trading zones within three great subsystems
1. East Asian Subsystem: linked China and the Spice Islands (from
equatorial Southeast Asia to India)
2. Middle East-Mongolian Subsystem: linked the Eurasian continent (from
Eastern Mediterranean to Central Asia and India)
3. European Subsystem: centered on fairs at Champagne in France and the
trading routes of Genoa and Venice, linking Europe to the Middle East and
the Indian Ocean.
These subsystems overlapped with tertiary trade routes in Africa:
o North and West Africa connected with the European and Middle East
subsystems
o East Africa linked to them thought the Indian Ocean subsystem

Eight Circuits of the 13
th
Century Trade Systems


The three primary trade routes linked the subsystems creating an integrated
trading system
Robert Marks, The Origins of the Modern World: A Global and Ecological Narrative 7

o All trade systems terminated in the Eastern Mediterranean
The northern route went up through the Black Sea, and then
overland through the Mongol Empire to China
The central route went through Baghdad and then via the
Persian Gulf to the Indian Ocean, giving traders access to spices
and products of East and Southeast Asia
The southern route went from Cairo, overland south to the Red
sea, and from there into the Indian Ocean

The Three Primary Trade Routes from Eastern Mediterranean Terminus

This trading system is significant for a number of reasons
o One, it has largely gone unnoticed by historians who focus their
attention on one part of the world, such as China, India, or France
Now that we see how the world was integrated during this
period, the question becomes Was the post-1500 system a
wholly new creation, or did it arise out of element of this pre-
existing system?
Marks answers the question by arguing the latter option
o Two, this vast system operated without a central controlling or
dominating force
Each region had a dominant player
However, no one empire controlled the whole of any of the 3
subsystems
They were content to not rock the boat, and simply taxed
goods going through their ports.
o Three, the world trade system of this period was polycentric,
consisting of multiple trade centers, each consisting of an empire with
a wealthy core in cities, supplied with raw materials and labor by the
peasant periphery
It remained that way until around 1800, when Europeans put
into place the elements necessary to colonize most of the globe
It did this by creating a global system with a high developed
core and an underdeveloped periphery.
o Fourth, this Afro-Eurasian was a world system not because it
spanned the globe, but rather because the system was greater than
any one give part.
It did link most of the world, so everyone knew a least a bit
about the other parts of the world with whom they traded
The only missing element were the Americas and Australia
o This trade network facilitated the exchange of books, ideas,
technology and disease, as we shall see in the next section
The Black Death: A Mid-Fourteenth Century Conjuncture
In the introduction Marks introduces the concept of conjuncture:
o it happens when several otherwise independent developments come
together in ways that interact with one another, creating a unique
historical moment
o things happening in different parts of the world for reasons that have
to do with local circumstances that then become globally important.
The Black Death is significant, in part because it is an example of conjuncture
o Local events unique to each area become linked via the trade routes to
create an event that had a significant impact on the world.
o As we shall see, there are a number of discrete ingredients in this
conjucture, and it was the linking of these by the trade networks that
created a world-wide epidemic.
While conjecture explains how local events became a world-wide event,
there is also another important reason for examining the Black Death
o There are two aspects to the Old Biological Regime, one static and one
dynamic
Static: a peasant population living in empires whose lives have
changed very little since the Neolithic age, limited by
agricultural possibilities
Dynamic: the trade network described above, which linked
each area and facilitated the spread of ideas, technology and, in
this case, death.
o The Black Death is an example of how the world became
interconnected, and thus explains the dynamic changes taking place
within the Old Biological Regime.
A Brief history of the Plague
o Bubonic plague is the result of a disease-producing bacterium, found
on rodents in southwestern China
It could not be transmitted directly to humans, but rather
indirectly through flea bites by infected insects
Chinese distanced themselves from the rodents and fleas
o Mongol troops, unaware of the danger carried the fleas into densely
populated areas of China, killing up to 2/3s of the population
Robert Marks, The Origins of the Modern World: A Global and Ecological Narrative 9

o In the meantime, in Europe the black rat took refuge in houses, driven
indoors by a worsening climate, and less natural habitat as Europes
population expanded.
o The Mongols carried the fleas across their empire, which spanned the
Eurasian continent. They infected rodents along the way.
o By this time Europe had developed a trade network that linked the
fairs of France to the merchant ships of Genoa and Venice. These ships
intersected the Mongols northern trade route at the Black Sea port of
Caffa.
o In December 1346, Genoese and Venetian ships were docked at Caffa
as it was besieged by a Mongol prince.
o Unfortunately for the Mongols, they were beset by the plague and
forced to withdraw. Before leaving, they catapaulted dead corpses
into the city, causing an outbreak of the plague
o As the Italians fled, they carried rats and fleas that carried the plague,
bringing them back to Europe.
o The plague might have died out, except for two three factors
The fleas spread to the black rats in the cities and homes of
Europeans
European had no immunity, and could spread the disease by
coughing.
Cities of Europe were much closer together and more tightly
bound by trade, creating a highway for the disease
Within four years it had reached Sweden and Moscow
Thus, like famine, the plague was not a purely natural phenomenon. It was
spread by human activity along the trade networks.
o As a result Europes population by 20 million in a few years
o Although records are scarce, it most likely had a similar affect on the
Mongols, the Islamic world, and India as well
But, as the idea of conjuncture suggests, the influence of the plague went
beyond the number of people who died, as it produced essential structural
changes in Europe
o Those who survived inherited wealth and land, and were much better
off than before, especially peasants.
o The population grew rapidly and commerce increased
o The publishing of books and transfer of information took off, as there
was now an abundant supply of rags from which better, cheaper, and
more durable paper could be made. This translated into a larger,
faster and deeper transfer of information.

Conclusion: The Biological Old Regime
Like the millennia before it, during this period the human population lived
very much in the environment and had to be very mindful of the limits and
opportunities that it provided
Human population did not advance so fast as to threaten the environment or
wildlife
Agriculture provided not only food, but most of the raw materials of life, and
life was agrarian for all but 1% of the population.
The Biological Old Regime was organic
o It depended upon solar energy to grow crops for food and trees for
wood
o This approach limited the range of possibilities for people and their
history, as everything depended upon renewable resources
dependent upon the sun.
Agriculture was the primary means for altering the environment,
transforming one kind of ecosystem into another, which would more
efficiently feed people.
Still, by 1300 civilizations were pushing the environment limits, aided
temporarily by the Black Death
o By 1750 the population had doubled to 750 million
o This meant something had to change in terms of the number of people
and the availability of land.
Several immediate options appeared in the preceding age
o The Americas were a vast source of wealth and resources
o More highly developed trade networks allowed specialization
Specialization in turn allowed economies to produce more than
they had in the past
Still society remained bound by the limits of the Biological Old Regime
The next chapter examines the development of those trade networks