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A Merchant's Rule: Thomas Mun and the Race for Trade worksheet preview

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A Merchant's Rule: Thomas Mun and the Race for Trade

Grade 7 economics: how sea routes and joint-stock companies changed world trade, plus an adapted excerpt from merchant Thomas Mun to source.

Grade 7Social StudiesInteractive · Printable

Aligned toECO.7.2

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What’s included

  • Single worksheet
  • Auto-graded online
  • 1 C3 Framework standard
  • Printable answer key
  • 12 questions
  • Classroom-ready

Details

Format
Interactive · Printable
Grade
Grade 7
Subject
Social Studies
Question types
Fill in the blank, Multiple choice, Matching, Circle the answer, Sorting, Short answer

About this worksheet

What students practice

  • Students explain how new sea routes and American silver changed world trade after 1500.
  • Students identify mercantilist policies and explain how joint-stock companies spread risk.
  • Students source an adapted excerpt by asking who wrote it, when and why.

How to use

Read the passage first, then read the sourcing note aloud before students study the excerpt and the trade table. Use the last question for a short written argument.

Curriculum

C3 Framework standard covered

ECO.7.2

Explain mercantilism, joint-stock companies and how the Age of Exploration changed world trade.

Preview

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A Merchant's Rule: Thomas Mun and the Race for Trade

Read about new sea routes and trading companies, then source a London merchant's argument.

New routes, new rules

Read the passage. Then answer the questions.

How Exploration Remade World Trade

1Before 1500, pepper, cinnamon, silk and other Asian goods reached Europe along long land and sea routes. A sack of pepper might pass through the hands of Indian, Arab and Ottoman traders before merchants from Venice or Genoa carried it across the Mediterranean. Each trader along the way added a profit, so by the time the pepper reached a market in Europe, it cost many times what it had cost where it was grown.

2European rulers wanted a share of this trade. In 1498 the Portuguese captain Vasco da Gama sailed around Africa and reached India. Spain sponsored Columbus, whose voyages after 1492 led to Spanish conquests in the Americas. In 1545 the Spanish found a huge silver mountain at Potosí, in what is now Bolivia. American silver poured into Spain, and much of it was eventually spent in Asia, especially China, to buy silk, porcelain and tea. Over the next century, Atlantic ports such as Lisbon, Seville, Amsterdam and London grew busy, while Venice handled a smaller share of Europe's trade.

3Many European leaders of this time believed in an idea later called mercantilism. They saw gold and silver as the measure of a nation's wealth and thought the world's wealth was limited, so one country's gain was another's loss. A mercantilist government tried to export more than it imported. It taxed foreign goods, rewarded merchants who sold goods abroad, and expected colonies to send raw materials home and to buy finished goods only from the home country.

4Long voyages cost a great deal and often failed. Storms, pirates, disease and wars could sink a fleet. To raise money and share the danger, merchants formed joint-stock companies. A company sold shares to many investors. If a voyage made a profit, each investor received part of it according to the shares he owned; if it failed, the loss was spread among them all. Queen Elizabeth I granted the English East India Company a charter in 1600, and the Dutch East India Company followed in 1602. In 1607 the Virginia Company of London founded Jamestown. Governments often gave these companies monopolies, the sole right to trade in a region, in return for their help in building national power.

1.
According to paragraph 1, why did pepper cost so much in European markets before 1500?
  • A. Pepper rotted on the way, so only a little arrived.
  • B. Pepper could only be grown in Venice and Genoa.
  • C. European kings banned pepper from being sold.
  • D. Many middlemen raised the price along the way.
2.
Which chain of causes and effects is best supported by paragraph 2?
  • A. Silver found at Potosí → Spain stops trading with Asia → Venice grows
  • B. New ocean routes → Atlantic ports grow → Venice's share shrinks
  • C. Atlantic ports shrink → Columbus sails → silver leaves China
  • D. Venice grows → da Gama sails around Africa → Atlantic ports shrink
3.
Sort each policy: does it fit mercantilism or go against it?
A high tax on cloth made in another countryA rule that a colony sell its tobacco only to the home countryA law letting ships from any nation trade freely in a colonyBuying more from abroad each year than the country sellsA reward for merchants who sell finished goods overseasLetting a colony build workshops to make its own cloth for sale
Fits mercantilismGoes against mercantilism
4.
Two hundred investors each buy shares in a joint-stock voyage. The ship sinks in a storm. Based on paragraph 4, what happens?
  • A. The loss is shared among the investors who bought shares.
  • B. The king repays the investors from the royal treasury.
  • C. The captain must repay each investor from his own pay.
  • D. The investors must sail on the next voyage for no pay.
5.
Draw a line from each year to the event the passage gives for it.
  1. 1498
  2. 1545
  3. 1600
  4. 1607
  1. A. Vasco da Gama reaches India by sea
  2. B. Silver is found at Potosí
  3. C. Jamestown is founded by the Virginia Company
  4. D. The English East India Company receives a charter

Source a merchant's argument

Read the sourcing note and the excerpt. Then answer the questions.

Sourcing note: Thomas Mun (1571–1641) was a London merchant and a director of the English East India Company. He wrote this book in the 1620s, during a slump in trade, when critics blamed the company for sending England's silver abroad to buy Asian goods. His son published it in 1664, after Mun's death.
Excerpt: adapted from Thomas Mun, England's Treasure by Foreign Trade
"The ordinary way to increase our wealth and treasure is by foreign trade, in which we must always keep this rule: to sell more to strangers each year than we buy from them in value.
Some say the East India trade carries our silver out of the kingdom. But the pepper, silk and indigo bought there with that silver are sold again to other countries for far more silver than we first sent out."
This table shows made-up numbers for an imagined kingdom.
An Imagined Kingdom's Trade (thousands of pounds)
YearValue of exportsValue of imports
Year 1500600
Year 2700550
Year 3400400
6.
Which year in the table follows Mun's rule for increasing a kingdom's wealth?
  • A. Year 3
  • B. Year 1
  • C. Year 2
  • D. All three years
7.
Use the table.

In the year that follows Mun's rule, the kingdom sold   thousand pounds more than it bought.

8.
In the second part of the excerpt, what criticism is Mun answering?
  • A. That the company's trade drained silver from England
  • B. That the company sold too many goods to strangers
  • C. That the company refused to trade with other countries
  • D. That the company's spices were poor in quality
9.
Circle the sentence in the sourcing note that best explains WHY Mun included the second part of the excerpt.

Thomas Mun (1571–1641) was a London merchant and a director of the English East India Company.He wrote this book in the 1620s, during a slump in trade, when critics blamed the company for sending England's silver abroad to buy Asian goods.His son published it in 1664, after Mun's death.

10.
Mun was a director of the East India Company. How should a historian take this into account when reading his argument?
  • A. He wrote for the Dutch company, so he wanted England to lose.
  • B. He wanted the trade with Asia to end, so he exaggerated its harm.
  • C. He had a personal reason to defend the company against its critics.
  • D. He knew nothing about trade, so his numbers can be ignored.
11.
How does Mun's argument fit the ideas in paragraph 3?
  • A. He wants England to buy more than it sells.
  • B. He measures England's wealth by its treasure, as mercantilists did.
  • C. He argues that every country can grow rich at once.
  • D. He says colonies should build their own workshops.
12.
Claim: Thomas Mun's argument served both England's interests, as mercantilists saw them, and his own company's interests. Do you agree? Use evidence from the excerpt, the sourcing note and the passage, and explain your reasoning.

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