I have been trying to get to a book by an Oxford historian titled "The Silk Roads, a new history of the world." When I finally cornered it at the library and brought it home, naturally, I started by looking at the pictures. Imagine my surprise, there was one of Cortez meeting Xicotencatl! He was the leader of native allies of Cortez against the Aztecs, their age-old enemies.
Okay ... I guess it's really "the world" and how Mexican mineral wealth crossed the Pacific to purchase goods from China.
Then, I realized that I was looking at that iconic painting of the
Boston Tea Party, NyBoy mentioned upstream. I'd expected something on tea, it couldn't all be silk carried overland or on that Pacific "road." It was painted in 1846. Of course, most of the
partiers were dead by then and their actions were subject to romanticism and revision.
I scanned the text with a certain amount of nervousness since this seemed like a very broad look at history, trade and conflict. I've been back through it 3 times and drifted off to read about the Tea Party and the Dutch source of tea to the colonies.
The East Indies company was bailed out by the British and prices jumped as the imperial government tried to clamp down on tea smuggling. It was kind of Bernanke/Paulson meets Smoot/Hawley. But, I mean, tea was rotting in British ports waiting for delivery!
Something we may have missed in our social studies class was that the British declared war on the Dutch during the American Revolution. Something else missed was that the Dutch were only too happy to recognize the new government in North America after 1781.
Shoot! What a tumultuous time! And, it wasn't just in the 18th century but right on to the present from prehistoric times. Lots of despicable behavior ... greed.
Steve