Evaluate the nature and significance of external economic relations for China and India immediately before the emergence of European sea-borne trading links from c.1500. Discuss how the economies of these regions were affected by the expanding in trade.
In the first part of your essay it would be sensible to set out your answer for each of China and India separately though as part of your evaluation, it would be helpful to present some comparative comments before moving on to the second part of the question.
Notice that the question refers to the period before c.1500 after which the sea-borne trading links with Europe became more significant. While your discussion may comment on events many centuries prior to c.1500, try to focus on the century, or so, before c.1500.
In this regard “external economic relations” refers mainly to trading links but could go beyond this to refer to any sort of international relations for which there was an economic aspect.
The second part of your essay should comprise around 40-50% of the whole, beginning with a brief overview of the pattern of European involvement in sea-borne trade with Asia in the centuries before c.1800 (the year 1800 is not itself significant except to emphasise that the major developments during the 19th century should be excluded from your answer).
In your discussion, you should include the variety of economic links (including colonisation) and how they changed in the three centuries before c.1800. The main challenge for you is to set out your coverage in a systematic way, transparent to the reader – it is how well you do this that will be a major determinant of your mark.
Findlay & O’Rourke, Power and Plenty, esp. pp. 61–71, 133–140, 145–157, 167–187.
de Zwart & van Zanden, The Origins of Globalisation, ch. 6 and 8.
