(1) From the 1500s to the 1800s, ships linked Europe, Africa and the Americas in a system of trade often called the triangular trade. The map shows its three main routes.
(2) European merchants carried manufactured goods to West Africa and traded them for enslaved people. The forced voyage of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic to the Americas was called the Middle Passage. Captives were chained below deck for weeks in crowded, filthy conditions. Historians estimate that about 12.5 million Africans were forced onto slave ships and that roughly 10.7 million survived the voyage.
(3) In the Americas, enslaved people were forced to work on plantations growing sugar, tobacco, rice and, later, cotton. Ships then carried these crops—and molasses, a sugar product used to make rum—to Europe and to New England. Colonial and European merchants grew rich, while enslaved Africans received nothing for their labor.
According to the map, what was carried from West Africa to the Americas?
Hint
Find the arrow that starts at West Africa and points to the Americas.
Step-by-step solution
On the map, Route 2 starts at West Africa and points to the Americas. Its label reads "Enslaved Africans." Paragraph 2 confirms this: "The forced voyage of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic to the Americas was called the Middle Passage."
The answer is enslaved Africans.
The other choices come from the other two routes: cloth and guns went from Europe to Africa (Route 1), and sugar and tobacco went from the Americas to Europe (Route 3).
Tip: on a flow map, the arrowhead shows direction. Trace each arrow from its tail (start) to its head (end) before reading its label.
Question 2 of 36
Hot spotThe Triangular Trade
(1) From the 1500s to the 1800s, ships linked Europe, Africa and the Americas in a system of trade often called the triangular trade. The map shows its three main routes.
(2) European merchants carried manufactured goods to West Africa and traded them for enslaved people. The forced voyage of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic to the Americas was called the Middle Passage. Captives were chained below deck for weeks in crowded, filthy conditions. Historians estimate that about 12.5 million Africans were forced onto slave ships and that roughly 10.7 million survived the voyage.
(3) In the Americas, enslaved people were forced to work on plantations growing sugar, tobacco, rice and, later, cotton. Ships then carried these crops—and molasses, a sugar product used to make rum—to Europe and to New England. Colonial and European merchants grew rich, while enslaved Africans received nothing for their labor.
Click the numbered route on the map that shows the Middle Passage.
Click on the figure to mark your answer (or focus it and use the arrow keys).
Hint
Paragraph 2 defines the Middle Passage. Which route matches that definition?
Step-by-step solution
Paragraph 2 defines the term: "The forced voyage of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic to the Americas was called the Middle Passage."
On the map, Route 2 runs from West Africa across the Atlantic to the Americas and is labeled "Enslaved Africans." That is the Middle Passage.
Route 1 (Europe → West Africa) was the first leg, carrying manufactured goods. Route 3 (Americas → Europe) was the last leg, carrying plantation crops. The Middle Passage got its name because it was the middle leg of the three-part voyage.
Tip: when a question uses a special term, find where the passage defines it, then match the definition's key details (who, from where, to where) to the map.
Question 3 of 36
The Triangular Trade
(1) From the 1500s to the 1800s, ships linked Europe, Africa and the Americas in a system of trade often called the triangular trade. The map shows its three main routes.
(2) European merchants carried manufactured goods to West Africa and traded them for enslaved people. The forced voyage of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic to the Americas was called the Middle Passage. Captives were chained below deck for weeks in crowded, filthy conditions. Historians estimate that about 12.5 million Africans were forced onto slave ships and that roughly 10.7 million survived the voyage.
(3) In the Americas, enslaved people were forced to work on plantations growing sugar, tobacco, rice and, later, cotton. Ships then carried these crops—and molasses, a sugar product used to make rum—to Europe and to New England. Colonial and European merchants grew rich, while enslaved Africans received nothing for their labor.
What does the map suggest about the economic roles of the regions in the triangular trade?
Hint
Compare what kind of goods left Europe with what kind of goods left the Americas.
Step-by-step solution
Look at what each route carried:
Route 1 (from Europe): manufactured goods—cloth, guns, metal goods, rum.
Route 3 (from the Americas): raw materials and crops—sugar, tobacco, cotton, molasses.
Paragraph 3 adds that these crops were grown on plantations by enslaved people. So the map suggests that the colonies in the Americas produced raw materials, while Europe produced manufactured goods. This pattern fits mercantilism, the idea that colonies supply raw materials and buy the home country's finished products.
Tip: "suggest" questions ask for a reasonable conclusion from the evidence. Group the details into categories (finished goods vs. raw materials) to see the pattern.
Question 4 of 36
Hot spotTwo Routes for Asian Spices
(1) Around 1450, pepper, cloves, nutmeg and cinnamon from India and the Spice Islands reached Europe by a long chain of traders. The map shows this older route as Route A. Asian and Arab merchants carried spices across the Indian Ocean and up the Red Sea. In the Egyptian port of Alexandria, merchants from Venice bought the spices and shipped them across the Mediterranean Sea. Venice then sold them to buyers all over Europe. Each trader along the way added a profit to the price.
(2) Portugal looked for a way around this chain. In 1497 Vasco da Gama's fleet sailed from Lisbon, around the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa, and across the Indian Ocean, reaching Calicut, India, in 1498. This is Route B. Portuguese ships could now load pepper in India and carry it straight home.
(3) The new route was long and dangerous. Voyages around Africa took many months, and storms and disease killed many sailors. Even so, Lisbon became a major spice market in the early 1500s, and for a time Venice's spice trade suffered.
Click the city on the map where, on Route A, spices passed from Arab merchants to Venetian merchants.
Click on the figure to mark your answer (or focus it and use the arrow keys).
Hint
Paragraph 1 names the port where Venetians bought the spices. Then find that city on the red dashed route.
Step-by-step solution
Evidence: Paragraph 1 says spices were carried "up the Red Sea. In the Egyptian port of Alexandria, merchants from Venice bought the spices." On the map, Alexandria is the point in Egypt on the red dashed Route A, where the route turns north across the Mediterranean toward Venice.
Step by step:
Identify Route A: the red dashed line (see the legend).
Follow it from the Spice Islands to Calicut, then up toward Egypt.
The handoff city named in the text is Alexandria—click it.
The correct answer is Alexandria.
Check: Venice is where the spices ended up after the Venetians bought them, not where they bought them; Calicut and Lisbon are on Route B's ends.
Tip: On map items, match the words in the question to the legend first, then use the text to name the exact place.
Question 5 of 36
Two Routes for Asian Spices
(1) Around 1450, pepper, cloves, nutmeg and cinnamon from India and the Spice Islands reached Europe by a long chain of traders. The map shows this older route as Route A. Asian and Arab merchants carried spices across the Indian Ocean and up the Red Sea. In the Egyptian port of Alexandria, merchants from Venice bought the spices and shipped them across the Mediterranean Sea. Venice then sold them to buyers all over Europe. Each trader along the way added a profit to the price.
(2) Portugal looked for a way around this chain. In 1497 Vasco da Gama's fleet sailed from Lisbon, around the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa, and across the Indian Ocean, reaching Calicut, India, in 1498. This is Route B. Portuguese ships could now load pepper in India and carry it straight home.
(3) The new route was long and dangerous. Voyages around Africa took many months, and storms and disease killed many sailors. Even so, Lisbon became a major spice market in the early 1500s, and for a time Venice's spice trade suffered.
Based on the map and the passage, why did Route B threaten the wealth of Venice?
Hint
Look at which cities Route B passes through—and which it skips.
Step-by-step solution
Evidence: Paragraph 1 says Venice bought spices in Alexandria and "then sold them to buyers all over Europe." Paragraph 2 says that on Route B "Portuguese ships could now load pepper in India and carry it straight home." On the map, the blue Route B goes from Lisbon around Africa to Calicut and never touches Alexandria or Venice.
Step by step:
Venice earned money as a middleman on Route A.
Route B lets Portugal buy directly in India.
So European buyers could get spices without Venice—Venice loses customers and profits.
The correct answer is Portugal could buy spices in India and bring them to Europe without passing through Venice's markets.
Check: Paragraph 3 confirms the result: "for a time Venice's spice trade suffered."
Tip: When a new trade route appears, ask who gets cut out. The middlemen who are skipped are the ones who lose.
Question 6 of 36
Drag and dropCrops, Animals and Germs Cross the Ocean
(1) After 1492, plants, animals and diseases crossed the Atlantic in both directions.
From the Americas to Africa, Europe and Asia
From Africa, Europe and Asia to the Americas
Cassava (manioc), tomatoes, chili peppers
Coffee, sugarcane, bananas
Cacao, turkeys
Cattle, pigs, honeybees
Malaria, yellow fever
(2) Cassava, a starchy root first grown in South America, was carried to Africa by Portuguese traders. It grew in poor soil and survived droughts, and it became a major food in West and Central Africa. Chili peppers from the Americas spread quickly through Asia and became central to cooking in India and Thailand. Tomatoes slowly became part of Italian cooking.
(3) Animals from Europe changed the land in the Americas. Cattle and pigs multiplied rapidly. Free-roaming herds trampled and ate the fields of Indigenous farmers, who often lost their harvests. Over time, huge cattle herds spread across the grasslands of Mexico and Argentina, and hides and beef became major exports.
(4) Coffee, first grown in Africa and the Middle East, was planted in the Americas in the 1700s. By the mid-1800s, Brazil was the world's leading coffee producer. Like sugar, coffee was grown on plantations that relied on the labor of enslaved Africans.
Drag the item that best matches each description. One item will not be used.
Description
Item
A root crop from South America that became a major food in Central Africa
A crop from Africa and the Middle East that made Brazil a leading exporter
A spice plant from the Americas that became central to cooking in India
An animal from Europe whose herds spread across the grasslands of Argentina
Tap a tile, then tap a box to place it.
Hint
Use the table to check each item's direction of travel, then the paragraphs for where it became important.
Step-by-step solution
Match each description to the evidence in the passage:
Cassava — paragraph 2: "a starchy root first grown in South America" that "became a major food in West and Central Africa."
Coffee — paragraph 4: "first grown in Africa and the Middle East"; "By the mid-1800s, Brazil was the world's leading coffee producer."
Chili peppers — paragraph 2: they "became central to cooking in India and Thailand."
Cattle — paragraph 3: "huge cattle herds spread across the grasslands of Mexico and Argentina."
Tomatoes are not used. They did come from the Americas, but the passage links them to Italian cooking, not to any of these four descriptions.
Check: Each item's direction in the table agrees with its description (cassava and chili peppers in the left column; coffee and cattle in the right column).
Tip: In Columbian Exchange questions, keep two facts apart: where something came from and where it became important.
Question 7 of 36
Mercantilism and the Colonies
(1) From the 1500s to the 1700s, most European governments followed an economic theory called mercantilism. Mercantilists believed that the world's wealth was limited and was measured mainly in gold and silver. A nation grew stronger by gaining a larger share of that wealth. The best way to do so was to export more than it imported, so that gold and silver flowed in from other countries.
(2) Colonies were central to this plan. They supplied the home country with raw materials it would otherwise have to buy from rivals, and they served as a protected market for the home country's manufactured goods. In the mercantilist view, colonies existed to benefit the home country.
(3) England put these ideas into law. Beginning in 1651, the Navigation Acts required that goods traded with English colonies be carried on English or colonial ships. A later act (1660) added that certain valuable "enumerated" goods, such as tobacco and sugar, could be shipped only to England or to other English colonies. Many colonists ignored the laws and smuggled goods to and from other nations' colonies. For decades England enforced the laws loosely. When Parliament began enforcing trade laws and taxes more strictly after 1763, colonial anger grew—one of the tensions that led to the American Revolution.
(4) The table shows one year of trade between the fictional kingdom of Aldoria and its colonies, in thousands of pounds.
Aldoria's exports to its colonies
Value
Aldoria's imports from its colonies
Value
Woolen and linen cloth
420
Sugar
260
Iron tools and nails
180
Tobacco
150
Glass and pottery
110
Timber and naval supplies
90
Guns and gunpowder
190
Furs and hides
140
Total
900
Total
640
Which statement best summarizes the mercantilist view of colonies described in the passage?
Hint
Look at the last sentence of paragraph 2.
Step-by-step solution
Paragraph 2 explains that colonies "supplied the home country with raw materials" and "served as a protected market for the home country's manufactured goods," and ends: "In the mercantilist view, colonies existed to benefit the home country." Paragraph 1 adds the goal: export more than you import so gold and silver flow in.
So the best summary is that colonies should provide raw materials and markets that increase the home country's wealth.
The other choices describe ideas that came later or contradict mercantilism—free trade, colonial independence, and self-sufficient colonial industry all worked against the home country's control.
Tip: summary questions need the choice that covers the whole idea in the passage's terms. A choice that sounds modern or fair is not automatically what the historical theory said.
Question 8 of 36
Mercantilism and the Colonies
(1) From the 1500s to the 1700s, most European governments followed an economic theory called mercantilism. Mercantilists believed that the world's wealth was limited and was measured mainly in gold and silver. A nation grew stronger by gaining a larger share of that wealth. The best way to do so was to export more than it imported, so that gold and silver flowed in from other countries.
(2) Colonies were central to this plan. They supplied the home country with raw materials it would otherwise have to buy from rivals, and they served as a protected market for the home country's manufactured goods. In the mercantilist view, colonies existed to benefit the home country.
(3) England put these ideas into law. Beginning in 1651, the Navigation Acts required that goods traded with English colonies be carried on English or colonial ships. A later act (1660) added that certain valuable "enumerated" goods, such as tobacco and sugar, could be shipped only to England or to other English colonies. Many colonists ignored the laws and smuggled goods to and from other nations' colonies. For decades England enforced the laws loosely. When Parliament began enforcing trade laws and taxes more strictly after 1763, colonial anger grew—one of the tensions that led to the American Revolution.
(4) The table shows one year of trade between the fictional kingdom of Aldoria and its colonies, in thousands of pounds.
Aldoria's exports to its colonies
Value
Aldoria's imports from its colonies
Value
Woolen and linen cloth
420
Sugar
260
Iron tools and nails
180
Tobacco
150
Glass and pottery
110
Timber and naval supplies
90
Guns and gunpowder
190
Furs and hides
140
Total
900
Total
640
According to the passage, how did many colonists respond to the Navigation Acts?
Hint
Paragraph 3 describes what many colonists did.
Step-by-step solution
Paragraph 3 says: "Many colonists ignored the laws and smuggled goods to and from other nations' colonies." It then explains that when Parliament began stricter enforcement after 1763, "colonial anger grew—one of the tensions that led to the American Revolution."
The answer is they evaded the laws by smuggling.
Why not the others? The passage never says colonists asked for stricter enforcement or stopped growing tobacco, and the Revolution came much later (1775), not immediately in 1651.
Tip: for "according to the passage" questions, the answer is stated almost word for word. Skim for a key word from the question (here, colonists) and read the sentence around it.
Question 9 of 36
Fill inMercantilism and the Colonies
(1) From the 1500s to the 1700s, most European governments followed an economic theory called mercantilism. Mercantilists believed that the world's wealth was limited and was measured mainly in gold and silver. A nation grew stronger by gaining a larger share of that wealth. The best way to do so was to export more than it imported, so that gold and silver flowed in from other countries.
(2) Colonies were central to this plan. They supplied the home country with raw materials it would otherwise have to buy from rivals, and they served as a protected market for the home country's manufactured goods. In the mercantilist view, colonies existed to benefit the home country.
(3) England put these ideas into law. Beginning in 1651, the Navigation Acts required that goods traded with English colonies be carried on English or colonial ships. A later act (1660) added that certain valuable "enumerated" goods, such as tobacco and sugar, could be shipped only to England or to other English colonies. Many colonists ignored the laws and smuggled goods to and from other nations' colonies. For decades England enforced the laws loosely. When Parliament began enforcing trade laws and taxes more strictly after 1763, colonial anger grew—one of the tensions that led to the American Revolution.
(4) The table shows one year of trade between the fictional kingdom of Aldoria and its colonies, in thousands of pounds.
Aldoria's exports to its colonies
Value
Aldoria's imports from its colonies
Value
Woolen and linen cloth
420
Sugar
260
Iron tools and nails
180
Tobacco
150
Glass and pottery
110
Timber and naval supplies
90
Guns and gunpowder
190
Furs and hides
140
Total
900
Total
640
According to the table, Aldoria had a favorable balance of trade with its colonies. By how much did Aldoria's exports exceed its imports, in thousands of pounds?
thousand pounds
Type your answer in the box. Fractions like 3/4 are fine.
Aldoria's exports exceeded its imports by 260 thousand pounds (£260,000). A favorable balance of trade (a surplus) was exactly what mercantilists wanted (paragraph 1): "export more than it imported, so that gold and silver flowed in."
Notice the pattern in the table too: Aldoria exported manufactured goods (cloth, tools, glass, guns) and imported raw materials (sugar, tobacco, timber, furs)—the colonial relationship paragraph 2 describes.
Tip: read table headings carefully. "Exports to its colonies" means goods leaving Aldoria; "imports from its colonies" means goods arriving. Mixing the columns reverses the sign.
Question 10 of 36
Drag and dropThe Columbian Exchange
(1) Christopher Columbus's voyage in 1492 began a huge transfer of plants, animals, people and diseases between the Eastern Hemisphere (Europe, Africa and Asia) and the Western Hemisphere (the Americas). Historians call it the Columbian Exchange.
From the Americas to the Eastern Hemisphere
From the Eastern Hemisphere to the Americas
Maize (corn), potatoes, tomatoes
Wheat, rice, sugarcane, coffee, bananas
Cacao (chocolate), peanuts, chili peppers, squash
Horses, cattle, pigs, sheep, chickens
Tobacco
Smallpox, measles, influenza
(2) Crops from the Americas changed diets around the world. Potatoes grew well in cool, wet climates and produced many calories per acre, and they became a staple food in Ireland and much of northern Europe. Maize became a staple in parts of Africa, and sweet potatoes and maize spread in China. More food helped populations in these regions grow during the 1700s and 1800s.
(3) The exchange was deadly for the peoples of the Americas. They had no immunity to diseases such as smallpox and measles, which had long existed in Europe, Africa and Asia. Epidemics spread ahead of the colonizers themselves. Historians estimate that in some regions the Indigenous population fell by as much as 90 percent within a century of contact. War, forced labor and the loss of land added to the toll.
(4) European animals transformed life in the Americas. Horses, brought by the Spanish, changed how many Plains peoples hunted bison and traveled. Sugarcane and Europe's demand for sugar led colonists to build huge plantations in the Caribbean and Brazil, worked by enslaved Africans.
Drag the item that best matches each description. One item will not be used.
Description
Item
A crop from the Americas that became a staple food in Ireland
An animal brought by the Spanish that changed how Plains peoples hunted bison
A disease that killed huge numbers of Indigenous people
A crop from the Americas that became a staple in parts of Africa
Tap a tile, then tap a box to place it.
Hint
Check the table for each item's direction, then the paragraphs for the details.
Step-by-step solution
Match each description to the evidence:
Potato — paragraph 2: potatoes "became a staple food in Ireland and much of northern Europe." The table lists potatoes as going from the Americas.
Horse — paragraph 4: "Horses, brought by the Spanish, changed how many Plains peoples hunted bison."
Smallpox — paragraph 3: Indigenous peoples "had no immunity to diseases such as smallpox and measles."
Maize (corn) — paragraph 2: "Maize became a staple in parts of Africa."
Wheat is not used. It traveled the other way—from the Eastern Hemisphere to the Americas—so it cannot be a crop "from the Americas."
Tip: in Columbian Exchange questions, direction matters. A quick memory hook: the Americas gave the world the "three sisters" of corn, beans and squash, plus potatoes, tomatoes and cacao; Europe sent livestock, wheat and deadly diseases.
Question 11 of 36
The Columbian Exchange
(1) Christopher Columbus's voyage in 1492 began a huge transfer of plants, animals, people and diseases between the Eastern Hemisphere (Europe, Africa and Asia) and the Western Hemisphere (the Americas). Historians call it the Columbian Exchange.
From the Americas to the Eastern Hemisphere
From the Eastern Hemisphere to the Americas
Maize (corn), potatoes, tomatoes
Wheat, rice, sugarcane, coffee, bananas
Cacao (chocolate), peanuts, chili peppers, squash
Horses, cattle, pigs, sheep, chickens
Tobacco
Smallpox, measles, influenza
(2) Crops from the Americas changed diets around the world. Potatoes grew well in cool, wet climates and produced many calories per acre, and they became a staple food in Ireland and much of northern Europe. Maize became a staple in parts of Africa, and sweet potatoes and maize spread in China. More food helped populations in these regions grow during the 1700s and 1800s.
(3) The exchange was deadly for the peoples of the Americas. They had no immunity to diseases such as smallpox and measles, which had long existed in Europe, Africa and Asia. Epidemics spread ahead of the colonizers themselves. Historians estimate that in some regions the Indigenous population fell by as much as 90 percent within a century of contact. War, forced labor and the loss of land added to the toll.
(4) European animals transformed life in the Americas. Horses, brought by the Spanish, changed how many Plains peoples hunted bison and traveled. Sugarcane and Europe's demand for sugar led colonists to build huge plantations in the Caribbean and Brazil, worked by enslaved Africans.
According to the passage, how did crops from the Americas affect populations in Europe, Africa and Asia?
Hint
Paragraph 2 explains what happened when these crops spread.
Step-by-step solution
Paragraph 2 says potatoes "produced many calories per acre" and became a staple in Ireland and northern Europe, maize became a staple in parts of Africa, and sweet potatoes and maize spread in China. It concludes: "More food helped populations in these regions grow during the 1700s and 1800s."
The answer is more abundant food helped populations grow.
The population decline described in paragraph 3 happened in the Americas, caused by disease—not in Europe, Africa or Asia. Keep the two hemispheres straight.
Tip: many GED questions on the Columbian Exchange test whether you can keep who gained and who lost straight. Note which region each paragraph is about.
Question 12 of 36
The Columbian Exchange
(1) Christopher Columbus's voyage in 1492 began a huge transfer of plants, animals, people and diseases between the Eastern Hemisphere (Europe, Africa and Asia) and the Western Hemisphere (the Americas). Historians call it the Columbian Exchange.
From the Americas to the Eastern Hemisphere
From the Eastern Hemisphere to the Americas
Maize (corn), potatoes, tomatoes
Wheat, rice, sugarcane, coffee, bananas
Cacao (chocolate), peanuts, chili peppers, squash
Horses, cattle, pigs, sheep, chickens
Tobacco
Smallpox, measles, influenza
(2) Crops from the Americas changed diets around the world. Potatoes grew well in cool, wet climates and produced many calories per acre, and they became a staple food in Ireland and much of northern Europe. Maize became a staple in parts of Africa, and sweet potatoes and maize spread in China. More food helped populations in these regions grow during the 1700s and 1800s.
(3) The exchange was deadly for the peoples of the Americas. They had no immunity to diseases such as smallpox and measles, which had long existed in Europe, Africa and Asia. Epidemics spread ahead of the colonizers themselves. Historians estimate that in some regions the Indigenous population fell by as much as 90 percent within a century of contact. War, forced labor and the loss of land added to the toll.
(4) European animals transformed life in the Americas. Horses, brought by the Spanish, changed how many Plains peoples hunted bison and traveled. Sugarcane and Europe's demand for sugar led colonists to build huge plantations in the Caribbean and Brazil, worked by enslaved Africans.
According to the passage, what was the main cause of the steep decline in Indigenous populations after contact?
Hint
Paragraph 3 names several causes. Which does it describe first and in the most detail?
Step-by-step solution
Paragraph 3 explains: Indigenous peoples "had no immunity to diseases such as smallpox and measles," and "Epidemics spread ahead of the colonizers themselves." It then says "War, forced labor and the loss of land added to the toll."
The word added signals that war, forced labor and land loss were additional causes. The main cause was diseases to which Indigenous peoples had no immunity.
The idea that epidemics spread "ahead of the colonizers" also explains why war alone cannot account for the decline—many communities were devastated before they ever fought Europeans.
Tip: watch for signal words that rank causes: main, primary, chiefly vs. also, added to, in addition. The GED often makes a secondary cause a tempting wrong answer.
Question 13 of 36
Drag and dropTimeline: Trade, Exploration and Empire
(1) The timeline lists key events in the European search for trade and colonies.
Year
Event
1453
The Ottoman Empire captures Constantinople and controls key trade routes between Europe and Asia.
1488
Bartolomeu Dias, sailing for Portugal, rounds the Cape of Good Hope at the tip of Africa.
1492
Christopher Columbus, sailing for Spain to reach Asia by going west, reaches islands in the Caribbean.
1498
Vasco da Gama reaches Calicut, India; Portugal begins a direct sea trade in spices.
1503
Spain creates the House of Trade in Seville to control all trade with its American colonies.
1545
Spanish colonists find enormous silver deposits at Potosí, in present-day Bolivia.
1565
Spanish galleons begin carrying American silver across the Pacific to Manila to buy Chinese silk and porcelain.
1600
The English East India Company is chartered to trade in Asia.
1602
The Dutch East India Company is chartered and soon competes with Portugal for the spice trade.
1607
The Virginia Company, a joint-stock company, founds Jamestown.
1651
England passes its first Navigation Act to control colonial trade.
Use the timeline. Place these four turning points in the search for Asian trade in the order they happened, starting with the earliest.
1 (earliest)
2
3
4 (latest)
Tap a tile, then tap a box to place it.
Hint
Find each event's year in the timeline, write the four years down, then sort them.
Step-by-step solution
Evidence from the timeline:
The Ottoman Empire captures Constantinople — 1453
Vasco da Gama reaches Calicut, India — 1498
Silver is found at Potosí — 1545
The Dutch East India Company is chartered — 1602
Step by step: Sort the years from smallest to largest: 1453 → 1498 → 1545 → 1602.
The correct order is Constantinople captured, da Gama reaches India, silver found at Potosí, Dutch East India Company chartered.
Check: The order also makes sense as a story: Ottoman control of old routes (1453) pushed Portugal to find a sea route (1498); Spain's American silver (1545) paid for trade in Asia; later, the Dutch formed a company (1602) to compete for the spice trade.
Tip: For timeline items, jot down the year next to each event before you drag anything. Do not rely on memory of which event "feels" earlier.
Question 14 of 36
Two Views of Trade and Empire
Excerpt A is from England's Treasure by Forraign Trade by Thomas Mun, an English merchant, published in 1664. Excerpt B is from The Wealth of Nations by the Scottish economist Adam Smith, published in 1776. The original spelling is kept. ("Forraign" = foreign; "wee" = we; "strangers" = foreigners; "treasure" = gold and silver.)
Excerpt A — Thomas Mun (1664)
(1) Although a Kingdom may be enriched by gifts received, or by purchase taken from some other Nations, yet these are things uncertain and of small consideration when they happen. The ordinary means therefore to increase our wealth and treasure is by Forraign Trade, wherein wee must ever observe this rule; to sell more to strangers yearly than wee consume of theirs in value. … By this order duly kept in our trading, we may rest assured that the kingdom shall be enriched yearly two hundred thousand pounds, which must be brought to us in so much Treasure; because that part of our stock which is not returned to us in wares must necessarily be brought home in treasure….
Excerpt B — Adam Smith (1776)
(2) The land was good and of great extent, and the cultivators having plenty of good ground to work upon, and being for some time at liberty to sell their produce where they pleased, became in the course of little more than thirty or forty years (between 1620 and 1660) so numerous and thriving a people that the shopkeepers and other traders of England wished to secure to themselves the monopoly of their custom. …
(3) To found a great empire for the sole purpose of raising up a people of customers may at first sight appear a project fit only for a nation of shopkeepers. It is, however, a project altogether unfit for a nation of shopkeepers; but extremely fit for a nation whose government is influenced by shopkeepers. Such statesmen, and such statesmen only, are capable of fancying that they will find some advantage in employing the blood and treasure of their fellow-citizens to found and maintain such an empire. Say to a shopkeeper, "Buy me a good estate, and I shall always buy my clothes at your shop, even though I should pay somewhat dearer than what I can have them for at other shops"; and you will not find him very forward to embrace your proposal.
Which statement best summarizes the rule Thomas Mun gives in Excerpt A?
Hint
Find the sentence that begins "The ordinary means…" and put the rule after the semicolon into everyday words.
Step-by-step solution
Evidence: In Excerpt A, Mun writes that the "ordinary means" to increase wealth is foreign trade, "wherein wee must ever observe this rule; to sell more to strangers yearly than wee consume of theirs in value." "Strangers" means foreigners. He adds that the difference "must necessarily be brought home in treasure"—that is, in gold and silver.
Step by step:
Rule: sell more to foreigners than we buy from them, measured by value.
Result: the extra is paid to England in gold and silver.
This is the core idea of mercantilism: a favorable balance of trade.
The correct answer is A nation grows richer by selling more to other nations each year than it buys from them.
Check: Mun dismisses gifts and conquest ("purchase taken") as "uncertain and of small consideration," so they are not his main rule.
Tip: For old documents, translate the key sentence into modern words before you look at the answer choices.
Question 15 of 36
Empires and Colonial Trade Laws
(1) Every European empire tried to make its colonies serve the home country. The goal was the same: keep the colonies' trade—and the gold and silver it produced—inside the empire.
(2) Spain set up the Casa de Contratación (House of Trade) in Seville in 1503. All trade with Spanish America had to pass through it. After huge silver deposits were found at Potosí, in present-day Bolivia, in 1545, armed fleets carried silver to Spain each year, and only licensed Spanish merchants could trade with the colonies. France followed a similar rule, called the exclusif: its Caribbean sugar colonies were supposed to trade only with France.
(3) England passed the Navigation Acts, beginning in 1651, to keep colonial trade on English and colonial ships. In 1733 Parliament passed the Molasses Act. It placed a tax of sixpence per gallon on molasses that colonists bought from the French and Dutch West Indies. New England merchants used molasses to make rum, and French molasses was much cheaper than molasses from British islands. The tax was so high that paying it would have ruined the rum trade, so merchants smuggled molasses and bribed customs officers. Little of the tax was ever collected.
(4) In 1764 Parliament passed the Sugar Act. It lowered the tax on foreign molasses to threepence per gallon, but it also added customs officers and sent smuggling cases to special courts without juries. Now the tax would actually be collected. Colonial merchants protested loudly, and some colonists argued that Parliament had no right to tax people who had no representatives in it.
According to the passage, what was the main effect of the Molasses Act of 1733?
Hint
Read paragraph 3 to the end. What did merchants do instead of paying the tax?
Step-by-step solution
Evidence: Paragraph 3 says the tax was "so high that paying it would have ruined the rum trade, so merchants smuggled molasses and bribed customs officers. Little of the tax was ever collected."
Step by step:
Cause: a high tax on cheap French and Dutch molasses.
Merchants' response: smuggling and bribery.
Effect: the law raised little money and was widely evaded.
The correct answer is Merchants avoided the tax by smuggling and bribery, so little of it was collected.
Check: The passage gives no sign that New England stopped making rum or that the tax was collected in full—paragraph 4 even explains that the 1764 law was needed so the tax "would actually be collected."
Tip: On cause-and-effect questions, find the word so or because in the paragraph. It usually marks the effect the question wants.
Question 16 of 36
Fill inThe Price of Pepper
(1) Why did European rulers pay for risky voyages to Asia? The table helps explain. It follows one pound of pepper along the older trade route around the year 1450. The prices are illustrative numbers written for this app, not historical records, but they show the pattern historians describe.
Stop on the route
Who sold the pepper there
Price of one pound of pepper (silver coins)
Farm in southern India
Grower
1
Calicut, India
Indian merchants
2
Alexandria, Egypt
Arab merchants
9
Venice, Italy
Venetian merchants
13
Antwerp, northern Europe
Shopkeepers
18
(2) Every time the pepper changed hands, the seller added transport costs, taxes paid to local rulers, and a profit. The longest and most heavily taxed part of the journey was the trip from India across the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea to Egypt. A merchant who could buy pepper in India and ship it straight to Europe could skip several of these markups.
According to the table, the price of one pound of pepper in Antwerp was how many times its price in Calicut?
times
Type your answer in the box. Fractions like 3/4 are fine.
Hint
Divide the Antwerp price by the Calicut price—not the farm price.
Step-by-step solution
Evidence from the table: Calicut, India = 2 silver coins; Antwerp, northern Europe = 18 silver coins.
Step by step:
"How many times" means divide: 18 \div 2 = 9.
So the Antwerp price was 9 times the Calicut price.
The correct answer is 9.
Check:2 \times 9 = 18. ✔ Common slips: using the farm price (18 \div 1 = 18), or subtracting (18 - 2 = 16), which tells you how many coins more, not how many times as much.
Tip: "How many times as much" → divide. "How much more" → subtract. Read which one the question asks before you calculate.
Question 17 of 36
Crops, Animals and Germs Cross the Ocean
(1) After 1492, plants, animals and diseases crossed the Atlantic in both directions.
From the Americas to Africa, Europe and Asia
From Africa, Europe and Asia to the Americas
Cassava (manioc), tomatoes, chili peppers
Coffee, sugarcane, bananas
Cacao, turkeys
Cattle, pigs, honeybees
Malaria, yellow fever
(2) Cassava, a starchy root first grown in South America, was carried to Africa by Portuguese traders. It grew in poor soil and survived droughts, and it became a major food in West and Central Africa. Chili peppers from the Americas spread quickly through Asia and became central to cooking in India and Thailand. Tomatoes slowly became part of Italian cooking.
(3) Animals from Europe changed the land in the Americas. Cattle and pigs multiplied rapidly. Free-roaming herds trampled and ate the fields of Indigenous farmers, who often lost their harvests. Over time, huge cattle herds spread across the grasslands of Mexico and Argentina, and hides and beef became major exports.
(4) Coffee, first grown in Africa and the Middle East, was planted in the Americas in the 1700s. By the mid-1800s, Brazil was the world's leading coffee producer. Like sugar, coffee was grown on plantations that relied on the labor of enslaved Africans.
According to paragraph 3, how did livestock brought from Europe affect Indigenous farmers in the Americas?
Hint
Find the sentence in paragraph 3 that mentions Indigenous farmers.
Step-by-step solution
Evidence: Paragraph 3: "Free-roaming herds trampled and ate the fields of Indigenous farmers, who often lost their harvests."
Step by step:
The question asks about Indigenous farmers, not about the colonists who later exported hides and beef.
The sentence says the cattle and pigs damaged their fields.
The result was lost harvests.
The correct answer is Roaming cattle and pigs destroyed their crops, and they often lost their harvests.
Check: The export of hides and beef is also in paragraph 3, but it describes the later cattle economy of Mexico and Argentina—not what happened to Indigenous farmers' fields.
Tip: When a question names a specific group, find the sentence about that group. Other true details in the same paragraph are often traps.
Question 18 of 36
Two Routes for Asian Spices
(1) Around 1450, pepper, cloves, nutmeg and cinnamon from India and the Spice Islands reached Europe by a long chain of traders. The map shows this older route as Route A. Asian and Arab merchants carried spices across the Indian Ocean and up the Red Sea. In the Egyptian port of Alexandria, merchants from Venice bought the spices and shipped them across the Mediterranean Sea. Venice then sold them to buyers all over Europe. Each trader along the way added a profit to the price.
(2) Portugal looked for a way around this chain. In 1497 Vasco da Gama's fleet sailed from Lisbon, around the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa, and across the Indian Ocean, reaching Calicut, India, in 1498. This is Route B. Portuguese ships could now load pepper in India and carry it straight home.
(3) The new route was long and dangerous. Voyages around Africa took many months, and storms and disease killed many sailors. Even so, Lisbon became a major spice market in the early 1500s, and for a time Venice's spice trade suffered.
Based on the map and paragraph 3, which statement describes a disadvantage of Route B compared with Route A?
Hint
Compare the length of the two lines on the map, then read paragraph 3.
Step-by-step solution
Evidence: On the map, the blue Route B runs from Lisbon all the way down the west coast of Africa, around the Cape of Good Hope and across the Indian Ocean—a much longer line than the sea part of Route A. Paragraph 3 says: "The new route was long and dangerous. Voyages around Africa took many months, and storms and disease killed many sailors."
Step by step:
A disadvantage is a cost or risk.
The map shows the greater distance; the text names the risks.
So Route B meant longer, riskier voyages.
The correct answer is Ships had to sail much farther around Africa, so voyages took longer and cost more lives.
Check: The advantage of Route B (skipping middlemen) is real, but the question asks for a disadvantage.
Tip: When a question asks for a disadvantage, eliminate every choice that describes a benefit—even if it is true.
Question 19 of 36
The Price of Pepper
(1) Why did European rulers pay for risky voyages to Asia? The table helps explain. It follows one pound of pepper along the older trade route around the year 1450. The prices are illustrative numbers written for this app, not historical records, but they show the pattern historians describe.
Stop on the route
Who sold the pepper there
Price of one pound of pepper (silver coins)
Farm in southern India
Grower
1
Calicut, India
Indian merchants
2
Alexandria, Egypt
Arab merchants
9
Venice, Italy
Venetian merchants
13
Antwerp, northern Europe
Shopkeepers
18
(2) Every time the pepper changed hands, the seller added transport costs, taxes paid to local rulers, and a profit. The longest and most heavily taxed part of the journey was the trip from India across the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea to Egypt. A merchant who could buy pepper in India and ship it straight to Europe could skip several of these markups.
Look at how the price of pepper changed from stop to stop. What conclusion about a direct sea route to India do the table and paragraph 2 best support?
Hint
Find the biggest jump in price between two stops, then reread the last sentence of paragraph 2.
Step-by-step solution
Evidence: The table shows the price rising at every stop: 1 → 2 → 9 → 13 → 18. The biggest jump, +7 coins, is between Calicut (2) and Alexandria (9). Paragraph 2 says this was "the longest and most heavily taxed part of the journey" and that "a merchant who could buy pepper in India and ship it straight to Europe could skip several of these markups."
Step by step:
Price changes: +1, +7, +4, +5.
The largest markups came after India.
A direct sea route from India would avoid the Alexandria and Venice markups—exactly what Portugal later did.
The correct answer is A merchant who bought pepper in India and shipped it straight to Europe could avoid the markups added in Alexandria and Venice.
Check: Venetian merchants added 4 coins (9 → 13), less than the 7 coins added between Calicut and Alexandria.
Tip: With a price table, compute the change between each pair of rows. The biggest change usually points to the main idea.
Question 20 of 36
Select allA Colony's Trade Ledger
(1) The table shows one year of trade between New Haverly, a fictional English-style colony in North America around 1740, and its home country, the fictional kingdom of Estmark. Values are in thousands of pounds. Under Estmark's trade laws, New Haverly could sell its main crops only to Estmark and had to buy manufactured goods from Estmark's merchants.
New Haverly's exports to Estmark
Value
New Haverly's imports from Estmark
Value
Tobacco
310
Woolen and linen cloth
260
Timber and naval stores
85
Iron tools and hardware
140
Furs and deerskins
45
Tea (shipped from Asia through Estmark)
80
Indigo dye
40
Guns and gunpowder
70
Glass and paper
60
Total
480
Total
610
(2) Colonists paid the difference with what little gold and silver they had and with credit from Estmark's merchants. Many planters fell deeply into debt to those merchants, and colonists often complained that hard money was scarce.
Study New Haverly's trade ledger. Which statements about the colony's trade does the table, together with paragraph 1, support? Select all that apply.
Select all that apply.
Hint
Test each statement against the numbers. For tobacco, compare its value with half of the export total.
Step-by-step solution
Test each statement:
Tobacco made up more than half of New Haverly's exports to Estmark. Supported: 310 \div 480 \approx 0.65, about 65%. Half of 480 is 240, and 310 > 240.
Cloth was New Haverly's largest import from Estmark. Supported: cloth (260) is the largest value in the imports column.
New Haverly had a favorable balance of trade with Estmark. Not supported: the colony imported 610 and exported only 480, so it bought more than it sold.
New Haverly exported mostly manufactured goods. Not supported: tobacco, timber, furs and indigo are raw materials.
The pattern fits the mercantilist idea that colonies supply raw materials and buy finished goods. Supported: the colony sends crops and raw materials and buys cloth, tools, guns and glass, as paragraph 1's trade laws require.
The correct answers are tobacco more than half, cloth largest import, and fits mercantilism.
Check: Paragraph 2 also notes the colony had to pay "the difference," which confirms an unfavorable balance.
Tip: In select-all items, judge each statement alone. Do a quick calculation for any statement that uses words like more than half.
Question 21 of 36
Fill inCompanies of Adventurers
(1) Long trading voyages needed ships, crews, weapons and goods to trade—far more money than most merchants had alone. A voyage might take two years, and ships were often lost. To raise money and spread the risk, Europeans formed joint-stock companies. Many investors bought shares. When a voyage made money, the profit was paid out as a dividend, an equal amount for each share. In companies like these, an investor generally risked only the money he or she had paid for shares.
(2) Governments gave the largest companies a charter, a legal grant of special rights. The Dutch government chartered the Dutch East India Company in 1602 and gave it a monopoly on Dutch trade in Asia. It could build forts, make treaties and wage war. England's Hudson's Bay Company, chartered in 1670, traded with Indigenous peoples for furs in northern North America.
(3) Example (fictional): The Northern Star Company sold 800 shares at £50 each, raising £40,000. Its first voyage earned a profit of £36,000, which was divided equally among all 800 shares. Its second voyage ended when the ship sank in a storm, and the company lost everything invested in that voyage.
In the example in paragraph 3, a merchant owns 12 shares of the Northern Star Company. How many pounds of the first voyage's profit does she receive?
£
Type your answer in the box. Fractions like 3/4 are fine.
Hint
First find the dividend for one share, then multiply by the number of shares she owns.
Step-by-step solution
Evidence: Paragraph 3: the company sold "800 shares at £50 each" and the first voyage "earned a profit of £36,000, which was divided equally among all 800 shares."
Step by step:
Dividend per share: 36{,}000 \div 800 = 45 pounds.
Her 12 shares: 12 \times 45 = 540 pounds.
The correct answer is £540.
Check: Another way: she owns 12 \div 800 = 1.5\% of the company, and 1.5\% \times 36{,}000 = 540. ✔ The £50 share price is what she paid; it is not part of the dividend calculation (using it gives the wrong answer 12 \times 50 = 600).
Tip: Profit-sharing problems have two steps: amount per share, then times shares owned. Ignore numbers that describe cost when the question asks about profit.
Question 22 of 36
Timeline: Trade, Exploration and Empire
(1) The timeline lists key events in the European search for trade and colonies.
Year
Event
1453
The Ottoman Empire captures Constantinople and controls key trade routes between Europe and Asia.
1488
Bartolomeu Dias, sailing for Portugal, rounds the Cape of Good Hope at the tip of Africa.
1492
Christopher Columbus, sailing for Spain to reach Asia by going west, reaches islands in the Caribbean.
1498
Vasco da Gama reaches Calicut, India; Portugal begins a direct sea trade in spices.
1503
Spain creates the House of Trade in Seville to control all trade with its American colonies.
1545
Spanish colonists find enormous silver deposits at Potosí, in present-day Bolivia.
1565
Spanish galleons begin carrying American silver across the Pacific to Manila to buy Chinese silk and porcelain.
1600
The English East India Company is chartered to trade in Asia.
1602
The Dutch East India Company is chartered and soon competes with Portugal for the spice trade.
1607
The Virginia Company, a joint-stock company, founds Jamestown.
1651
England passes its first Navigation Act to control colonial trade.
According to the timeline, which event happened before Columbus reached the Caribbean?
Hint
Columbus's voyage is in 1492. Look for a year smaller than 1492 among the choices.
Step-by-step solution
Evidence: The timeline dates Columbus's arrival in the Caribbean to 1492. Dias rounded the Cape of Good Hope in 1488. Da Gama reached Calicut in 1498, Spain created the House of Trade in 1503, and silver was found at Potosí in 1545.
Step by step:
Anchor date: 1492.
"Before" means an earlier, smaller year.
Only 1488 is earlier than 1492.
The correct answer is Dias rounded the Cape of Good Hope.
Check: This fits the history: Portugal had already found the way around Africa when Spain backed Columbus's westward plan, and Portugal reached India by that route six years later.
Tip: On timeline questions, write the anchor year at the top of your erasable note board and compare every choice with it.
Question 23 of 36
Drop-downCrops, Animals and Germs Cross the Ocean
(1) After 1492, plants, animals and diseases crossed the Atlantic in both directions.
From the Americas to Africa, Europe and Asia
From Africa, Europe and Asia to the Americas
Cassava (manioc), tomatoes, chili peppers
Coffee, sugarcane, bananas
Cacao, turkeys
Cattle, pigs, honeybees
Malaria, yellow fever
(2) Cassava, a starchy root first grown in South America, was carried to Africa by Portuguese traders. It grew in poor soil and survived droughts, and it became a major food in West and Central Africa. Chili peppers from the Americas spread quickly through Asia and became central to cooking in India and Thailand. Tomatoes slowly became part of Italian cooking.
(3) Animals from Europe changed the land in the Americas. Cattle and pigs multiplied rapidly. Free-roaming herds trampled and ate the fields of Indigenous farmers, who often lost their harvests. Over time, huge cattle herds spread across the grasslands of Mexico and Argentina, and hides and beef became major exports.
(4) Coffee, first grown in Africa and the Middle East, was planted in the Americas in the 1700s. By the mid-1800s, Brazil was the world's leading coffee producer. Like sugar, coffee was grown on plantations that relied on the labor of enslaved Africans.
Use the passage to complete the sentences.
Coffee traveled . Cassava traveled . Together, these examples show that the Columbian Exchange .
Choose an answer from each menu.
Hint
Check the table column for each crop and paragraph 2 or 4 for where it went.
Step-by-step solution
Evidence: Paragraph 4: coffee was "first grown in Africa and the Middle East" and "planted in the Americas in the 1700s." Paragraph 2: cassava was "first grown in South America" and "carried to Africa by Portuguese traders." Paragraph 1: things "crossed the Atlantic in both directions."
Step by step:
Coffee: Africa and the Middle East → the Americas.
Cassava: the Americas → Africa.
Opposite directions → the exchange moved goods both ways.
The completed sentences: Coffee traveled from Africa and the Middle East to the Americas. Cassava traveled from the Americas to Africa. The exchange moved crops in both directions across the Atlantic.
Check: Coffee is in the right-hand table column (to the Americas); cassava is in the left-hand column (from the Americas).
Tip: Draw a quick arrow for each item (→ or ←) before you choose. Direction mistakes are the most common Columbian Exchange error.
Question 24 of 36
Empires and Colonial Trade Laws
(1) Every European empire tried to make its colonies serve the home country. The goal was the same: keep the colonies' trade—and the gold and silver it produced—inside the empire.
(2) Spain set up the Casa de Contratación (House of Trade) in Seville in 1503. All trade with Spanish America had to pass through it. After huge silver deposits were found at Potosí, in present-day Bolivia, in 1545, armed fleets carried silver to Spain each year, and only licensed Spanish merchants could trade with the colonies. France followed a similar rule, called the exclusif: its Caribbean sugar colonies were supposed to trade only with France.
(3) England passed the Navigation Acts, beginning in 1651, to keep colonial trade on English and colonial ships. In 1733 Parliament passed the Molasses Act. It placed a tax of sixpence per gallon on molasses that colonists bought from the French and Dutch West Indies. New England merchants used molasses to make rum, and French molasses was much cheaper than molasses from British islands. The tax was so high that paying it would have ruined the rum trade, so merchants smuggled molasses and bribed customs officers. Little of the tax was ever collected.
(4) In 1764 Parliament passed the Sugar Act. It lowered the tax on foreign molasses to threepence per gallon, but it also added customs officers and sent smuggling cases to special courts without juries. Now the tax would actually be collected. Colonial merchants protested loudly, and some colonists argued that Parliament had no right to tax people who had no representatives in it.
Which statement best expresses the main idea of the passage as a whole?
Hint
Paragraph 1 states the big idea; paragraphs 2–4 give examples from different empires.
Step-by-step solution
Evidence: Paragraph 1: "Every European empire tried to make its colonies serve the home country. The goal was the same: keep the colonies' trade—and the gold and silver it produced—inside the empire." Paragraphs 2–4 then give examples: Spain's House of Trade, France's exclusif, and England's Navigation Acts, Molasses Act and Sugar Act.
Step by step:
A main idea must cover the whole passage, not one paragraph.
Spain, France and England are all examples of the same pattern.
That pattern is controlling colonial trade for the home country's benefit.
The correct answer is European empires passed laws to control colonial trade so that its profits stayed with the home country.
Check: Each wrong choice is either one detail (smuggling, Potosí silver) or a claim the passage does not make.
Tip: Look for a choice that could serve as a title for every paragraph. Details are true but too narrow to be the main idea.
Question 25 of 36
Why Europeans Explored
(1) In the 1400s, Europeans wanted spices, silk and other goods from Asia. These goods traveled over long land and sea routes and passed through many hands—Asian, Arab and Ottoman traders, then Italian merchants from cities such as Venice—before reaching European buyers. Each middleman added to the price. After the Ottoman Empire captured Constantinople in 1453, it controlled key routes between Europe and Asia. European rulers hoped that an all-water route to Asia would let them bypass the middlemen and keep the profits.
(2) New technology made long ocean voyages possible: the caravel, a small, fast ship that could sail against the wind; the magnetic compass; and the astrolabe, used to estimate latitude. Explorers were also driven by the desire to spread Christianity and to win fame—motives often summed up as "God, gold and glory."
Years
Explorer
Sponsor
Goal
Result
1487–1488
Bartolomeu Dias
Portugal
Sea route around Africa toward Asia
Rounded the southern tip of Africa (Cape of Good Hope)
1492
Christopher Columbus
Spain
Reach Asia by sailing west
Reached islands in the Caribbean
1497
John Cabot
England
Reach Asia by a northern route west
Reached the coast of North America
1497–1499
Vasco da Gama
Portugal
Sea route to India
Reached Calicut, India (1498); returned with spices
1519–1522
Ferdinand Magellan's expedition
Spain
Western route to the Spice Islands
First voyage around the world; Magellan was killed in the Philippines in 1521, and Juan Sebastián Elcano led the survivors home
(3) Voyages were expensive and risky: ships sank, crews died of disease, and cargoes could be lost. To raise money and share the risk, merchants formed joint-stock companies. Investors bought shares; if a voyage succeeded, profits were divided according to the number of shares owned, and if it failed, each investor lost only the money he had put in. The English East India Company (1600), the Dutch East India Company (1602) and the Virginia Company, which founded Jamestown in 1607, were all joint-stock companies.
Which conclusion is best supported by both the table and paragraph 1?
Hint
Look at the Goal column. What do almost all the goals have in common, and why does paragraph 1 say rulers wanted it?
Step-by-step solution
The Goal column shows that every voyage aimed to reach Asia or the Spice Islands by sea: around Africa (Dias, da Gama) or by sailing west (Columbus, Cabot, Magellan). Paragraph 1 explains why: Asian goods "passed through many hands," each middleman "added to the price," and rulers hoped "an all-water route to Asia would let them bypass the middlemen and keep the profits."
So the best-supported conclusion is that explorers were seeking sea routes to Asian trade goods in order to avoid middlemen and increase profits.
Why the others fail: Columbus and Cabot reached the Americas by accident while looking for Asia, so the choice about planning colonies misreads the Goal column; England sponsored a voyage too; and the motives in paragraph 2 ("God, gold and glory") include more than science.
Tip: separate a voyage's goal from its result. Many wrong answers treat the result (reaching the Americas) as the goal.
Question 26 of 36
Select allWhy Europeans Explored
(1) In the 1400s, Europeans wanted spices, silk and other goods from Asia. These goods traveled over long land and sea routes and passed through many hands—Asian, Arab and Ottoman traders, then Italian merchants from cities such as Venice—before reaching European buyers. Each middleman added to the price. After the Ottoman Empire captured Constantinople in 1453, it controlled key routes between Europe and Asia. European rulers hoped that an all-water route to Asia would let them bypass the middlemen and keep the profits.
(2) New technology made long ocean voyages possible: the caravel, a small, fast ship that could sail against the wind; the magnetic compass; and the astrolabe, used to estimate latitude. Explorers were also driven by the desire to spread Christianity and to win fame—motives often summed up as "God, gold and glory."
Years
Explorer
Sponsor
Goal
Result
1487–1488
Bartolomeu Dias
Portugal
Sea route around Africa toward Asia
Rounded the southern tip of Africa (Cape of Good Hope)
1492
Christopher Columbus
Spain
Reach Asia by sailing west
Reached islands in the Caribbean
1497
John Cabot
England
Reach Asia by a northern route west
Reached the coast of North America
1497–1499
Vasco da Gama
Portugal
Sea route to India
Reached Calicut, India (1498); returned with spices
1519–1522
Ferdinand Magellan's expedition
Spain
Western route to the Spice Islands
First voyage around the world; Magellan was killed in the Philippines in 1521, and Juan Sebastián Elcano led the survivors home
(3) Voyages were expensive and risky: ships sank, crews died of disease, and cargoes could be lost. To raise money and share the risk, merchants formed joint-stock companies. Investors bought shares; if a voyage succeeded, profits were divided according to the number of shares owned, and if it failed, each investor lost only the money he had put in. The English East India Company (1600), the Dutch East India Company (1602) and the Virginia Company, which founded Jamestown in 1607, were all joint-stock companies.
Which statements are supported by the passage? Select all that apply.
Select all that apply.
Hint
Check each statement against a specific row of the table or a sentence in the paragraphs. Watch the Result column.
Step-by-step solution
Test each statement against the evidence:
Portugal sought a sea route around Africa. Supported: Dias's goal was a "sea route around Africa toward Asia," and da Gama's was a "sea route to India."
Columbus reached Asia. Not supported: the Result column says he "reached islands in the Caribbean."
Joint-stock companies spread the risk of costly voyages among many investors. Supported: paragraph 3 says merchants formed them "to raise money and share the risk," and each investor "lost only the money he had put in."
Magellan himself sailed all the way around the world. Not supported: he "was killed in the Philippines in 1521"; Elcano led the survivors home.
The Ottoman capture of Constantinople gave the Ottomans control of key trade routes. Supported: paragraph 1, "it controlled key routes between Europe and Asia."
Tip: in select-all items, judge each choice on its own. Details such as who completed a voyage are classic traps.
Question 27 of 36
Two Views of Trade and Empire
Excerpt A is from England's Treasure by Forraign Trade by Thomas Mun, an English merchant, published in 1664. Excerpt B is from The Wealth of Nations by the Scottish economist Adam Smith, published in 1776. The original spelling is kept. ("Forraign" = foreign; "wee" = we; "strangers" = foreigners; "treasure" = gold and silver.)
Excerpt A — Thomas Mun (1664)
(1) Although a Kingdom may be enriched by gifts received, or by purchase taken from some other Nations, yet these are things uncertain and of small consideration when they happen. The ordinary means therefore to increase our wealth and treasure is by Forraign Trade, wherein wee must ever observe this rule; to sell more to strangers yearly than wee consume of theirs in value. … By this order duly kept in our trading, we may rest assured that the kingdom shall be enriched yearly two hundred thousand pounds, which must be brought to us in so much Treasure; because that part of our stock which is not returned to us in wares must necessarily be brought home in treasure….
Excerpt B — Adam Smith (1776)
(2) The land was good and of great extent, and the cultivators having plenty of good ground to work upon, and being for some time at liberty to sell their produce where they pleased, became in the course of little more than thirty or forty years (between 1620 and 1660) so numerous and thriving a people that the shopkeepers and other traders of England wished to secure to themselves the monopoly of their custom. …
(3) To found a great empire for the sole purpose of raising up a people of customers may at first sight appear a project fit only for a nation of shopkeepers. It is, however, a project altogether unfit for a nation of shopkeepers; but extremely fit for a nation whose government is influenced by shopkeepers. Such statesmen, and such statesmen only, are capable of fancying that they will find some advantage in employing the blood and treasure of their fellow-citizens to found and maintain such an empire. Say to a shopkeeper, "Buy me a good estate, and I shall always buy my clothes at your shop, even though I should pay somewhat dearer than what I can have them for at other shops"; and you will not find him very forward to embrace your proposal.
What is Adam Smith's view of founding an empire "for the sole purpose of raising up a people of customers" (Excerpt B, paragraph 3)?
Hint
Notice who Smith says the project is "extremely fit" for, and what it costs "fellow-citizens."
Step-by-step solution
Evidence: Smith says the project is "altogether unfit for a nation of shopkeepers; but extremely fit for a nation whose government is influenced by shopkeepers." Only such statesmen are "capable of fancying" an advantage in "employing the blood and treasure of their fellow-citizens to found and maintain such an empire." Paragraph 2 adds that "the shopkeepers and other traders of England wished to secure to themselves the monopoly" of the colonists' trade.
Step by step:
"Capable of fancying" means imagining—Smith thinks the advantage is not real.
The cost ("blood and treasure") falls on all citizens.
The benefit goes to traders who get a monopoly.
The correct answer is He criticizes it as a costly policy that serves merchants, paid for by the lives and money of ordinary citizens.
Check: The analogy that follows—no shopkeeper would buy a customer an estate—supports the same critical view.
Tip: Words like fancying, pretend or imagine signal that an author disagrees with the idea he describes.
Question 28 of 36
Empires and Colonial Trade Laws
(1) Every European empire tried to make its colonies serve the home country. The goal was the same: keep the colonies' trade—and the gold and silver it produced—inside the empire.
(2) Spain set up the Casa de Contratación (House of Trade) in Seville in 1503. All trade with Spanish America had to pass through it. After huge silver deposits were found at Potosí, in present-day Bolivia, in 1545, armed fleets carried silver to Spain each year, and only licensed Spanish merchants could trade with the colonies. France followed a similar rule, called the exclusif: its Caribbean sugar colonies were supposed to trade only with France.
(3) England passed the Navigation Acts, beginning in 1651, to keep colonial trade on English and colonial ships. In 1733 Parliament passed the Molasses Act. It placed a tax of sixpence per gallon on molasses that colonists bought from the French and Dutch West Indies. New England merchants used molasses to make rum, and French molasses was much cheaper than molasses from British islands. The tax was so high that paying it would have ruined the rum trade, so merchants smuggled molasses and bribed customs officers. Little of the tax was ever collected.
(4) In 1764 Parliament passed the Sugar Act. It lowered the tax on foreign molasses to threepence per gallon, but it also added customs officers and sent smuggling cases to special courts without juries. Now the tax would actually be collected. Colonial merchants protested loudly, and some colonists argued that Parliament had no right to tax people who had no representatives in it.
The Sugar Act of 1764 cut the tax on foreign molasses in half. Based on the passage, why did it still anger colonial merchants?
Hint
Compare how much of the old tax was really paid with how much of the new tax would be paid.
Step-by-step solution
Evidence: Paragraph 3 says that under the Molasses Act merchants smuggled and bribed, and "Little of the tax was ever collected." Paragraph 4 says the Sugar Act lowered the rate to threepence "but it also added customs officers and sent smuggling cases to special courts without juries. Now the tax would actually be collected."
Step by step:
Old tax: sixpence per gallon, but almost never paid.
New tax: threepence per gallon, but enforced.
Paying threepence costs more than paying almost nothing, and the new courts took away jury trials. So merchants were angrier, not calmer.
The correct answer is Because strict enforcement meant merchants would now actually pay a tax they had mostly avoided before.
Check: Paragraph 4 also mentions a political objection—taxation without representation—which added to the anger but does not contradict this answer.
Tip: A lower tax rate can still mean a higher tax bill if it is enforced. Always ask what people really paid before and after.
Question 29 of 36
Fill inA Colony's Trade Ledger
(1) The table shows one year of trade between New Haverly, a fictional English-style colony in North America around 1740, and its home country, the fictional kingdom of Estmark. Values are in thousands of pounds. Under Estmark's trade laws, New Haverly could sell its main crops only to Estmark and had to buy manufactured goods from Estmark's merchants.
New Haverly's exports to Estmark
Value
New Haverly's imports from Estmark
Value
Tobacco
310
Woolen and linen cloth
260
Timber and naval stores
85
Iron tools and hardware
140
Furs and deerskins
45
Tea (shipped from Asia through Estmark)
80
Indigo dye
40
Guns and gunpowder
70
Glass and paper
60
Total
480
Total
610
(2) Colonists paid the difference with what little gold and silver they had and with credit from Estmark's merchants. Many planters fell deeply into debt to those merchants, and colonists often complained that hard money was scarce.
According to the table, by how many thousand pounds did the value of New Haverly's imports from Estmark exceed the value of its exports to Estmark?
thousand pounds
Type your answer in the box. Fractions like 3/4 are fine.
Hint
Use the two Total rows. Which is larger—what the colony bought or what it sold?
Step-by-step solution
Evidence from the table: total exports to Estmark = 480; total imports from Estmark = 610 (thousands of pounds).
Step by step:
Imports are larger, so subtract exports from imports: 610 - 480 = 130.
New Haverly bought 130 thousand pounds more than it sold—an unfavorable balance of trade for the colony and a favorable one for Estmark.
The correct answer is 130.
Check: Add the imports yourself: 260 + 140 + 80 + 70 + 60 = 610 ✔; exports: 310 + 85 + 45 + 40 = 480 ✔. Paragraph 2 says colonists had to pay "the difference" with scarce gold, silver and credit—this 130.
Tip: For balance-of-trade questions, always use the totals and subtract the smaller from the larger. Then say who has the surplus.
Question 30 of 36
Drop-downTwo Views of Trade and Empire
Excerpt A is from England's Treasure by Forraign Trade by Thomas Mun, an English merchant, published in 1664. Excerpt B is from The Wealth of Nations by the Scottish economist Adam Smith, published in 1776. The original spelling is kept. ("Forraign" = foreign; "wee" = we; "strangers" = foreigners; "treasure" = gold and silver.)
Excerpt A — Thomas Mun (1664)
(1) Although a Kingdom may be enriched by gifts received, or by purchase taken from some other Nations, yet these are things uncertain and of small consideration when they happen. The ordinary means therefore to increase our wealth and treasure is by Forraign Trade, wherein wee must ever observe this rule; to sell more to strangers yearly than wee consume of theirs in value. … By this order duly kept in our trading, we may rest assured that the kingdom shall be enriched yearly two hundred thousand pounds, which must be brought to us in so much Treasure; because that part of our stock which is not returned to us in wares must necessarily be brought home in treasure….
Excerpt B — Adam Smith (1776)
(2) The land was good and of great extent, and the cultivators having plenty of good ground to work upon, and being for some time at liberty to sell their produce where they pleased, became in the course of little more than thirty or forty years (between 1620 and 1660) so numerous and thriving a people that the shopkeepers and other traders of England wished to secure to themselves the monopoly of their custom. …
(3) To found a great empire for the sole purpose of raising up a people of customers may at first sight appear a project fit only for a nation of shopkeepers. It is, however, a project altogether unfit for a nation of shopkeepers; but extremely fit for a nation whose government is influenced by shopkeepers. Such statesmen, and such statesmen only, are capable of fancying that they will find some advantage in employing the blood and treasure of their fellow-citizens to found and maintain such an empire. Say to a shopkeeper, "Buy me a good estate, and I shall always buy my clothes at your shop, even though I should pay somewhat dearer than what I can have them for at other shops"; and you will not find him very forward to embrace your proposal.
Use both excerpts to complete the sentences.
Thomas Mun believed a nation should . Adam Smith argued that keeping a monopoly on colonial trade mainly benefited , while the cost of founding and keeping the empire fell on .
Choose an answer from each menu.
Hint
For Mun, find his "rule." For Smith, find who "wished to secure" the monopoly and whose "blood and treasure" paid for the empire.
Step-by-step solution
Evidence:
Mun (Excerpt A): "wee must ever observe this rule; to sell more to strangers yearly than wee consume of theirs in value."
Smith (paragraph 2): "the shopkeepers and other traders of England wished to secure to themselves the monopoly of their custom."
Smith (paragraph 3): statesmen imagine an advantage "in employing the blood and treasure of their fellow-citizens to found and maintain such an empire."
Step by step:
Mun's goal: export more than you import.
Smith: the monopoly serves shopkeepers and traders.
Smith: the cost falls on fellow-citizens—the whole nation.
The completed sentences: Mun believed a nation should sell more to foreign nations than it buys from them. Smith argued the monopoly mainly benefited shopkeepers and traders, while the cost fell on the nation's citizens as a whole.
Check: Smith does not say the colonists paid for the empire—he says they were "thriving."
Tip: When comparing two sources, fill in a quick chart: author, main claim, who benefits, who pays.
Question 31 of 36
Companies of Adventurers
(1) Long trading voyages needed ships, crews, weapons and goods to trade—far more money than most merchants had alone. A voyage might take two years, and ships were often lost. To raise money and spread the risk, Europeans formed joint-stock companies. Many investors bought shares. When a voyage made money, the profit was paid out as a dividend, an equal amount for each share. In companies like these, an investor generally risked only the money he or she had paid for shares.
(2) Governments gave the largest companies a charter, a legal grant of special rights. The Dutch government chartered the Dutch East India Company in 1602 and gave it a monopoly on Dutch trade in Asia. It could build forts, make treaties and wage war. England's Hudson's Bay Company, chartered in 1670, traded with Indigenous peoples for furs in northern North America.
(3) Example (fictional): The Northern Star Company sold 800 shares at £50 each, raising £40,000. Its first voyage earned a profit of £36,000, which was divided equally among all 800 shares. Its second voyage ended when the ship sank in a storm, and the company lost everything invested in that voyage.
A widow paid for 30 shares of the Northern Star Company before its second voyage. Based on the passage, what is the most she could lose when that ship sank, and why?
Hint
Find the share price in paragraph 3 and the rule about risk in paragraph 1.
Step-by-step solution
Evidence: Paragraph 3: shares cost "£50 each." Paragraph 1: "an investor generally risked only the money he or she had paid for shares."
Step by step:
Money she paid: 30 \times 50 = 1{,}500 pounds.
Her risk is limited to that amount.
So the most she could lose is £1,500, because investors risked only what they paid for their shares.
The correct answer is £1,500, because investors generally risked only the money they had paid for their shares.
Check: The £40,000 was raised from all 800 shares; her part is 30 \div 800 of it, which is 40{,}000 \times 0.0375 = 1{,}500. ✔
Tip: Limited risk was the big selling point of joint-stock companies: many people could invest a little, and no one could lose more than they put in.
Question 32 of 36
Select allCompanies of Adventurers
(1) Long trading voyages needed ships, crews, weapons and goods to trade—far more money than most merchants had alone. A voyage might take two years, and ships were often lost. To raise money and spread the risk, Europeans formed joint-stock companies. Many investors bought shares. When a voyage made money, the profit was paid out as a dividend, an equal amount for each share. In companies like these, an investor generally risked only the money he or she had paid for shares.
(2) Governments gave the largest companies a charter, a legal grant of special rights. The Dutch government chartered the Dutch East India Company in 1602 and gave it a monopoly on Dutch trade in Asia. It could build forts, make treaties and wage war. England's Hudson's Bay Company, chartered in 1670, traded with Indigenous peoples for furs in northern North America.
(3) Example (fictional): The Northern Star Company sold 800 shares at £50 each, raising £40,000. Its first voyage earned a profit of £36,000, which was divided equally among all 800 shares. Its second voyage ended when the ship sank in a storm, and the company lost everything invested in that voyage.
Which statements about joint-stock companies and their charters can be backed up with evidence from "Companies of Adventurers"? Select all that apply.
Select all that apply.
Hint
Check every statement against a specific sentence. Watch for words like guaranteed and for details about who gave charters.
Step-by-step solution
Test each statement:
Joint-stock companies let many investors share the cost and risk of a voyage. Supported: paragraph 1, "To raise money and spread the risk, Europeans formed joint-stock companies. Many investors bought shares."
The Dutch East India Company had powers usually held by governments, such as making treaties. Supported: paragraph 2, "It could build forts, make treaties and wage war."
Investors in joint-stock companies were guaranteed a dividend from every voyage. Not supported: the Northern Star's second voyage "lost everything invested."
The Hudson's Bay Company traded with Indigenous peoples for furs. Supported: paragraph 2.
Joint-stock companies were owned by a single wealthy merchant. Not supported: the whole point was that "many investors bought shares."
The correct answers are share cost and risk, treaty-making powers, and Hudson's Bay fur trade.
Check: Three statements match exact sentences; the two wrong ones contradict paragraph 1 or 3.
Tip: In select-all items, a single counterexample (one sunken ship) is enough to reject a statement with guaranteed, always or every.
Question 33 of 36
Timeline: Trade, Exploration and Empire
(1) The timeline lists key events in the European search for trade and colonies.
Year
Event
1453
The Ottoman Empire captures Constantinople and controls key trade routes between Europe and Asia.
1488
Bartolomeu Dias, sailing for Portugal, rounds the Cape of Good Hope at the tip of Africa.
1492
Christopher Columbus, sailing for Spain to reach Asia by going west, reaches islands in the Caribbean.
1498
Vasco da Gama reaches Calicut, India; Portugal begins a direct sea trade in spices.
1503
Spain creates the House of Trade in Seville to control all trade with its American colonies.
1545
Spanish colonists find enormous silver deposits at Potosí, in present-day Bolivia.
1565
Spanish galleons begin carrying American silver across the Pacific to Manila to buy Chinese silk and porcelain.
1600
The English East India Company is chartered to trade in Asia.
1602
The Dutch East India Company is chartered and soon competes with Portugal for the spice trade.
1607
The Virginia Company, a joint-stock company, founds Jamestown.
1651
England passes its first Navigation Act to control colonial trade.
Which statement correctly distinguishes Spain's goal in sponsoring Columbus from the result shown later on the timeline?
Hint
Read the 1492 row for the goal. Then look at 1545 and 1565 to see what actually enriched Spain.
Step-by-step solution
Evidence: 1492: Columbus sailed "for Spain to reach Asia by going west" but "reaches islands in the Caribbean." 1545: "Spanish colonists find enormous silver deposits at Potosí." 1565: galleons carry "American silver across the Pacific to Manila to buy Chinese silk and porcelain."
Step by step:
Goal: a western sea route to Asian trade.
Result: Spain found the Americas instead, and its American colonies produced huge amounts of silver.
Irony: that silver was later used to buy Asian goods—reaching the original goal by a different path.
The correct answer is Spain wanted a western route to Asian trade; instead it gained American colonies whose silver it later used to buy Asian goods.
Check: Each wrong choice either treats a result as the original goal or claims something the timeline never states.
Tip: On goal-versus-result questions, label each fact G (what they wanted) or R (what happened). The right answer keeps the two apart.
Question 34 of 36
Why Europeans Explored
(1) In the 1400s, Europeans wanted spices, silk and other goods from Asia. These goods traveled over long land and sea routes and passed through many hands—Asian, Arab and Ottoman traders, then Italian merchants from cities such as Venice—before reaching European buyers. Each middleman added to the price. After the Ottoman Empire captured Constantinople in 1453, it controlled key routes between Europe and Asia. European rulers hoped that an all-water route to Asia would let them bypass the middlemen and keep the profits.
(2) New technology made long ocean voyages possible: the caravel, a small, fast ship that could sail against the wind; the magnetic compass; and the astrolabe, used to estimate latitude. Explorers were also driven by the desire to spread Christianity and to win fame—motives often summed up as "God, gold and glory."
Years
Explorer
Sponsor
Goal
Result
1487–1488
Bartolomeu Dias
Portugal
Sea route around Africa toward Asia
Rounded the southern tip of Africa (Cape of Good Hope)
1492
Christopher Columbus
Spain
Reach Asia by sailing west
Reached islands in the Caribbean
1497
John Cabot
England
Reach Asia by a northern route west
Reached the coast of North America
1497–1499
Vasco da Gama
Portugal
Sea route to India
Reached Calicut, India (1498); returned with spices
1519–1522
Ferdinand Magellan's expedition
Spain
Western route to the Spice Islands
First voyage around the world; Magellan was killed in the Philippines in 1521, and Juan Sebastián Elcano led the survivors home
(3) Voyages were expensive and risky: ships sank, crews died of disease, and cargoes could be lost. To raise money and share the risk, merchants formed joint-stock companies. Investors bought shares; if a voyage succeeded, profits were divided according to the number of shares owned, and if it failed, each investor lost only the money he had put in. The English East India Company (1600), the Dutch East India Company (1602) and the Virginia Company, which founded Jamestown in 1607, were all joint-stock companies.
A joint-stock company sells 200 shares at £20 each to pay for a trading voyage. The voyage earns a profit of £10,000, which is divided equally among all shares. A merchant owns 5 shares.
Which choice correctly states the merchant's share of the profit and explains, using the passage, why this kind of company appealed to investors?
Hint
Profit per share = total profit ÷ number of shares. Then reread paragraph 3 for what an investor could lose.
Step-by-step solution
Step 1 — the calculation.
Profit per share: £10,000 ÷ 200 = £50.
The merchant's 5 shares: 5 × £50 = £250.
He invested 5 × £20 = £100, so he earned £250 on a £100 investment.
Step 2 — the reason. Paragraph 3: "if it failed, each investor lost only the money he had put in." Joint-stock companies let many people pool money and share the risk, so no single merchant had to pay for (and possibly lose) an entire voyage.
The answer is £250; each investor could lose no more than the money he had invested.
Check the traps: £100 is what he paid, not his profit; £2,000 misuses the numbers; and no government promise or guaranteed profit appears anywhere in the passage.
Tip: two-part answer choices must be right in both parts. Solve the math first, eliminate choices with the wrong number, then check the reasoning against the text.
Question 35 of 36
Two Views of Trade and Empire
Excerpt A is from England's Treasure by Forraign Trade by Thomas Mun, an English merchant, published in 1664. Excerpt B is from The Wealth of Nations by the Scottish economist Adam Smith, published in 1776. The original spelling is kept. ("Forraign" = foreign; "wee" = we; "strangers" = foreigners; "treasure" = gold and silver.)
Excerpt A — Thomas Mun (1664)
(1) Although a Kingdom may be enriched by gifts received, or by purchase taken from some other Nations, yet these are things uncertain and of small consideration when they happen. The ordinary means therefore to increase our wealth and treasure is by Forraign Trade, wherein wee must ever observe this rule; to sell more to strangers yearly than wee consume of theirs in value. … By this order duly kept in our trading, we may rest assured that the kingdom shall be enriched yearly two hundred thousand pounds, which must be brought to us in so much Treasure; because that part of our stock which is not returned to us in wares must necessarily be brought home in treasure….
Excerpt B — Adam Smith (1776)
(2) The land was good and of great extent, and the cultivators having plenty of good ground to work upon, and being for some time at liberty to sell their produce where they pleased, became in the course of little more than thirty or forty years (between 1620 and 1660) so numerous and thriving a people that the shopkeepers and other traders of England wished to secure to themselves the monopoly of their custom. …
(3) To found a great empire for the sole purpose of raising up a people of customers may at first sight appear a project fit only for a nation of shopkeepers. It is, however, a project altogether unfit for a nation of shopkeepers; but extremely fit for a nation whose government is influenced by shopkeepers. Such statesmen, and such statesmen only, are capable of fancying that they will find some advantage in employing the blood and treasure of their fellow-citizens to found and maintain such an empire. Say to a shopkeeper, "Buy me a good estate, and I shall always buy my clothes at your shop, even though I should pay somewhat dearer than what I can have them for at other shops"; and you will not find him very forward to embrace your proposal.
In paragraph 3, Smith imagines a customer saying to a shopkeeper, "Buy me a good estate, and I shall always buy my clothes at your shop, even though I should pay somewhat dearer." What point does this comparison make about colonial empire?
Hint
Match each part of the story to the real situation: who is the shopkeeper, what is the estate, who is the customer?
Step-by-step solution
Evidence: Smith says you "will not find him" (a sensible shopkeeper) "very forward to embrace your proposal." Just before, he says founding an empire to raise up "a people of customers" is "altogether unfit for a nation of shopkeepers" and that it costs "the blood and treasure of their fellow-citizens."
Map the analogy:
Shopkeeper = the home country (Britain).
Buying the customer "a good estate" = paying to found and defend colonies.
A customer who must always buy at your shop, even at higher prices = colonists forced to buy from home-country merchants.
Reasoning: A smart shopkeeper would see that the estate costs far more than the extra profit from one loyal customer. Likewise, Smith argues, the cost of an empire is greater than the gain from a captive colonial market.
The correct answer is A guaranteed market is not worth the huge cost of founding and defending colonies to create it.
Check: The customer even admits he would pay "somewhat dearer"—so the colonists pay more, the nation pays for the empire, and only the merchants gain, matching Smith's earlier point about "a nation whose government is influenced by shopkeepers."
Tip: To read an analogy, write "X = Y" for each part. The author's point is whatever is true in the story and in the real situation.
Question 36 of 36
Timeline: Trade, Exploration and Empire
(1) The timeline lists key events in the European search for trade and colonies.
Year
Event
1453
The Ottoman Empire captures Constantinople and controls key trade routes between Europe and Asia.
1488
Bartolomeu Dias, sailing for Portugal, rounds the Cape of Good Hope at the tip of Africa.
1492
Christopher Columbus, sailing for Spain to reach Asia by going west, reaches islands in the Caribbean.
1498
Vasco da Gama reaches Calicut, India; Portugal begins a direct sea trade in spices.
1503
Spain creates the House of Trade in Seville to control all trade with its American colonies.
1545
Spanish colonists find enormous silver deposits at Potosí, in present-day Bolivia.
1565
Spanish galleons begin carrying American silver across the Pacific to Manila to buy Chinese silk and porcelain.
1600
The English East India Company is chartered to trade in Asia.
1602
The Dutch East India Company is chartered and soon competes with Portugal for the spice trade.
1607
The Virginia Company, a joint-stock company, founds Jamestown.
1651
England passes its first Navigation Act to control colonial trade.
Which chain of causes and effects is best supported by the order of events on the timeline?
Hint
Check two things for each choice: are the events in time order, and does each step make sense as a cause of the next?
Step-by-step solution
Evidence (timeline dates): Ottomans capture Constantinople and control key routes (1453) → Dias rounds Africa (1488) → da Gama reaches Calicut and Portugal starts a direct spice trade (1498) → the Dutch East India Company is chartered and "soon competes with Portugal for the spice trade" (1602).
Step by step:
Ottoman control of land routes gave Europeans a reason to seek a sea route.
Portugal found that route around Africa and profited from direct trade.
Those profits drew rivals: the Dutch company was formed to compete with Portugal.
Every step comes after the one before it.
The correct answer is Ottoman control of old routes → Portugal opens a sea route around Africa → Dutch merchants form a company to compete for the spice trade.
Check: Each wrong chain puts an effect before its cause (1651 before 1602, 1607 before 1545) or links events the timeline never connects.
Tip: A cause must come before its effect. Check dates first—it eliminates most wrong cause-and-effect chains in seconds.
