• Traders and travellers introduced new type crops where they travelled.
• It is believed that noodle travelled to Europe from China to become spaghetti.
• Chinese pottery, textiles, spices from India and south east Asia
• Precious metals like Gold and Silver flowed from Europe to Asia via Silk Route.

America- Europe- Asia

• Common foods like potatoes, Soya, groundnuts, maize, tomatoes, chillies, sweet potatoes etc reached from native America to Europe and Asia after Christopher Columbus accidentally discovered  America.
• Even germs of diseases like smallpox were carried on their person from Europe to America.

• Europeans like Spaniards, Portuguese flowed into America after its discovery.
• The germs of smallpox were carried on their person.
• The global transfer of disease in the pre-modern world helped in the colonization of the Americas because the native American Indians were not immune to the diseases that the settlers and colonizers brought with them.
• The Europeans were more or less immune to smallpox, but the native Americans, having been cut off from the rest of the world for millions of years, had no defence against it. These germs killed and wiped out whole communities, paving the way for foreign domination.
• Weapons and soldiers could be destroyed or captured, but diseases could not be fought against. But not diseases such as smallpox to which the conquerors were mostly immune.

(c) Most of the victims of world war belonged to young generations of working men. As a result, it reduced the able-bodied workforce in Europe, thereby reducing household income.
Entire societies were reorganised for war as men went to battle, women stepped in to undertake jobs that earlier only men were expected to do.
The role of women increased and led to a demand for more equality of status. It made the feminist movement stronger. Women started working alongside men in every field. Women and youngsters became more independent and free with long-term effects.

(d) By the early twentieth century, the global economy had become an integral one. The impact of the Great Depression in India was felt especially in the agricultural sector. It was evident that the Indian economy was closely becoming integrated into a global economy. India was a British colony and exported agricultural goods and imported manufactured goods. The fall in agricultural price led to a reduction of farmers’ income and agricultural export.
As international prices crashed, prices in India also plunged. Between 1928 and 1934 wheat prices in India fell by 50%.
India’s trade exports and imports almost halved between 1928 and 1934
The government did not decrease their tax and so, many farmers and landlords became more indebted to moneylenders and corrupt officials. It led to great rural unrest in India.
In these depression years, India became an exporter of precious metals, notably gold.

(e) Impact of MNC’s decision to relocate production in Asian Countries:

• It provided for cheap labour to MNC’s.
• It stimulated world trade.
• Increased capital inflow in the Asian Countries.
• Brought about new technology and production methods to the Asian Countries.
• Greater choice of goods and services to the people.
• Greater employment opportunities for Asian countries.
• Rapid economic transformation resulting in the growth of economies like India, China.

• Improvement in transport  – Faster railways, lighter wagons and larger ships helped transport food more cheaply and quickly from production units to even faraway markets.
• Export of meat to Europe – Meat which was out of reach of poor Europeans became accessible. Refrigerated ships helped transport perishable foods such as meat, butter and eggs over long distances. Now animals were slaughtered for food at the starting point in America, Australia or New Zealand-and then transported to Europe as frozen meat. This reduced shipping cost and lowered meat prices in Europe.

Better living conditions promoted social peace within the country and support for imperialism abroad.

• The main aim of the post war international economic system was to ensure economic stability and full employment in the industrial world.
• The Bretton Woods Agreement is the landmark system for monetary and exchange rate management established in 1944.
• Its framework was agreed upon at the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference held in July 1944 at Bretton Woods in New Hampshire, USA.
• It established the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to deal with external surpluses and deficits of member nations and financed post-war reconstruction. Setting up a system of rules, institutions, and procedures to regulate the international monetary system these accords established the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), which today is part of the World Bank Group.
• The post war international economic system is also often described as the Bretton Woods system.

• Prosperity in the USA during the 1920s created a cycle of higher employment and incomes. It led to rise in consumption and demands. More investment and more employment created tendencies of speculations which led to the Great Depression of 1929 Up to the mid-1930s.
• Stock market crashed in 1929. It created panic among investors and depositors who stopped investing and depositing. As a result, it created a cycle of depreciation. The result was a profound psychological shock and a loss of confidence in the economy among both consumers and businesses.
• Failure of the banks. Some of the banks closed down when people withdrew all their assets, leaving them unable to invest. There was also less money to lend, partly because people were hoarding it in the form of cash. Some banks called back loans taken from them at the same dollar rate in spite of the falling value of the dollar. It was worsened by British change in policy to value pound at the pre-war value.