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Things in Exchange: Business and Scientific Revolutions in the Age of Discovery

(us) Ke Haode

435K0

This book is a classic work that the author has devoted more than 20 years of research to. It reinterprets the causes of the scientific revolution and clarifies the complex relationship between modern scientific development and business globalization. The author focuses on the Dutch Golden Age. In the 17th century, the prosperity of ocean trade brought the "New World" to Europeans, and the Netherlands set off "Tulip Fever". Some people even sell their houses and land in order to get a bulb. Tulip bulbs, once eaten as onions, became the trigger for the financial crisis. With the development of commercial globalization, people not only enjoy the wealth of the unknown world, but also long for a comprehensive understanding of the objective world. Their eyes have shifted from exploring the theological world to paying attention to the secular world, and from questioning oracles to pursuing profits. Brokers who make a living by reselling goods and information appear; Eastern medicinal materials and spices are rapidly becoming popular in Europe; A new type of university with any religious bias was established; Dutch doctors could study acupuncture and moxibustion with their colleagues in Japan, and translate Chinese medical literature... Trade and exchange not only allowed the circulation of goods and materials around the world, but also promoted the spread of knowledge and culture. With the rise of the information economy, people's worldview and values changed accordingly, inspiring the scientific revolution. Kohold integrated the economic history, social history, medical history, and ideological history of the Age of Discovery into a unified framework, and found that the scientific revolution was triggered by the globalization of business and exchange, and that the history of the scientific revolution is a history of exchange.