Negotiating international peace treaties
The industrial revolution increased the power and wealth of "factory owners" mostly, but this is a misleading question, since the revolution increased the wealth of practically everyone except the aristocracy.
Answer and Explanation:
Natural disasters such as these can cause damages to agricultural products Any region experiencing frequent flooding and drought will have a reduction in productivity level. When this happens, the supply of agricultural products in the region will fall and demand will go up. Based on the law of demand and supply, this will result in the prices of commodities going up.
Drought and flood causes loss of livestock, storage problems, transportation issues and a fall in output. An increase in prices is used to cover up for some of these. An increase in input costs also causes price increase.
I would say that these terms illustrate that directions and words like "middle" are relative. For the Europeans China was far east from their point of view, but for China it was in the middle of what was relevant for them. It also shows that each place considers its own place as the center of their world: every other place will be seen through its relation with it.