Explain the HISTORICAL CONTEXT to the Q and A below

Source One:
Europeans derived more profit from their participation in trade within Asia than they did from their Asian imports into Europe. They were able to do so ultimately only thanks to their American Silver... only their american money and not any exceptional europeans qualities permitted the europeans to [to access asian markets]... however even with that resource and advantage the europeans were no more than a minor player at the asian, indeed world, economic table [until the 19th century]

Source TWO:
The societies of Europe had been at the margins of the great trading systems, but they were at the center of the global networks of exchange created during the 16th century because they controlled the oceangoing fleets that knit the world into a single system. Western Europe was better placed than any other region to profit from the vast flows of goods and ideas within the emerging global system of exchange... [european states] were keen to exploit the commercial opportunities created within the global economic system. They did so partly by seizing the resources of the Americas and using American commodities such as silver to buy their way into the markets of southern and eastern asia, the largest in the world

Question: The trade networks described by the two sources were most strongly influenced by
Answer: Increased Europeans demand for luxury goods