CCOT: Social & Economic Transformations in the Atlantic During the period from 1492 till 1750, many economic and social events occurred in the Atlantic world as a result of new contact with Western Europe, Africa, and the Americas because of one simple but dangerous act: trade. Within the Atlantic system, the biggest commodity wanted was slaves and silver, but the price of them, cost many lives to be lost and the world to be never the same. During the time period of the Atlantic system, the reason to trading stayed the same, but what was traded and how societies were built within the trades changed.