1700s Economic Structure Changes before the French Revolution
Progress only related to the elite Peasant lives not changed from ME Economies expanded but slowly Economic power moves to Atlantic states with colonies helping provide expansion Changes in farming, industry, pop., and trade move Europe toward industrial revolution
Agriculture Cyclical famine years (8-10 years) Famine foods Increased weakness and illness Decrease population Open field system Common lands Serfdom declined/living conditions outside serfdom were poor
Agricultural Revolution Crop rotation!! Allowed for better utilization of farm land Had to get landowners to agree to crop changes-- leading to… Enclosure!!! Hardest on poor– restricted use of common lands
Farm leadership- Eng and Netherlands Netherlands– maximum use of land necessary /expanded trade for extra England learned from the Dutch Jethro Tull (not the group) innovative methods of farming Selective breeding England improved food by 300% while increasing # of farmers by 14%
Cost of Enclosure Benefitted the large landowners Increased surveying Cottagers lost longtime use of common land Tenant farmers increase Led to increase in market oriented estate farming and creation of a landless rural “proletariat”
Population Explosion ’s population ravaged by famine, war, black death New pattern in 1700’s More babies- fewer deaths Fewer black death outbreaks Small pox innoculations Better management of famine Improvements to water supply
Growth of Cottage industry Protoindustrialization Putting out system- merchant capitalist and rural worker Advantages- used rural underemployed workers, made “common” goods, less guild restrictions, “spinsters” Disadv- distrust, labor was scattered, poorly organized, hard to control
Atlantic Advantage (This is why Eng will do better than France in 1700s or18 th century) Colonization Navigation Acts Mercantilism Slave trade Growth of urban areas Growth of foreign trade Latin American colonization- New ideas- Adam Smith 1776