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The Expansion of Europe (Social/Economic)

Posted by Celena at Tuesday, November 06, 2012 | 0 comments

Women spinning yarn in the cottage industry
In this time, cottage industry grew and became an important feature of the English economy. Here, peasants manufactured hand tools in their cottages. Urban capitalists were willing to employ many of them, as they would be paid wages way lower than those of urban workers. The putting-out system was the core of the cottage industry, where workers would process raw materials and then present the finished product to the merchant. Production became broken up into several stages as the industrial revolution grew in size. Rural manufacturing grew most rapidly in Europe, where around 50% of textiles were produced in the English countryside. By the 18th century, England was using the putting out system more than ever. Countries such as the Netherlands and Flanders developed these methods more slowly.
Oliver Cromwell
The British exercised commercial leadership in the 18th century. Enlightenment thinker Adam Smith and his ideas of mercantilism was a big influence in the way the British came into power, as they established a system aimed at expanding the power of the state. In an attempt to throw off the Dutch economy, Oliver Cromwell established the Navigation Acts where English goods could only be carried on English ships. This spawned a series of wars like the Anglo-Dutch wars and the War of the Spanish Succession. London soon grew into an economic power and Europe's richest city. England, on the other hand, needed to rescue itself from slow economic expansion. It did so by trading extensively with West Africa and mainland colonies in North America. By the 1770s, England reestablished its high economic position as it diversified and balanced its exports.
Oliver Cromwell: "A few honest men are better than numbers." 

The Spanish, another major player in European economics, bought Louisiana from the French in 1763. Silver production flourished again, despite its drop in the earlier seventeenth century. Spanish aristocrats developed "debt peonage" which was similar to the system of serfdom. Here, the one who owned the land -- a planter or rancher -- would supply the workers with basic resources and a little cash but enough so that the subordinates were always in debt.


1602

Dutch East India Company is formed

The Portuguese spice trade yields much control to the Dutch East India Company in the Indian Ocean. As a consequence, the Indian Ocean trade was drastically transformed. Once independent people, the Dutch oppressed them into dependents.

Oliver Cromwell
1651

Navigation Acts

Oliver Cromwell, in England, established a mercantile system which aimed to increase private wealth and military power. The acts required that goods be carried on British owned ships only. By that, British colonies exercised a virtual monopoly on trade. Also viewed as a form of “economic warfare” by getting rid of competition, the economically flourishing Dutch were initially targeted.

1672 - 1691(19 years)

Increase in guilds

In the city of Paris alone, the number of guilds went from 60 to 129 by 1691. The guild system predominated towns and cities, where its exclusive membership of urban artisans refused women, Jews, and many foreigners.

1700

English industry becoming more rural

As opposed to urban, the English industry became increasingly rural. The putting-out system was where the merchant loaned raw materials to those who worked under him and manufactured the raw goods in their homes before they returned it to the merchant. It grew slowly popular within continental countries.
Trade routes of the Atlantic Slave trade

1700 - 1790(90 years)

Peak of Atlantic Slave trade

With 6.5 million slaves shipped across the Atlantic, the conditions steadily grew more cruel as Africans were herded into the middle passage. Approx. 15% died from transit alone. The number of slaves being transported heightened especially as goods like sugar and cotton became high in demand.




Britain-France Maritime Wars
1701 - 1763(62 years)

Britain-France maritime wars

These wars decided which side would claim European land and profits gained during its expansion overseas, and who would retain the title as the leading maritime power.

1750

Distribution of English nails

English nail industry was being widely distributed to colonies thanks to flourishing foreign trade.

1760 - 1815(55 years)

Parliament movement to enclose land

Parliament passes legislation which calls for enclosed land; as a result, the population increased. The economic implications also included a market-oriented agriculture and a land proletariat. English and Scottish landowners grew competitive in their profits in renting out land to middle class farmers.

1784

Guilds abolished

Many eighteenth century critics deemed the guilds “outmoded” which inhibited technical processes and progressive thought. Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot, a reform minister, finally outlawed French guilds.






1789

Saint Domingue economic success

Saint-Domingue, or modern day Haiti, became the leading force in coffee and sugar production. With its five hundred thousand slaves, Saint-Domingue became the most productive colony within the New World.

1807

Parliament condemns slavery

Although the Parliament bans slavery, British slave trade remains prominent for decades to come within the Americas.

1870

Increase of farming yields

Although the number of workers on farms increased by 14%, farming yields increased by a startling 300% more food than that of the seventeenth century. The rapidly expanding European population was able to have their needs satisfied— the growth was helped by land enclosures.

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