SHIFT IN THE ECONOMY

IN THE RENAISSANCETHE GUILDS

• Guilds and powerful families took over regional governments:

• Mediterranean trade enriched guild members and merchant families

• HRE provided a vast market for manufactured goods of the Italian guilds (Commenda)

• City-states had enough agriculture to sustain their populations

•Northern Italian cities were communes, associations of free men seeking complete political and economic independence from local nobles and fought for and won independence

•Marriage vows often sealed business contracts between the rural nobility and the mercantile aristocracy forming the new social class, an urban nobility

•New class made citizenship in the communes dependent on a property qualification, years of residence within the city, and social connections

•A new force, popolo, disenfranchised and heavily taxed, bitterly resenting their exclusion from power, wanted places in the communal government

•Because they practiced the same sort of political exclusivity as had the noble communes, the popolo never won the support of other groups

•The popolo could not establish civil order within their cities and the movements for republican government failed and by 1300, signori (despots) or oligarchies (rule of merchant aristocracies) had triumphed everywhere

HIERARCHY AND PRIVILEGE

• Medieval sense of rank/degree became more rigid (dress codes separate class)

• People had rights guaranteed by groups/communities (villages, nobility, church, guild, university)

• Groups had privileges too: tax, careers, collect tithe(church)

THE ARISTOCRACY IN EUROPE

• One to Five Percent of Population

• Dominated:• Social

• Political

• Economic Life

• Motivated by Commercialism

• Privilege• Birth

• Legal

VARIETIES OF ARISTOCRATIC PRIVILEGE

• Many nobles differed from country to country• British Nobility: smallest, wealthiest, best defined,

most socially irresponsible

• 400 families, eldest of each sat in House of Lords• Also controlled many seats in House of Commons

• Nobles owned about ¼ of arable land in Britain• wealth went to eldest, others pursued commerce,

army, profession, church

• Local govt. control gave them great political power/social influence

FRENCH NOBILITY 400,000 nobles divided between “of the sword”

(military), and “of the robe” (bureaucracy/purchased) Quarreled in past, cooperated in 18th

Divided by those who held office/favor at Versailles those who did reaped immense benefits

hoberaux those who didn’t, little better than peasants

All nobles exempt from many taxes taille, land tax of Old Regime, technically liable for bingtieme

income tax didn’t pay in full corvees forced labor on public works

Could also collect feudal dues form tenants, exclusive hunting/fishing

EASTERN EUROPEAN NOBILITIES

• East of Elbe-military traditions stayed important

• Poland:• Thousands of (poor) nobles, szlachta,

• exempt from taxes after 1741 – until 1768• Had right of life and death over serfs, few rich had political power

• Austria/Hungary:• Judicial powers, • Some tax exemption (Esterhazy-Hungry)

• Prussia: after Frederick the Great, • Junker nobles became stronger, wars needed their support – made

into officers/bureaucrats, judicial powers

• Russia: after Peter the Great linked social status to state service,

• Russian nobles determined to resist compulsory state service• certain powers grew from later rulers

ARISTOCRATIC RESURGENCE• Reaction from nobles with social status threatened by monarchs

• Tried to preserve status by making it difficult to become a noble• Tried to reserve appointments to church/armies/govt. exclusive to

nobles• Used existing institutions against monarchs: Parliament, parlement,

diets• Tried to improve $ by getting exemptions/higher rents/feudal dues

• Aristocratic challenge to monarchies

PEASANTS VS. NOBILITY

• Land was economic basis of life/foundation of status/power of nobility

• Over ¾ lived in country• Most people who lived on land were poor/dependant

• Rural dependence varied – everywhere• Class that owned most of land controlled local

government/courts • Great Britain, all farmers had rights of citizens; presided over

landowners, on continent, taxes on tillers of soil

PEASANTS AND SERFS• Obligations of Peasants: power of landlord increased as moved from west-

east

• France:

• Peasants owned land- a few serfs• Nearly all peasants subject to banalites, feudal dues: required pay-per-use of lord’s (seigneur) oven, mill – forced labor, corvee – many peasants were dependant

• Prussia/Austria:

• Nobles controlled them almost completely – robot: required serfs to provide service to the lords

PEASANTS AND SERFS CONT. . • Russia:

• serfs were worst off – wealth made by “souls,” male serfs as economic objects – could demand 6 days of labor, barshchina –little difference from slavery

• Ottoman empire• Peasants fee, landowner exerted power – cift, domain of lord• managed through an overseer – gradually became more

commercial• Serfs had rights because of lack of labor, but still

quite dependant

ARISTOCRATIC DOMINATION• The English Law Games

• Between 1671-1831, landowners had exclusive legal right to hunt game

• Peasants hunting would diminish their work habits• City merchants excluded as test of landed wealth over commercial wealth

• Gentry also served as justices who punished violations • Hired gamekeepers that killed dogs, made gun traps

• Many poor people had to poach to find food • Poaching sustained by demand for luxury meat• locals would steal game, sell it to higglers (later, coachmen)• Game preserves caused organized poaching, penalties increased

after 1790s• Growing population made Parliament rewrite game laws in 1831

THE FAMILY ECONOMY• Most productive/consumptive unit was household

• Majority lived in rural areas

• Farming was not always enough to sustain the family

• Working outside the home and gaining alternative skills was common

• Death of father • Devastating

• Quick remarriage common

• children criminals

• Family structure was fragile and vulnerable

WOMEN AND CHILDREN• Women worked early inside and then outside

the household.

• Saved to earn Dowry: Marriage

• Economy drove responsibility• Earned significant amount less than men for the

same work and hours

• Children viewed as detriments • Work

• Several left or purposely killed

• Establishment of Foundling Hospitals• Hospitals did not guarantee life (0 – 10)

WITCHCRAFT

• First major witch-hunt occurred in Switzerland in 1427• Calvinist center- most radical of reformist areas

• Thousands of people executed for witchcraft • First important book- the Malleus maleficarum

(Hammer of Sorceresses), Germany 1486 • Persecution of witches reached its height between

1580 and 1660 • Most victims were women, usually widows, midwives, and

herbalists

THE COMMERCIAL REVOLUTION(C. 1500 - 1800)

• Roots were in the Middle Ages (e.g. Hanseatic League, a commercial and defensive confederation along the coast of northern Germany )

• Population growth:

• 70 million in 1500; 90 million in 1600 ; thus, more consumers existed

• “Price revolution”: (long slow upward trend in prices)

• a. Increased food prices, increased volume of money , and the influx of gold & silver

• b. Increased prices meant increase in supply of goods

 

• States and emerging empires sought to increase their economic power

• Rise in capitalism (laissez-faire): entrepreneurs invested money in their own businesses or other business ventures.

• The middle class (bourgeoisie) led the way.

BANKING

• a. The Fuggers in Germany and the Medicis in Italy were among the leading bankers in Europe

• Funded countless economic activities

• b. Antwerp in Flanders became the banking and commercial center of Europe in the 16th century

• c. Amsterdam became the financial center in the 17th century after the

• successful Dutch Revolt against Spain

• The Hanseatic League evolved from within the German states in the Middle Ages that eventually controlled trade in much of northern Europe well into the 16th century

• The League was a mercantile association of numerous cities and towns.

CHARTERED COMPANIES

• State provided monopolies in certain areas (e.g. British East India Co. and the

• Dutch East India Co. )

These chartered companies became, in effect, a state within a state with large fleets of ships and military power.

•  

JOINT- STOCK COMPANIES:

• Investors pooled resources for a common purpose (forerunner of the modern corporation)

• One of the early prime examples of capitalism

• Stock markets emerged : e.g., the bourse in Antwerp

• Investors financed a company by purchasing shares of stock; as the value of the company grew so did the value of the stock, and thus the investors’ profit

New industries : cloth production, mining, printing, book trade, shipbuilding, cannons and muskets

New consumer goods: sugar (most important), rice, and tea 

Sugar production resulted in an enormous slave trade in the Atlantic

PATTERNS OF PREINDUSTRIAL URBANIZATION

• London, Paris, Berlin, Warsaw, St. Petersburg all increased – still, in France/ Britain, less than 20% lived in cites

• Growth of Capitals and Ports: Capital/ports grew most from 1600-1750 – reflects success: monarchical state building (armies/courts/groups that lived there)

• Port growth reflects European overseas trade, especially in Atlantic – most ports weren’t industrial

• 1600-1750: cities of less than 40,000 people declined • many landlocked trading centers, medieval industrial cities, ecclesiastical

centers – not significant anymore

• Rural labor was cheaper than urban labor• Cities w/ concentrations of labor declined as production moved into the

country

REVOLUTION IN AGRICULTURE• Goal: ensure local food supply • Peasants resist changes, which might endanger

food supply. • Poor harvests increase prices:

• Rising grain prices gave landlords an opportunity to improve their incomes and lifestyle:

• Landlords commercialize agriculture to increase profits.

NEW METHODS• Enclosures Replaces Open-Field Method:

• Agricultural innovations were incompatible with the existing organization of land in England.

• Previously, decisions about what crops would be planted were made communally:

• System discouraged improvement and favors poorer farmers.

• Goal: steady, but not growing supply of food.

• Fencing of common lands,• Reclamation of previously untilled waste • Transformation of strips into block fields occurs

IMPROVEMENTS IN EASTERN EUROPE

• Improvements characterized Europe- west of Elbe• Dutch farming efficient

• France• Enclosures restricted

• Talks of improving agriculture: increased ruling incomes, more food, less unrest

• Prussia/ Austria/Poland/Russia: • Improvement limited

• more land tilled to produce more labor from serfs,

• Nobles less ambitious/successful • only significant introduction was of maize/potato

PUTTING OUT

The “putting - out” Industry emerged in the countryside for the production of cloth

Some farmers, displaced by enclosures, supplemented their income by producing textiles at home

THE GROWTH OF CITIES

• Big changes happened in patterns of city growth between 1500-1800

• 1500: 156 cities over 10K, only 4 (Paris/Milan/Naples/Venice) over 100K

• 1800: 363 cities over 10K, 17 over 100K – Urban pop rose from 5-9%

• Major shift in urban concentration from southern Mediterranean to north

URBAN CLASSES• Visible segregation of urban rich and urban poor

• upper class lived in townhouses, poorest: rivers, merchants/artisans: above their shop

• Sanitation unknown, pigs, cattle walked the streets

THE UPPER CLASSES:

• Small group of nobles/large merchants/bankers/financiers/ clergy/government officials controlled political/economic affairs of town

• Self-appointed/electing oligarchy that governed through city council • rights granted by some form of royal charter

• Few artisan/guild controlled towns through corporations on the Continent

THE MIDDLE CLASS• (bourgeoisie) most dynamic element

• Diverse and divided - aggressive/socially ambitious, supported reform/change/economic growth: rational regulations for trade and commerce

• Used industry; produced/sold/bought most consumer goods

• Efforts for social mobility sparked nobles trying to retain status/wealth

• Middle class not trying to challenge nobility, only wanted more political/social power; No clashes, only sharing issues

• Saw lower classes as drain on resources, potentially violent

ARTISANS

• Shopkeepers/artisans/wage earners were largest portion of urban people

• conservative, business suffered if poor harvest raised price of food

• Guilds played conservative role, tried to preserve jobs/skill of their members, lessened competition by being more conclusive

• provided framework for social advancement, chief protection for artisans against commercial market

• Strong in central Europe