欧洲历史与文明

沈阳师范大学

主讲人：孙若红

Economic Renewal

Economic Renewal and Wars of Religion,1560-1648

第三章 经济重建与宗教战争

Overview

• Change in commerce and production • Changing social structures

The Growth of Population

European population reached

about 90 million in 1600

England: no more than five million inhabitants

France: four times as many (20 million inhabitants)

German states: as many as France

Russia: no more than 10 million people

A Slow Inflation • Causes of inflation The growth of population set up an increasing demand for food The increase in the volume of money • The effects of inflation on prices The trend of price was upward. It affected all prices: rents and other payments

the price of hired labor (wages rose the least)• The well-being of social classes

Economic Renewal

• The Commercial Revolution:signifying the rise of a capitalistic economy and the transition from a town-centered to a nation-centered economic system

• Changing Social Structures

Changes in Commerce and Production

• The town-and-guild framework in the Middle Ages

Craftsmen(organized in guilds )

Produced Articles for local use

Peasants and lords

Agricultural products

Produced soldTown

Master of worship

capital House, workbench, tools and materials

A workman himself, journeymen and apprentics

Changes in Commerce and Production

• The break away from the town-and-guild framework

Long-distance business and new kind of entrepreneurs

The“putting out” system

Changes in Commerce and Production

• The Divergence between capital and labor The introduction of factories in the late 18th century Workers worked when needed and lived by farming

local charity when times were bad. The manager or entrepreneur directed the whole affair. Industries that were capitalistic from the start mining, printing and the book trade, shipbuilding, the

manufacture of cannons and muskets * The introduction of factories signified a new divergence between capital

and labor.

Changes in Commerce and Production

• New banking practices ◊ Loans made to sustain ecclesiastics, princes, and noble.

The taking of interest was frowned upon as usury, denounced

as avarice, and forbidden in the canon law.

◊ Loans made for economically productive uses

The bank attracted depositors because their money was safe,

would earn interest, and could be withdrawn at will.

Make low-interest loans that financed new commercial

activities.

Changes in Commerce and Production • Mercantilism ◊ Building up a strong and self-sufficient economy.

Set the poor on work: to turn the country into a hive of

industry, to discourage idleness,

begging, vagabondage, and unemployment

Favors were given to merchants providing work for the poor and selling the country’s products abroad.

Raise the export of finished goods and reduce the export of unprocessed raw materials.

Curtail all imports except of needed raw materials and thus obtain a favorable balance of trade.

◊ Introducing new industries The silk industry was brought from Italy to France under royal

protection. England was turned from a producer of raw wool into a producer of

finished woolens. ◊ Creating a national market and an industrious labor supply

for the great merchants. The kings signed treaties with other countries by which the

merchants obtained privileges. ◊ Founding official companies for the transocean trade, e.g. the East India Companies

Changing Social Structures

• Social classes

Aristocracy

Middle classes(bourgeoisie)

Urban elites; the families of merchants,bankers, and shipowners,;traditional learned professions (judges, tax officials,and other employees of governments);clergy (was drawb from all classed, but the bulk of it was recruised from middle-class families);members of trade guides;small retail shopkeepers, inkeepers, owners of worshops , etc.

The working poor The unskilled wage laborers; the unemployed, unemployable; paupers

Changing Social Structures • Social roles of education and government New schools and universities

Wider access to education Government and social classes

• Eastern and Western Europe In the west, the changes brought by the commercial revolution were

advantageous to the middle class and to many of the peasantry for whom the old burdens of the manorial system were lightened. In eastern Europe, it was the lords who benefited from rising prices and the growing market for grain and forest products. The mass of the peasantry sank into serfdom.

Summarization

•The town-and-guild framework in the Middle Ages•The break away from the town-and-guild framework•The Divergence between capital and labor • New banking practices• Mercantilism• Social classes

•The town-and-guild framework in the Middle Ages•The break away from the town-and-guild framework•The Divergence between capital and labor • New banking practices• Mercantilism• Social classes

7. Homework

What are some of the changes in commerce and

production?

What are some of the changes in social

structures?

Terms

• Commercial revolution

• Mercantilism