18th Century Social and
Economic Change
The Dawn of the Agricultural and
Industrial Revolutions.
Economic and demographic changes
 1700,
80% of western Europeans were
farmers; higher % in eastern Europe
 Most people lived in poverty.
 Significant population growth until 1650;
slows down until 1750 when it starts to
dramatically rise again.
Population Explosion after 1750
 Limits
to population growth before 1700:
- famine, disease, war
 Reasons for population growth:
 disappearance
of plague
 improved sanitation,
 improved transportation for food
distribution (canal and road building in
western Europe),
 increased food supply (esp. potato).
Falling Death Rates
 With
the exception of England, birth
rates did not significantly rise, but death
rates fell.
 A better nourished population (due to
better weather, better agricultural
practices, and better transport) led to
people living longer.
Impact of Profit Inflation

Inflation due to rising population and
increased demand.
 “Profit inflation” stimulated economic growth.
 By the end of the 18th century, prices
outperform wages, leading to hardship for the
poor, particularly in France.
 Wealth moved more and more from the poor
to the wealthy due to high rents and low
wages
 Regressive tax structure that put the burden
on the poor in France and much of the
continent caused hardship and led to financial
crises.
Protoindustrialization

Cottage Industries: first and
foremost a family enterprise
(also called “putting-out” system)
- Occurred during Agricultural
Revolution
 Putting-out system: city
manufacturers took advantage of
cheaper labor in the countryside


increased rural population eager to
supplement agricultural income.
began to challenge urban craft
industry
The European Linen Industry
Economic Innovation
 Changes
in Structure and Performance:
 Performance – measured by output;
generally identified through per capita
productivity.
 Structure – characteristics that
support performance (laws, tax
policies, technology, population, etc.)
Adam Smith

Smith criticized both guild and
mercantile-based economic
systems as restraining.
 Promoted liaise-faire (i.e.
classical liberalism) ideology in
The Wealth of Nations (1776).
 Free market economy based
on division of labor and the
fewest government restrictions
as possible
Why Britain?

Large supplies of coal and iron.
 Navigable waterways and access to the sea.
Expansion of roads (macadam in Britain,
corvee in France).
 Merchants had surplus capital from
commercial revolution for investment.
 Gov’t policies favorable to merchants
(property rights, taxes, banking system)
 Cultural innovation (dissenters) and free
market ideas.
 High standard of living; growing population
driving demand.
Cotton
 Demand
for cheap cotton goods at
home and abroad made textiles the first
to industrialize.
 Cotton was cheap (slave labor) and
durable.
 “Putting-out” system could not keep up
with demand (lack of organization,
distance between workers); this
required new system
Factory System
 The
organization of labor in one location
allowed for increased production.
 The location of factories near rivers
and/or seaports allowed for the
transportation of goods to be easier and
provided power supplies.
 Location in urban areas provided cheap
labor supply.
 Introduction of machines increased per
capita production.
Inventions

1733, John Kay: flying
shuttle
 1764, James Hargreaves:
spinning jenny
 1769, Richard Arkwright:
water frame, which improved
thread spinning.
 1780s, Edmund Cartwright:
steam engine to power
looms; factory production of
textiles.
 1793, Eli Whitney, cotton gin
The Steam Engine
– Thomas Savery invents steam
pump.
 1712 – Thomas Newcomen built steam
engine to pump water from mines.
 1769 – James Watt creates more
efficient steam engine.
 By 1800, steam power was being used
to power looms in factories across
Britain.
 1700
Before the Agricultural Revolution
 open-field
system: greatest
accomplishment of Medieval agriculture
 village agriculture; 1/3 to ½ of fields lay
fallow.
 Common land: used by village for
livestock – fields shared by peasants.
 serfs in eastern Europe were worst off;
many sold with lands (like slavery)
The Agricultural Revolution
 Agricultural
Revolution: major
milestone in human civilization
 impact of the scientific revolution’s
experimental method was great
 Application of scientific ideas - crop
rotation most important feature.
Enclosure Movement
 end
to common lands and open-field
system
 agriculturalists (land owners)
consolidated lands and closed them off
 game laws in England prohibited
peasants from hunting game
 caused considerable friction in the
countryside in 17th and 18th centuries
Impact of Enclosure
 traditional
view of enclosure (Marx):
poor people driven off the land
 recent scholarship: negative impact of
enclosure may have been exaggerated
 As much as 50% of lands enclosed
already by 1750 (much by mutual
consent)
 1700: ratio of landless farmer to
landowner = 2:1; not much greater in
1800
Low Countries
 Netherlands
and Belgium (Austrian
Netherlands) took the lead in
agricultural innovations
 Increased population meant more food
had to be produced
 Cornelius Vermuyden: important in
drainage of swamp lands into useful
farm land.
 Huge impact on southern England.
England
 Viscount
Charles Townsend (16741738): improved soil by crop rotation
(turnips)
 Bog and marshes drained extensively,
manured heavily, regular crop rotation
w/o fallowing
 Jethro Tull (1674-1741): seed drill;
more efficient than scattering seeds by
hand
 Robert Bakewell (1720-1795) selective
breeding of ordinary livestock (animal
husbandry): created larger animals.
Atlantic Economy in the 17th
th
and 18 Centuries

Characteristics





World trade became fundamental
Spain and Portugal revitalized their empires and
began drawing more wealth from renewed
development.
Netherlands, Great Britain, and France benefited
most; Great Britain the leading maritime power.
Britain’s commercial leadership based on
mercantilism
Navigation Laws: aimed to reduce Dutch trade in
Atlantic region (1st in 1651, Cromwell)
Atlantic Slave Trade

Basis of the
Triangular Trade
System.
 Nearly 10 million
transported.
 Millions more died
in the ordeal.
 In the 1780s,
European
participation died
off, but it was not
outlawed by Britain
until 1807.
South Sea Bubble

South Sea Bubble: responsible for exploiting
the asiento other commercial privileges won
from Spain after Treaty of Utrecht (1713)
 Took over large portion of public debt by
receiving gov’t bonds in return for shares of
its stock.
 Stock values soared but the “bubble” burst in
1720
 England recovered better than France who
had created a Mississippi Bubble for New
Orleans commerce.
 “Bubble Act”: forbade joint-stock
companies, except those chartered by gov’t
3 Anglo-Dutch wars (1652-74)
 hurt
Dutch
shipping and
commerce
 Netherlands’
“golden age”:
during 1st half of
17th century, now
in decline
Colonial Wars: Britain v. France
 War
of Spanish Succession (Queen
Anne’s War) (1701-1713)
 Treaty of Utrecht (1713):
 Britain
received asiento (slave trade)
from Spain
 Britain allowed to send 1 ship of
merchandise annually into Panama
 Britain received control of Nova Scotia,
Newfoundland and
Colonial Wars: Britain v. France
 War
of Jenkins’ Ear (1739): started
over Spanish anger over British abuse
of asiento.
 Expanded into War of Austrian
Succession the following year
 War of Austrian Succession (King
George’s War) (1740-1748)
 Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748):
restored status quo prior to war
Colonial Wars: Britain v. France

Seven Years War (French and
Indian War, The Great War for
Empire) (1754-1763)
Continental War primary
between Prussia and Austria.
 Global war in North America,
Caribbean and India.
 William Pitt the Elder:
successfully led war effort from
Parliament for UK; British naval
superiority won the day.
Flag of Maryland Militia
under G. Washington,
defeated at Ft. Duquesne
Colonial Wars: Britain v. France

Robert Clive defeats French backers in India
at the Battle of Plassey (June 1557)
 General Wolfe defeated Montcalm on the
Plains of Abraham (Battle of Quebec) in Sept.
1759.
 Treaty of Paris (1763):



Britain gained all French territory in North America
(Canada and the US Midwest)
Spain gained New Orleans and Louisiana.
Removed French from significant position in India.
British in India
 Took
advantage of the
teetering Mughal Empire.
 The British East India
Company grew in power;
ruled Bengal.
 India Act of 1784 placed India
under control of British gov’t
 The British Raj transformed
India into the “Jewel of the
British Crown” in the 19th
century.
Spanish Colonies

Spain’s Latin American colonies: helped
revitalize Spanish empire in 18th c.


gold and silver mining recovered
significant trade with mother country

Creoles elite came to rival top Spanish
authorities (about 10% of population)
 Mestizos increased to about 20% of
population

black slavery in Cuba and Puerto Rico
Portuguese Colonies
 Portuguese
Brazil: about 50% of
population African by early 19th c.
 more successful in blending races than
in Spanish colonies or United States
 Slavery remained in place until the end
of the 19th century.