The gradual emergence |
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Commerce, c. 1648-c. 1815
The economic watershed of the 17th and 18th centuries was a historically unique passage from limited resources that made material want inescapable to self-generating economic growth that dramatically raised levels of physical and material well-being. European societies—first those with access to the Atlantic and gradually those to the east and on the Mediterranean—provided increasing percentages of their populations with a higher standard of living.
The gradual emergence of new economic structures that made European global influence possible both presupposed and promoted far-reaching changes in human capital, property rights, financial instruments, technologies, and labor systems. These changes included an availability of labor power, both in terms of numbers and in terms of persons with the skills (literacy, ability to understand and manipulate the natural world, physical health sufficient for work) required for efficient production along with institutions and practices that supported economic activity and provided incentives for it (new definitions of property rights and protections for them against theft or confiscation and against state taxation).
Accumulations of capital for financing enterprises and innovations, as well as for raising the standard of living and the means for turning private savings into investable or “venture” capital. Technological innovations in food production, transportation, communication, and manufacturing. A major result of these changes was the development of a growing consumer society that benefited from and contributed to the increase in material resources. At the same time, other effects of the economic revolution—including increased geographic mobility, transformed employer–worker relations, the decline of domestic manufacturing—eroded traditional community and family solidarities and protections.
European economic strength derived in part from the ability to control and exploit resources (human and material) around the globe. Mercantilism supported the development of European trade and influence around the world, which, in turn, encouraged overseas exploration, expansion, and conflicts. Internally, Europe divided more and more sharply between the societies engaging in overseas trade and undergoing the economic transformations sketched above (primarily countries on the Atlantic) and those (primarily in central and eastern Europe) with little such involvement. The eastern European countries remained in a traditional, principally agrarian, economy and maintained the traditional order of society and the state that rested on it.
Source: https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/pdf/ap-european-history-course-and-exam-description.pdf
The gradual emergence of new economic structures that made European global influence possible both presupposed and promoted far-reaching changes in human capital, property rights, financial instruments, technologies, and labor systems. These changes included an availability of labor power, both in terms of numbers and in terms of persons with the skills (literacy, ability to understand and manipulate the natural world, physical health sufficient for work) required for efficient production along with institutions and practices that supported economic activity and provided incentives for it (new definitions of property rights and protections for them against theft or confiscation and against state taxation).
Accumulations of capital for financing enterprises and innovations, as well as for raising the standard of living and the means for turning private savings into investable or “venture” capital. Technological innovations in food production, transportation, communication, and manufacturing. A major result of these changes was the development of a growing consumer society that benefited from and contributed to the increase in material resources. At the same time, other effects of the economic revolution—including increased geographic mobility, transformed employer–worker relations, the decline of domestic manufacturing—eroded traditional community and family solidarities and protections.
European economic strength derived in part from the ability to control and exploit resources (human and material) around the globe. Mercantilism supported the development of European trade and influence around the world, which, in turn, encouraged overseas exploration, expansion, and conflicts. Internally, Europe divided more and more sharply between the societies engaging in overseas trade and undergoing the economic transformations sketched above (primarily countries on the Atlantic) and those (primarily in central and eastern Europe) with little such involvement. The eastern European countries remained in a traditional, principally agrarian, economy and maintained the traditional order of society and the state that rested on it.
Source: https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/pdf/ap-european-history-course-and-exam-description.pdf
The Agricultural Revolution
Do not confuse legendary British farmerJethro Tull with legendary British rock band Jethro Tull. (Wicked flute solo at 2:50.)
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Mercantilism
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The English Navigation Acts required English colonies to trade only with England making London rich but sparking the Anglo-Dutch Wars and contributing to the American Revolution.
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Free Market Economy
South Sea Company stock certificate, 1728
Isaac Newton was a victim of the South Sea Bubble. He invested early then sold after making excellent returns quickly. He then re-entered the market close to the peak, and hung on even after the bubble burst losing £20,000, (about £3m today).
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Abolition of Transatlantic Slave Trade
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"Am I Not a Man and a Brother?" medallion created as part of anti-slavery campaign by Josiah Wedgwood, 1787
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Consumer Culture
Pronkstilleven (Dutch for 'ostentatious', 'ornate' or 'sumptuous') still life paintings showcase the luxury goods of wealthy citizens of the Dutch Golden Age.
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