8. Taming nature, Demography, economics and social relations 1650-1800

Why did Northwestern Europe emerge as the new economic centre after 1650

→ Decline of the Mediterranean (esp. Spain and Portugal)

• Recurring crises (plagues, famines) in the Mediterranean from 1590s onward

• Depopulation of Castile’s countryside

• Loss of Asian trade routes to Atlantic powers

• Imperial overstretch by the Spanish- Habsburgs

  • Costly wars: Eighty Years’ War. Thirty Years’ War

  • Multiple revolts (Catalonia, Naples, Portugal) between 1630-1650

→ Rise of Northwestern Europe:

• Shift of economic centre of gravity to Atlantic/North Sea ports

  • Dutch Republic, England, northern France benefited most

• Stronger commercial networks, financial centres (e.g. Amsterdam, later London)

  => after 1650, economic growth resumed, but was disturbed with Northwest emerging as the new economic and political core of Europe

Europes’s Population

• lack of reliable population statistics for early modern Europe; difficult to estimate the size of the population of the continent

• at the beginning of the 17th c. 70-80 million inhabitants in Europe (total world population at that time → around 200 million)

• 1/3 of the total world population

• sparsely populated continents - Asia and Africa; very sparsely populated - America and Oceania

  <=> currently, European share of the world population is 6 to 6% and falling, in contrast - the African population is growing strongly, but the continent is still relatively sparsely populated

17th c. population

• pessimists => after a low point around 1650 = Europe would once again attain a population of 70 to 80 million people in the end of 17th c.

• optimists => start 17th c. with around 100 million inhabitants; detect a slum in the first decades of the century, and quick recovery to about 105 million around 1650 and steady grow to 120 million people around 1700

18th c. population

• Population growth in the 18th c.

  → early 18th c. → slow growth (0.3% per year)

  →after 1750 → faster growth (0.5% per year)

  → 19th c. → even faster (1% + per year)

• Estimates Differ

  Pessimists

  • Start: ~95 million

  • End: ~ 146 million

  Optimists

  • Start ~ 120 million

  • End: ~ 190 million

  Regional Differences:

  → Faster growth

  • Western Europe (low countries, France, England)

  → Slower growth:

  • Southern, Central and Eastern Europe

Causes of the growth

• fertility increased slightly

• mortality rated decreased

  • after 1670 → plague less and less common in Europe, disappear after 1742 (last epidemic in Messina)

  • other diseases (smallpox, typhus, etc.) continued to take their toll

• war remained omnipresent, but caused fewer civilian causalities

• stronger discipline and better hygiene among troops and the rise of the military camp contributed to that

• in the 18th c. - the number of large-scale international military conflicts decreased

Urbanisation

In the 2nd half of 17th c. and during 18th c. → urbanisation increased

• 1700 → 13% of Europeans lived in cities and their share will continue to grow in the following decades

• the life expectancy of city dwellers was still lower than that of rural dwellers;

• immigration the main driver of urban growth

Life in the cities

• public facilities were developed => street lighting in Paris from 1667, in Amsterdam from 1669, The Hague 1678

• the establishment of penitentiaries - beggars, vagabonds (and more generally the poor) were disciplined

• city dwellers => focus on economic specialisation; high quality of their products assured them a wide market, e.g. arms production in Liege, glass in Venice, leather in Cordoba, beer in Haarlem, etc

Changing diets

• 2nd half of 17th c, onward the dependance on grain decreased due to the introduction of American and Asian crops:

  → corn, rice (especially in northern Italy)

• in the 18th c. => POTATOES

• more variable diet = higher life expectancy and taller people, but also → growing inequalities between rich and poor

• 18th c. people matured physically slower that us today

• they did not reach their maximum height until around age of 24

• women often become fertile around the age of 20

• diet more variable => but quantities ingested decreased (also in number of calories)

  => food production was initially unable to keep up with the population growth

• the combination of crop failure, high food prices and mortality crises → less common

• in 1740s - a successive series of crop failures - this did not lead to any longer mass deaths

• people become more resilient = population grew as result

Economy and the state

• economics as an independent science did not yet exist in the 17th c.

• government could hardly rely on elaborate economic theories for their policies and they did not develop large-scale economic programmes

• rather, they tried to adjust current practices

Mercantilism

• limited only to a few principles

• policymakers did not believe in growth

• wealth (especially the amount of precious metal available) was finite and = the prosperity of a country was determined by the amount of precious metal that circulated within its borders

• self- sufficiency had to be stimulated and imports to be hindered

• the export of precious metals had to be PREVENTED as MUCH AS POSSIBLE

In France and England

In France → Louis XIV's minister Colbert imposed high duties and set up so-called ateliers nationaux (e.g. for glass: Saint Gobain or for tapestries)

In England → 1651, Oliver Cromwell issues the Act of Navigation; only English ships were permitted to unload foreign products in English ports

→ such measures were mainly targeted against the Dutch Republic

The Consumer Revolution

• began in the late 17th c. accelerated in the 18th c.

• Increase in supply of goods like:

  • Mechanical clocks

  • Pottery/ porcelain

  • Sugar (→ rum)

  • Tobacco

  • Cotton

  • Coffee and tea

  → prices dropped → more people could afford luxury/ colonial products

• Key Clause: Colonial Trade → supply of goods from colonies was essential → without it the Consumer Revolution wouldn’t have happened

How significant was the economic impact of colonisation on Europe initially?

the impact of colonisation and the voyages of discovery on the European economy was fairly limited. Long- distance trade was risky, expensive and made up only a modest share of total economic activity

Why was long- distance colonial trade initially limited in scope?

• required high investments - > ships, crew, provisions

• it was high- risk - > only few could afford it

• although profits could be large →it wasn’t major part of the economy at first

What was the main purpose of European colonies in the early modern period?

• colonies mainly established to supply Europe with goods (like spices, sugar, tobacco),

• not to serve as markets for European products;

• not ti reduce population pressure- unlike the 19th c.

How large were early European settlements overseas by the mid- 1600s?

• small scale

• by 1600 → only about 10 000 Europeans lived in French North America, covering vast areas of present day Canada like Quabec, Saint Lawrence River and the Mississippi River region

Who primarily carried out colonial expansion in the early modern period

• a private matter, ofter chartered companies like:

• English East India Company

• Dutch VOC/ WIC

• French Compagnie des Indes

  → operated with delegated government authority

How did European governments use colonies to address internal issues?

European government used colonies to relocate religious dissidents. E.g. → Puritans were exiled to Massachusetts and Quakers to Pensylvania

What role did slavery play in European colonisation of the Americas?

• slavery = essential to colonial economies in the Americas

• it had never fully disappeared in the Mediterranean, BUT now integrated as a massive scale into the colonial system

European presence in Asia

• remained fairly limited

• Europe had a negative trade balance with Asia until the 18th c. , there were great profits to be made in the trade on that continent

• the import of spices => extremely lucrative

South America

• Europeans mainly obtained precious metals

• around 1650 → real plantation economy developed in the northern parts of South America, in Central America, in the Caribbean and in the southern territories of the present- day US

Sugar Cane Cultivation and Colonisation

• began in Asia, especially along the Black Sea coast → practiced by the Genoese in their Mediterranean colonies during the Middle Ages

• The Portuguese and Spanish later transplanted it to the Azores, Madeira and Canary Islands

• Caribbean = ideal climate and soil conditions made sugar cultivation highly profitable → but only through massive exploitation of enslaved people, which became central to its economic viability

Triangular Trade

• enslaved Africans captured and sold along the Atlantic coast of Africa. then forcibly transported to the Americas (the middle Passage)

• in the Americas, they were forced to work on plantation producing raw and refined sugar, as well as rum

• These goods were then exported to Europe, completing the triangular trade between Africa, Americas and Europe

Sugar and the Consumer Revolution

• massive import of cheap sugar led to a consumer revolution in Europe

• it radically changed European diets and contributed to increased demand for colonial goods

Link to the Industrial Revolution

• the consumer revolution helped set the stage for the Industrial Revolution by expanding markets and encouraging mass production

• growing consumption created economic momentum in Europe

Colonial Production and European Trade

• low production costs in the colonies (due to forced labour) enabled larger European markets for goods like sugar, tobacco and cotton

• Colonialism and European trade mutually reinforced each other

The Dark Side of Prosperity

• Much of Europe’s 17th- 18th century prosperity was based on the exploitation of enslaved people

• forced labour in the colonies made cheap mass consumption in Europe possible

How did rural labour and economic conditions change in the 18th century

• Underused rural labour (women and children) more integrated into the paid economy, particularly via the textile sector

• increase of the disposable income and consumption

• increasingly strong tendency towards specialisation and mechanisation (operating a specific machine during a step in the production process)

what challenges do historians face in evaluating income during this period?

• Estimating 18th c. incomes is difficult due to:

  • limited monetisation (barter still common)

  • unpaid labour undervalued

• formal income stats can be misleading (e.g. Sweden = poor? → but it had higher literacy and life expectancy)

• The 19th century income ‘leap’ might have been less dramatic than once believed

Production process in the 18th c.

• industrial production grew faster than agricultural yields

• most goods still made in small workshops and not in large- scale factories

What role did textile production play in early industrialisation and what is PROTO-INDUSTRIALISATION

• textile production was well-suited for mass production

• it often involved outsourced home labour or putting- out system)

• when done on a larger mechanised scale = proto - industrialisation

• proto- industrialisation = merchants distributing raw materials to rural families, who then produced goods like textiles using simple tools, often escaping the regulations of urban guilds

• enabled by underemployment of the rural population

• from the late 18th c., factories with hundreds of workers emerged, especially in England, the Southern Netherlands and to a lesser extend Catalonia

Just as interesting, however, are the questions about why:

• Were there markets for all those new products? – And where? – By
  which means did these products reach the markets?

• Who worked in the new factories? – Where did those people come
  from?

• Where did the money come from to finance these new factories?

• Why did the Industrial Revolution occur at first in England and in the
  Southern Low Countries and not elsewhere?
  

Answers

• England and the Southern Netherlands had natural resources (coal that was relatively easy to mine), a network of (water) roads, a sufficient large part of the population that was willing to migrate, well-developed and well-stocked capital markets

• ‘putting out’ resulted in products of lower quality than those fabricated in an urban economy in which production was controlled by guilds =these products now became much cheaper

• massive temporary unemployment or underemployment (whether or not disguised) remained a characteristic of the 18th century labour market, even at the time of the incipient industrialisation

• labour remained cheap

Trade

• in the course of 18th century, international trade grew significantly:

  → port infrastructure and naval techniques improved

  → markets for information and goods became better tuned

The importance of the Amsterdam staple market decreased => LONDON taking over his position

• Warfare hampered trade

• the 18th c. was characterised by less international conflicts than 17th

• the build up to and the conclusion of armed conflicts always caused surges in trade

The circulation of cash

• in 18th c. more cash started to circulate across Europe

• on average, each year 324 tons of silver were imported (mostly from Latam)

• although part of silver leaked away to Asia, considerable amount remained in Europe

• the increase on money available => stimulated economic growth as more people had easier access to credit

Economic Liberalism

• gradually liberalism substituted mercantilism as dominant economic theory

• in contrast with the past → now the creation of wealth was deemed possible

• Adam Smith, An inquiry into the Nature and the Causes of the Wealth of Nations, first published in 1776.
  

State intervention

• states accumulated enormous amounts of dept

• warfare had always been their main expenditure

• already in the 17th c. → The Dutch Republic had succeeded to consolidate its sovereign debt

• England did as well in the 18th c.

  => both countries could borrow on the international capital markets against much lower rates than France (=> due to its inadequate tax collection system, France lagged behind)

How did governments begin to intervene in the economy during the 18th c.? Austrian or Southern Low Countries

• governments took a new responsibility by actively intervening in economic life

• Improved infrastructure and supported trade

• Examples from the Austrian/ Southern Low Countries

  → Creation of the Ostend Company (to boost overseas trade)

  → construction of a road network

  → digging of the canal from Leuven to Mechelen

• until the 18th c. families saved in physical goods, rising money availability enabled more spending

• Basic goods’ prices rose faster than wages, possibly due

  1) people consuming stored physical goods

  2) more cheap labour entering the workforce

  3) increasing monetisation of the economy

• Rising consumption enabled markets for Industrial Revolution products

• Crucially, this was underpinned by forced labour of enslaved people in the A