Trade and EmpireThe 18th Century

Economic Recovery

Scientific Revolution &Enlightenment --- didn’t change daily struggle

to survive

Farming hadn’t changed for hundreds (thousands?) of years

--beasts pull inefficient “machines”

But – economic base changing – colonial empires!

The Expanding Population of Europe

1500-1700 gradual increase

Why? The factors:

Disappearance of Bubonic Plague / beginnings of vaccinations Fewer people are dying young

Increase in personal and community hygiene

Warfare – wars fought elsewhere Improvements in the European diet

Potatoes!!! From America – vitamin A / C

Food is also more plentiful because of Agricultural Changes

What changes???

Agriculture

How it was: Bad weather – “famine foods” – nuts/grass… Leads to epidemics: flu / smallpox

Why? Open-field system = no fences Soil exhaustion – crops fail or left fallow Land used for animals / crops / gleaners

Changes: Rotate grains with nitrogen-storing crops: beans,

peas --- new---potatoes, turnips, clover New crops feed animals – more animals, better diet Enclosure: problems for poor --- can’t glean or graze

cows b/c no common land – can’t afford private land

The World of Work

Putting-Out System Merchant provides raw material Rural worker provides labor

Knives / forks / clocks / instruments / linen First form of manufacturing

Piecework

Population increase = increase in demand for manufactured goods Putting out system met this need at first New types of work in the growing cities

Architects, engineers, bricklayers, stonemasons, street repairers, plumbers

Servants

Changing Notions of Wealth Economics

Origin of the idea that economies can grow and new wealth can be generated

Laissez-faire: leave it alone – the government should not interfere with the economy

Adam Smith: Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, 1776 Economic understanding of supply and demand

The greater the volume of production, the better the economy fared

Consumer Revolution Rise in consumer demand that stimulated the

economy in northwestern Europe – Britain, Netherlands, western Germany, France

Accumulation of possessions

Want vs. Need

London is an example of a place “hit” by the Consumer Revolution

Wren’s St. Paul’s Cathedral

Wren’s Greenwich Hospital

Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens

Tower of London & Crown Jewels

Hogarth’s Beer Street vs. Gin Alley

African Slavery in the Colonies

Horrors of the Middle Passage

Excerpt from Equiano’s Autobiography

Conditions aboard The Brooks

Scene from Amazing Grace

Life on a Brazilian Sugar Cane Plantation

Where do we get the goods??

Columbian Exchange

French and Indian War, 1755-1763

Greatest conflict of 7 Years’ War

Gulf of the Saint Lawrence Ohio River Valley

French threatening British expansion

French ally with Native Americans & Spain William Pitt the Elder – British must stop

French in order to build empire = colonial war more important

French Navy succumbs to British Navy Gen. Wolfe vs. Gen. Montcalm at Quebec,

1759

North America before and after the Treaty of Paris, 1763

Results of Treaty of Paris, 1763

GB PM earl of Bute brokers Treaty

GB receives:

all of Canada (from France)

Ohio River Valley, eastern half of Mississippi River valley (from France)

British East India Co growing stronger in India

trying to better organize NA territories

increased taxes to cover costs of warfare