Burghers

Question 1

What should be notes about bonds peasants shared with echelons of society?

Answer 1

They had horizontal and vertical ones, although these bonds range in formality and purpose.

Question 2

What must be noted about the east/west divide between peasants?

Answer 2

Western manorialism V Estates with serfs.

Question 3

What shows that peasants were eager to protect their communal traditions?

Answer 3

The German Peasants War of 1525.

Question 4

What were three pull factors of urbanisation?

Answer 4

1. Security (fortifications), 2. Legality (privileges), 3. Economics (specialisation of labour).

Question 5

Why did urbanisation lead to the development of burghers?

Answer 5

Building privileges meant profits were made on lands, population density meant a specialisation of labour thus there was a development of new trades and goods.

Question 6

What can be said about the rural-urban peasant relationship?

Answer 6

Merchants employed rural peasants to aid them in their trade.

Question 7

What affected the growth and decline of urban areas?

Answer 7

The introduction of the Atlantic trade, and wars.

Question 8

What is an example of the ideal early-modern urban society?

Answer 8

Leipzig, 1632

Question 9

What are the three outcomes of urbanisation?

Answer 9

• the creation of the printing press.
• emergence of early capitalism
• Marx’s argument of the dialectic

Question 10

What is the Dialectic argument?

Answer 10

The thesis and the antithesis to society, as it moves towards communism

Question 11

What did urban areas require?

Answer 11

New communities necessitated new public rules e.g. behaviour in cramped environments?

Question 12

What were the requirements to become a burgher?

Answer 12

male, of age, member of a guild, property owner.

Question 13

What did people have to do to become a burgher?

Answer 13

Swear an oath to the city, follow rules of privilege and duties (e.g. military participation) and consumption laws (e.g. not wearing purple)

Question 14

List three opportunity structures:

Answer 14

Mayor, Alderman, City council (however more likely to be an oligarchy of the most powerful families)

Question 15

Why were guilds created?

Answer 15

To protect economic interests of artisans and merchants (abolished in the 1800s)

Question 16

What were confraternities?

Answer 16

religious organisations of laity that held celebrations and charities.

Question 17

How was order kept in cities and towns?

Answer 17

There were no police forces, only militias, and even then not every place had them. There was a rise of stand-in armies to allow direct control. Informally people used civic rituals.

Question 18

Which family can we look to in stressing the social mobility?

Answer 18

Fugger Family of Southern Germany 1357+

Question 19

What did the Fugger family trade in?

Answer 19

Cotton, with Italy. Though they eventually established a banking and trading empire, branching out into metallurgy.

Question 20

What percentage of the copper trade did the Fugger family own at one point?

Answer 20

40%

Question 21

When and by whom were the Fugger family ennobled?

Answer 21

1511, by the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I

Question 22

What are the Fugger family credited with?

Answer 22

Bringing the Italian Renaissance to Augsburg, their hometown.

Question 23

What should be stressed about access to monarchs?

Answer 23

It could be volatile, an entire family could fall out of favour at any time.

Question 24

What were the burghers predecessors to?

Answer 24

The powerful bourgeoise echelon

Question 25

Who stresses that although peasants, burghers could still be exploitative?

Answer 25

Marx

Question 26

How were towns governed?

Answer 26

Through councils e.g. the Rat in Germany

Question 27

What were the three issues dealt with by councils in towns?

Answer 27

1. Substative issues (material). 2. Personnel issues. (who should solve no1) 3. Constitutional issues (how to fulfil 1&2).

Question 28

How were town councils constrained?

Answer 28

Ideologically, (recognised norms) externally (overlords) and internally (constitutional disputes).

Question 29

How can we characterise the middle class?

Answer 29

As conventional traditionalists, with consumerist values and education.

Question 30

What were the two aspects of the burgher political relationship in German urban areas?

Answer 30

Rat und Bürgerschaft (council and citizenry)

Question 31

When was the period of burgher dissatisfaction in Germany?

Answer 31

14-18th centuries.

Question 32

What are the two ways of interpreting burgher politics in Germany?

Answer 32

As the citizenry and council always being antithetical, or as there being periods of normalcy and crisis.

Question 33

Who suggested that German towns had regular reciprocal relations between the burghers and councils?

Answer 33

M. Walker.

Question 34

What was politics in the early modern era?

Answer 34

An organised dispute over power within a community.

Question 35

What type of political dispute was early modern politics centred on?

Answer 35

Substantive, which could turn into constitutional. When elected to a council it was expected to be for life, and one wasn’t pitted against rivals.

Question 36

How can we place the burgher citizenry’s role in politics into a modern context?

Answer 36

We can consider burgher groups to be “interest groups”, and note that formal political power always laid with the established elite.

Question 37

How did becoming elected to a council position increase an elites power and status?

Answer 37

Whilst already an elite in their field (e.g. guilds / merchants), becoming elected meant being an elite in all spheres.

Question 38

How can we exemplify the constraints against councils?

Answer 38

Stettin, early 17th century.

Question 39

What occurred in early 17th century Stettin?

Answer 39

Finances were in serious disarray, merchants pressured the creation of a 60-strong auditing committee which retailers claimed harmed THEIR interests, leading to the establishing of 2 entirely new councils.

Question 40

What should be noted about the burgher citizenry?

Answer 40

They were not a cohesive group, but a collection of overlapping interest groups.

Question 41

What is the discrepancy between guilds’ power geographically?

Answer 41

In some areas guilds had an established role in governance, in others they did not even have control over their internal affairs.

Question 42

How can we exemplify the geographical discrepancy in guilds’ power?

Answer 42

1548 Augsburg weavers guild was deprived of both external and internal power, in 1575 established a “common committee” of indescript role.

Question 43

How can we say that within guilds there was social tension?

Answer 43

If the “common committees” began favouring the richer guild members, the poorer would resort to official channels.

Question 44

What can be said about the changing nature of interest groups in the early modern period?

Answer 44

Interest groups could also be used as religious pressure groups or as counter-governments.

Question 45

Why did substantive issues often develop into constitutional ones?

Answer 45

Substantive issues developed into constitutional ones due to feelings of exclusion, and were often solved by external participation.

Question 46

What can exemplify the move from substantive to constitutional issues?

Answer 46

1612 Frankfurt uprising- wanted rid of some Jews, failures of the council led to the external ridding of the council + Jews, led to their execution and the return of the old system.

Question 47

How can we describe the Rat and Bürgerschaft relationship in times of constitutional crisis?

Answer 47

Not as Rat und Bürgerschaft, but as Rat corta Bürgerschaft.

Question 48

What is the nature of interest groups during politics of normalcy and politics of crisis?

Answer 48

During politics of normalcy, groups are pluralistic, during times of crisis, groups are bipolar.

Question 49

What are the two ways of looking at German social status in the early modern period?

Answer 49

Through wealth assessments (quantitative, doesn’t account for overlap of interaction) or status (qualitative)

Question 50

What should be stressed about people’s social position?

Answer 50

People occupied more than one role or position in society, meaning that they could be members of different, sometimes opposing, interest groups.