Ch 17 Flashcards
What were some of the hardships people faced in the 16th and 17th centuries? (this is about agriculture)
80 percent of the people of western Europe drew their livelihoods from agriculture.
Every bushel of wheat seed planted yielded on average only five or six bushels of grain at harvest. By modern standards, output was distressingly low.
Climate produced poor or disastrous harvests every 8-9 years leading to famine and death
What was the open field system?
The open field system is when the land to be cultivated was divided into several large fields, which were in turn cut up into long, narrow strips.
The fields were open, and the strips were not enclosed into small plots by fences or hedge
What major problems did the open field system present?
Soil exhaustion. Soil exhaustion is when wheat planted year after year in a field will deplete nitrogen in the soil. To replete it you have to not plant things in that area for a couple years.
What was the significance of crop rotation?
Allowed farmers to forgo the unproductive fallow period (where nothing is planted) altogether and maintain their land in continuous cultivation
Deliberately alternating grain with crops that restored nutrients to the soil, such as peas and beans, root crops such as turnips and potatoes, and clover and other grasses.
What were the effects of crop rotation?
It restored nutrients and nitrogen directly to the soil
These other crops produced additional benefits:
• Potatoes and many types of beans were first perceived by Europeans as fit only for animal feed…potatoes eventually made their way to the human table, where they provided a nutritious supplement to the peasant’s meager diet.
• With more hay, and root vegetables for the winter months, peasants and larger farmers could build up their herds of cattle and sheep.
• More animals meant more manure to fertilize and restore the soil.
• More animals also meant more meat and dairy products as well as more power to pull ploughs in the fields and bring carts to market.
Discuss “enclosure” and the effects it had on “common lands” and peasants.
The movement to fence in fields in order to farm more effectively, at the expense of poor peasants who relied on common fields for farming and pasture.
What enabled the Dutch to lead the way in the agricultural revolution?
At the time they were already the most advanced country in Europe in many areas of human endeavor.
Another reason is the area was one of the most densely populated in Europe. This means they have to find advancements in order to feed everybody in the country
What agricultural innovations did the Dutch make?
They had to get maximum yields from their land and to increase the cultivated area through the steady draining of marshes and swamps to feed the population
Also the growing urban population provided Dutch peasants with markets for all they could produce and allowed each region to specialize in what it did best.
How did England emulate the success of the Dutch?
Somewhere in the middle of the 17th Century, English farmers borrowed the system of continuous crop rotation from the Dutch. They also drew on Dutch expertise in drainage and water control.
What were the impacts of the enclosure movement on England?
Negative. This is proven by scientists saying regions that maintained open-field farming were still able to adopt crop rotation and other innovations, suggesting that enclosures were not a prerequisite for increased production. There was also a social upheaval caused by the enclosure movement.
What problems did Europe face as population grew in the 16th century?
There was less food per person, and food prices rose more rapidly than wages.
Discuss the “grim reapers” of demographic crisis
The grim reapers of demographic crisis were famine, epidemic disease, and war.
Famine occurred during all eras of pre modern Europe. During this time Europe experienced unusually cold and wet weather, which produced even more severe harvest failures and food shortages than usual.
Disease continued to ravage Europe’s population because there were so many re occurring outbreaks of multiple types of bad diseases.
War was one of the worst of this. They experienced disease, famine, and death all at the same time. There was also a lot of population decrease during these wars, for example the 30 Years’ War.
Discuss the causes of population growth
European population steadily increased from 1720 to 1789. There was a much more dramatic change after the year of 1750 compared to before.
The reason for some of this population growth was women had more babies than before because new opportunities for employment in rural industry allowed them to marry at an earlier age.
But the basic cause of European population increase as a whole was a decline in mortality. Part of this was because the Bubonic plague made a sudden disappearance.
Describe the cottage industry and how it worked:
The cottage industry was a stage of industrial development in which rural workers used hand tools in their homes to manufacture goods on a large scale for sale in a market.
How did the putting out system work?
A merchant loaned raw materials to cottage workers, who processed them and returned the finished products to the merchant.
What were advantages of the putting out system?
The putting-out system grew because it had competitive advantages.
Underemployed labor was abundant, and poor peasants and landless laborers would work for low wages.
Since production in the countryside was unregulated, workers and merchants could change procedures and experiment as they saw fit.
What was produced by the putting out system?
Because workers did not need to meet rigid guild standards, cottage industry became capable of producing many kinds of goods.
Textiles; all manner of knives, forks, and housewares; buttons and gloves; and clocks could be produced quite satisfactorily in the countryside
How did the family contribute to the cottage industry?
For example, Handlooming….All members of the family helped in the work. The work of four or five spinners was needed to keep one weaver steadily employed. Since the weaver’s family usually could not produce enough thread, merchants hired the wives and daughters of agricultural workers
What were lives like for male rural textile workers?
Could earn decent wages through long hours of arduous labor
What were lives like for women rural textile workers?
Women’s wages were usually much lower then men’s because they were not considered the family’s primary wage earner.
What were lives like for child rural textile workers?
Children worked at extraneous tasks
What were the drawbacks to the cottage textile industry?
The work of four or five spinners was needed to keep one weaver steadily employed.
Relations between workers and employers were often marked by sharp conflict. There were constant disputes over the weights of materials and the quality of finished work.
Merchants accused workers of stealing raw materials, and weavers complained that merchants delivered underweight bales.
