Economy, Trade & Empire Flashcards
(27 cards)
Agriculture
New Crops
Diets improved & soil fertility
Poor still bread
Development of market garden - 100s of fruit & veg
Average no. of days worked per farm 405
compared 266 1450
Pop growth - need efficiency
Enclosure
Consolidating scattered holdings into blocks of land fencing them off ensured equal spread of crop production break free of subsistence farming most enclosure agreements - informal
Social conditions less harmonious & not successful
Bucks - Sherrington - freeholders who had been gaining land since 16th cent driven out bc indebtedness after 1660 - as a result of enclosure
Couldnt compete w larger farms
Farming techniques
Higher utilisation of land - successful farm
Crops selected - soil suitability
Crop rotation increased. Traditionally 1/3 of fields left empty for nutrients to inc - lower yield
Enclosure - better yields more land available for rotation
1700 - 9 mill acres used
1.8 mill left fallow
Dutch innovation
Immigrants did work needed to improve irrigation & cultivate new crops
Dutch innovations - nitrogen rich crops
Clover & Cabbage - fertile soil
CROPS
Flax - Linen Hemp - Rope Hops - beer benefited from crop rotation More efficient crop rotation - intro of new crops & more experiments
Water Meadows
Diverting water from river to field
Regulated by gates & Dams
Damp soil encourages crops to grow earlier
Sheep & cattle fed on grass during spring & moved on in summer to let grass grow & hay be harvested
Ensured animals well fed in winter
Horses used over oxen
630,000 1700
compared 300,000 1600
Specialised Farming
Regions specialised depending on conditions
South East - arable farming
North West - pastoral
Transport improved - farmers could concentrate on products best suited to local conditions
Yeomanry
owned large amounts of land - generally sheltered from possibility of poor harvest
Able to experiment w new techniques & crops
Husbandmen
mixed fortunes & grew in numbers
farmed land less than 40 acres
dedicate one product for community
too little to make substantial profit
Slow to take up specialisation & new techniques
100% sure they would benefit
Growth of Employment
small tenants suffered bc of enclosure
small holding - unsustainable
large farm jobs secure
Settlement Act 1662 - easier to hire labourers from other parishes
towns - ports - more opp
difficult - 7 years - apprenticeships
1688 - 364,000 families of labourers
Capital investment in Agriculture
farmers taking risks & experiments w new tech
gentry & nobility - afford to modernise
Buy from neighbouring farms - enclose & invest
1650 pop growth slowed - deflation , modernise large farms cheaply
Farmers - supplied to where demands - high
Big farms needed managing - tenant farms - profitable
landlords invest in tenants - loans to modernise
National Markets
Demands from London & Other Towns Required roads , more stock Develop - provide fresh food London thrived - close to countryside Roads developed 1650+ - demand for goods
Turnpike Act 1663- creation of new toll roads opened by merchants & businessmen
1657 - stage coaches - London to Bristol & Bath
First road atlas 1675
Rivers not navigable for entire length 1600
Coal importance - transported under navy protection
CANALSSSSSS
Dredging & Widening Rivers began Tudor
End 17th - Severn, Ouse & Thames used to transport manufactured good as well as agricultural produce
But large no of farmers still supplied small local markets
National markets did not develop as well Scot & Ire
transport bad
Gov not willing to invest - Ireland colonial possession
Demand in London drained resources in SE - reducing standards of living
Prices of agricultural commodities 1650 6x higher than 1500
Cloth Trade
Wool trade - central to economic prosperity
Often small scale / home based
Textile industry - expanded substantially - inc in pop
more labour available
Cloth accounted for 92% exports out of London
finish & dye cloth - shipped to Holland
New Draperies - heavy wollen cloth - replaced w light - wool, linen, cotton & silk
Norwich & Chester - 1,500 Protestant Dutch immigrants settled in Colchester 1565-68
Innovations - frame knitting machine
1681 - French Protestant Huguenots emigrate after Louis XIV forced conversion to Catholicism
Growth of London
Heart of Road & Shipping network
Revisionists - London grew bc of minor developments not one major advancement
Banking & insurance - employment opp
centre of legal system
Road & River transport improved
Wealth made London more attractive to live
Growth of Banking & Insurance
Essential for development of economy & international trade
The Royal Exchange - first commercial building for brokers
Bills of Exchange - used w interest added to the loan
Royalist landowners - turned to London after CW
First cheque 1659
Goldsmith bankers - success
Merchants w gold - deposited Royal Mint - Charles I seized 1640 - storing w Goldsmiths - safer
Insurance
Many merchants reluctant - insurance high rates
some companies wealthy enough to accept risk
Fire insurance - Germany ‘fire funds’
1666 - great fire
Act 1667 rebuild city
Insurance essential to growth of prosperous economy & dev of more formal banking
Ship insurance - sunk - got money back - continue trading - take more risks w expeditions
Imperial Expansion
Tobacco
Colombus discovered Am
Atmosphere for western Expansion
Desire for Gold
1607 - Jamestown colony - tobacco trade
Not as valuable as gold BUT first cash crop exploited in Eng
Importance 1669- Adultery & fornification 1000lbs of tobacco
Helped Britain compete w other powers in N Am
Stuart Econ boost
Custom duties taxed on tobacco
1700- 2 mill lbs of tobacco exported from N Am Colonies
Providence Island Company - 1629 - Prominent Puritans John Pym , John Hampden - financial interest
Massachusetts Bay Colony - 20,000 Puritans 1630
Height of Laud Persecutions
Caribbean
Colonial success
Result of Spanish conquest
small no of settlers moved to St Kitts 1624 Grow tobacco
Spanish sea power declined - British colonists opp to occupy: Monserrat, Barbados & Antigua
Primary crop - sugar 1674
Expansion of slave trade
Grand Western Design - Interregnum - disrupt Spanish monopoly on trade in region
Jamaica
Spanish not defeated until 1660 English gov - patents to wealthy merchants & gentry to cultivate land large estates created large scale slavery 1670 slave pop 7,000 1713 - 55,000 Climate sugar, cocoa & coffee
Treaty of Madrid 1670 - ships permitted to sail freely between Caribbean islands
Navigation Acts & Mercantilism
Sudden growth in international trade
- Royal Navy - growing influence enforced english supremacy at sea
- War - spread of protestantism & loss of territory - gradual decline in Spanish Catholic Empire
Navigation Act - reduce trading strength of other naval powers
1651 - 1st Rump - goods imported to Eng - carried on English ships
remove dutch monopoly
All crews at least half eng
Modified Nav 1660
acts repealed
new Act
confirmed earlier leg
banned imports & exports carried on foreign ships
Long list of goods - only shipped to Eng & colonies
Staple Act 1663
Goods shipped had to pass through Eng - cornerstone of commercial expansion
Plantation Duty Act 1673
Ensured captains of English Ships delivered specified goods to England only or faced financial penalty
