Lecture 3: pre-1500 Flashcards
4 Aspects of property and ownership
- Private (including “king”/local nobility) vs. collective Ownership
- Ownership = The right to decide, trade, inherit, access to surplus
- Disposition: The right to use/pass down to children? Access to surplus
- Dimensions: strong/weak, gender (?)
What is the general time line before 1500 AD, Sarah builds on?
• Before the Neolithic Revolution (2 mill. – 11,000 BCE)
• The Neolithic Revolution and the early empires (11,000 – 700 BCE)
• Mediterranean antiquity and Eastern empires (700 BCE – 600 AD)
• The European middle ages (600–1400/1500 AD)
What are Sarahs five focus points for every time period?
- Land
- Labour
- Capital
- Technology / Organization
- Institutions
What were the characteristics of the Pre-neolithic economy? (Five focus points)
Land: Extensive use of plants, animals, minerals
Labour: Slow population increase, basic skills, relative high living standard, no hierarchy
Capital: Basic tools
Technology: Slow, but important innovations (tools, fire, cooking/baking, nets, bags, weapons, housing, basic medicine), very slow transfer to others
Institutions: Sharing, reciprocity within group, some private and collective ownership
What was the neolithic revolution? Where and why did it begin?
- The neolithic revolution describes the rise of agriculture with domestication of plants and animals
- It begun independently between 11,000 to 2,000 BCE in the lucky latitudes, starting in the Hilly Flanks (Near East)
- It was caused by Technology, Population pressure and Climate change (Warmer weather changed habitats of animals, making previous cold areas more fertile)
Which were the six ancient empires in the lucky latitudes?
Mesopotamia (4,300-3,000 BC)
Nile/Egypt (3,300 BC)
Indus (2,500 -1,700 BC)
North China (1,500 BC)
Mesoamerica Olmecs (1,400 BC)
South Am./Norte Chico/Peru (3,500 BC)”
What were the characteristics of the EARLY ancient empires? (Five focus points)
Land: More intensive use of plants, animals, minerals; More systematic breeding
Labour: Population increase, Less fluctuations, lower living standards, basic hierarchy
Capital: ‘Investments’ in settled agriculture, some villages
Technology: First Irrigation systems (water), some Construction, The wheel
Institutions: Private ownership acknowledged, some taxes
What were the characteristics of the Roman, Greek, Chinese Empires? (Five focus points)
Land: Access to sea more important, especially in Mediterranean
Labour: More complex social hierarchies, slave economy, first education/science
Capital: growing importance, better exchange systems, investments in infrastructure
Technology: Ships, steel and paper (in China), water mills, construction
Institutions: Roman law, Latin and Chinese alphabet
What were the characteristics of major economies in 500-1500? (Five focus points)
Land: Exchange of crops between regions, Territorial expansion, Trade in Indian Ocean
Labour: decrease of slavery, more „free“ farmers in Europe and China, urban growth (1200–1350)
Capital: Investments in infrastructure: Canals in China; Irrigation in Islam world; Urban regeneration in Europe
Technology: China: paper money/bills of exchange, gun powder, stern rudder, compass, moveable types, coke (from coal) — More metal industry and field rotation in Europe
Institutions: Market economy expands, more secure trade, China turning inwards
What dynamic advantage had Eurasia compared to the Americas and Africa?
Land: relatively better opportunities for agriculture, more metals, easy communication
Labour: Larger total population
Capital: Largest access to fixed and circulating capital
Technology: Land advantage/flow of ideas → innovations (ships, wheels, textile), devision of Labour
Institutions: Developed systems of redistribution and trade, codified rule, private property
What is meant by the Lucky Latitudes?
The geographical regions (around 20° degree North) where the practice of domestication of wild plants and animals began to happen for the first time in human history. It made population growth possible and from here groups spread out.
(between 20&35°N in Eurasia // 15°S and 20° N in the America)
What is meant by the Malthusian Trap?
Thomas Robert Malthus’ idea, that population grows on an exponential scale while food supply only grows linear with a bigger population. Therefore populations will always live under existential minimum at some point and will break together. Population numbers can therefore never extend a certain level.
What is meant by Feudalism?
The feudal system, was the combination of the legal, economic, military, and cultural customs in medieval Europe (9th to 15th cent). It meant that a landlord would give land to a vassal in exchange for (war) service or labour. He would then have it cultivated by serfs (Leibeigene) who needed to give a part of their yields to the vassal.
What is meant by Manorialism?
What is the Black Death? What were its implications?
A pandemic between 1346 and 1353 with an estimated 25 million deaths (some sources with up to 200m).
Due to a following labour shortage faced Europe increasing real wages that increased the GDP/C, while the Ottoman Empire had too powerful landlords, that prevented rising wages.
