Euro Learning Curve chapter 17

What caused the population increases in Europe during the eighteenth century?

Decline in mortality rates

Why was the Dutch Republic one of the most advanced agricultural countries in Europe during the eighteenth century?

It was densely populated, forcing the Dutch to seek a greater food supply. Demands for food forced the Dutch to seek maximum crop yields and increase the amount of land under cultivation.

What was the cause of soil exhaustion in medieval Europe before the adoption of different systems of farming?

Planting wheat repeatedly caused the land to lose nitrogen. Planting wheat year after year depleted the soil of nitrogen. By shifting to a system of planting one year and letting fields lie fallow another, and then by adopting the three-year system, farmers allowed the soil to become replenished.

Which of the following was a competitive advantage of the putting-out system?

The low cost of labor Underemployed labor was abundant, and poor peasants and landless laborers would work for low wages.

Why did Britain and the Dutch Republic enjoy higher agricultural production than other countries in eighteenth-century Europe?

They discovered new methods of crop rotation. By adopting new methods of crop rotation that avoided a fallow period, farmers in Britain and the Dutch Republic kept their land in continuous production, boosting agricultural output.

Handloom weaving was

a family enterprise. All members of the family helped in the work and, thus, contributed to the family income.

When comparing the lives of peasants in eastern and western Europe, it is fair to say that

peasants in western Europe were somewhat better off. Generally speaking, the peasants of eastern Europe were worst off. They were serfs bound to their lords in hereditary service, and working several days per week on the lord's land was not uncommon. Social conditions were better in western Europe, where peasants were generally free from serfdom.

The decline in mortality in eighteenth-century Europe can be traced in part to

the disappearance of the bubonic plague. Although the plague appeared in a few isolated areas, it passed quickly. The last major outbreak of the plague in western and central Europe was in Marseilles in 1720.

What was involved in the putting-out system of eighteenth-century Europe?

A merchant loaned raw materials to rural workers to process. The cottage worker took these "put out" materials, processed them, and then returned the finished product, providing manufactured goods before the spread of the factory system.

What was the result of war, famine, and disease in seventeenth-century Europe?

A severe demographic crisis and population loss Population growth slowed and then stopped in seventeenth-century Europe. The crisis was perhaps the worst in the German states, the population of which declined by two-thirds in some areas and at least one-third in most.

What characterized market-oriented estate agriculture in eighteenth century England?

A tiny minority of wealthy landowners owned the land and leased their holdings. Landowners generally leased their holdings through agents to middle-sized farmers who then relied on landless laborers to do the work.

Why were the indirect effects of war often more harmful than the war itself in the seventeenth century?

Armies seized scarce food supplies and disrupted farming cycles. In addition to spreading disease and the destruction caused by battles, traveling armies seriously damaged farms and made off with farmers' output.

What characterized the deism of Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson?

Belief in God but not organized religion Both were deists but continued to attend church and respect religious proprieties.

What two countries enjoyed higher agricultural production than others in eighteenth-century Europe?

Britain and the Dutch Republic In these two countries, less than half the population worked in agriculture because farming was highly productive.

Which state was Britain's greatest rival in India during the eighteenth century?

France France was Britain's greatest rival in India. The British-French competition in India was made apparent during the War of the Austrian Succession, when British and French forces in India supported opposing rulers.

In which country was non-guild production permitted in the countryside and some urban neighborhoods?

France The French Crown developed the most ambiguous attitude toward guilds, allowing them in some areas but not in others.

Why was population growth slower in France during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries than in other areas?

France had a high population density. In densely settled France, the rate of population growth could have been as low as 0.5 percent, below the average and below that of other countries.

What characterized the relationship between workers and employers in the eighteenth-century textile industry?

Frequent sharp conflict Conflict was commonplace, and there were often disputes over the weights of material and the quality of finished work.

Where did most men and women in European cities of the eighteenth century work?

In non-guild trades Most men and women did not work within the guild system, where membership was jealously restricted, but instead worked as domestic servants or manual laborers or maintained small home businesses or retail shops.

What happened to the population of Europe during the eighteenth century?

It began to grow steadily and even dramatically at times. Between 1700 and 1835, the European population doubled in size.

Why did the enclosure movement cause social upheaval in eighteenth-century England?

It eliminated common rights and peasants' access to the land. One result of this development was the growth of a large, landless rural proletariat.

What was the attitude of peasants toward the enclosure movement of the eighteenth century?

Most guarded traditional rights and resisted enclosure when they could. Peasants generally feared the upheavals caused by enclosure.

What was the impact of the early eighteenth century shift toward wage work?

People worked harder, and more wage workers per household were employed. By the mid-eighteenth century, urban and rural households were working harder and producing more goods than in the early decades of the century.

Which of the following accurately identifies a major social and economic trend in sixteenth-century Europe?

Population growth outstripped the growth of production. Thus, there was less food, housing, fuel, and other resources per person.

Which of the following statements about the introduction of the potato into Europe is true?

Potatoes were first used as animal food. Originally, potatoes were only seen as fit for animals.

What new model did the slave trade follow in the eighteenth century?

Reliance on the shore model After 1700, as Britain became the undisputed leader of the slave trade, European ships increasingly sent boats ashore or invited African leaders and traders to bring slaves out to their ships, a new approach called the shore model.

What goods were typically produced by the putting-out system of the eighteenth century?

Textiles, utensils, buttons, and clocks These goods could be produced quite satisfactorily in peasants' homes.

Which problem was experienced by employers in the eighteenth-century textile industry?

The cyclical nature of farm work During this time, merchants lamented their lack of control over labor because their own income depended on a consistent supply of thread but that supply was interrupted by the demands of farm work on rural workers' time at particular times of year.

What was the main market for the cottage industry goods produced in the eighteenth century?

The general population The goods produced by the relatively low-skilled rural workers were sufficient for everyday purposes and were produced to meet the expanding demands of ordinary people.

Which of the following was a competitive advantage of the putting-out system?

The lack of regulation Since production in the countryside was unregulated, workers and merchants could change procedures and experiment as they saw fit.

Which of the following accurately identifies a major social and economic trend in sixteenth-century Europe?

The standard of living for most people fell. The century-long period of general, if uneven, inflation known as the European price revolution substantially lowered living standards.

What did the English borrow from the Dutch in order to advance their agriculture?

The system of continuous crop rotation In the mid-seventeenth century English farmers borrowed the system of continuous crop rotation from the Dutch.

Which of the following was true of the Atlantic slave trade?

The trade intensified after 1700. The trade intensified dramatically after 1700 and especially after 1750, with the growth of trade and demand for slave-produced goods like sugar and cotton.

What did the English agricultural innovator Jethro Tull advocate?

The use of horses instead of oxen for plowing Tull advocated using horses rather than slower oxen to pull plows and a new drilling and seeding device to sow seeds rather than scattering seed by hand, both of which, he said, would increase productivity.

What was a result of the new pressures from population growth in Europe by 1600?

There was a substantial decline in living standards. By 1600, increased population pressures brought widespread poverty.

How did guilds in Germany compare to those in England and France during the eighteenth century?

They were the most powerful and strictly limited non-guild work. This German model was the most conservative in Europe.

How did rural workers who took part in the eighteenth-century putting-out system use the income they earned from home manufacturing?

To help meet basic family needs In the early years of the putting-out system, the relative importance of the earnings varied, but they gradually became more important over time.

What was the result of Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot's 1776 decision to abolish guilds in France?

Vociferous protests Although Turgot's law disbanding the guilds was met with stiff protest, the French Revolution disbanded them permanently in 1791.

Why did market-produced goods replace homemade goods in the early Industrial Revolution of the eighteenth century?

Wage earners had no time to produce enough food and clothing. Most of workers' scant earnings went for household necessities, items of food and clothing they could no longer produce now that they worked full time.

How did the rights of textile workers change over the course of the eighteenth century?

Workers lost traditional rights and safeguards. Merchants eventually won new policing powers, which came at the expense of workers' freedoms. For instance, workers lost the right to hold onto bits and pieces of cloth left over in production.

The role of urban guilds in the France of Louis XIV was to

encourage high-quality production and collect taxes. Finance Minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert revived the urban guilds to serve the French crown by encouraging high-quality standards of production and collecting taxes.

The decline in mortality during eighteenth-century Europe can be traced in part to

improved efforts at safeguarding the food supply. Advances in transportation meant that food supplies could be brought into areas hit particularly hard by famine or disease.

The textile industry grew most rapidly

in areas of high population density. Textile production was strong in England, the Low Countries, and northern France and Italy, where population density was the greatest.

The transformation of large numbers of small peasants into landless rural wage earners in eighteenth-century Europe is termed

proletarianization. England led the way in this transformation because of the enclosure movement, and the village poor paid a heavy price for this change.

The two main participants in the putting-out system were the merchant capitalist and the

rural worker. In this system, the merchant loaned, or "put out," raw materials to cottage workers, who processed the raw materials in their own homes and returned the finished products to the merchant.