Economy and society 16-17 century

• Commercial Revolution


  In the late 16 and early 17 centuries Europe's economy skyrocketed, due largely to the opening of the seas, population growth, and gradual inflation
• Changes in Commerce and Production


  • Town and surrounding area was an economic unit
  • Craftsmen organized in guilds to produce common items
• Town regulations


  Used tariffs and regulations to protect their markets
• Workshops


  Run by "masters", who might have had % dozen stands of journeymen and apprentices, and made little profit
• Entrepreneur


  • Developed as long-distance trade grew
  • Johann Fugger, a weaver, developed a new cloth of mixed cotton and began to sell outside his local area of Augsburg
  • Fugger made a good profit, and his family expanded the business to spices, silks, etc., then they invested in mining
  • The Fuggers eventually were able to loan money to popes, and their money paid for Charles V to become Holy Roman Emperor
  • Fuggers became bankers to the Habsburgs in Germany & Spain
  • Financed Portuguese trade, directly and indirectly
  • Fugger wealth would decline in the late 16 century when the Habsburgs had repeated bankruptcies and the German economy went into decline
• Putting out system (cottage industry)


  1. In the 15th century, England began to use their wool to produce woolens

  2. Entrepreneurs would "put out" the business to peasants

  3. Gave the peasants the equipment and the work was done in the homes

  4. Women generally did the spinning, while men did the weaving

  5. The entrepreneurs purchased the wool; gave it to peasants to spin it; took the yam to other peasants to weave it; then took it to others to dye it

  6. Developed a larger gap between rich and poor

  7. Beginnings of capitalism; the entrepreneur has the "capital" & makes money without doing the labor
• New Industries


  • Mining and printing were new at this time, and began as capitalistic ventures
  • Capitalists bought land for mining and hired others to do the work
  • Craftsmen often could not afford printing presses, or their maintenance, and therefore were employed by entrepreneurs
• New Banking Practices
• Closing of the Commons
• Enclosure Movement
• Saleable Goods
• Commercial Obstacles
• Changing Social Status
• Causes of Change
• Population growth
• Relative abundance of money
• Exports paid for imports
• Employed and able
• Poor Law
• Wage for working poor
• Social Reforms
• Education of the Nation
• Changing Social Structure
• Upper class
• Middle class
• Lower class
• Came You
• By 18yo the fand