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Industrious Revolution
Households in northern-western Europe focused on earning wages instead of producing goods for household consumption; this reduced their economic self-sufficiency but increased their ability to purchase consumer goods. The spread of the cottage industry and the rise in female employment outside the home were effects of this revolution. This revolution almost permanently changed the way economy worked in Europe; households sought cash income to participate in an emerging consumer economy. -
Cottage industry
A stage of industrial development where rural workers used hand tools in their homes to manufacture goods on a large scale for sale in a market; became a crucial feature of the European economy during the early 18th century. The 18th century brought the pressures of poverty, which led poor village workers to seek changes for daily rural life. Cottage industry was run by the putting-out system, which grew because it had competitive advantages and showed the first signs of (eventual) capitalism. -
Agricultural Revolution
A period during which great agricultural progress was made, and the idling of a field to replenish nutrients was eliminated. Improvement in farming techniques led to: new crops being ideal feed for animals, which led to more meat, better diets, and more manure for fertilizer. Technological changes also led to the Enclosure Movement, where commonly shared land was replaced by enclosed and privately owned farming land. This benefitted landlords but destroyed the peasants' main source of economy. -
Navigation Acts
A form of mercantilism + series of English laws that controlled the import of goods to Britain and British colonies. One of the factors that led to the American Revolution. It resulted from England's desire to increase military power and private wealth. The Navigation Acts were a form of economic warfare as well, targetting economic competitors such as the French and the Dutch, eventually leading to the 7 Years War. It played a critical role in building a unified Atlantic economy. -
New Pattern of 18th Century Population Growth
The population of Europe began to grow markedly. One of the main reasons: women in some areas had more babies because new opportunities for employment in rural industry allowed them to marry at an earlier age. The basic cause as a whole was a decline in mortality / fewer deaths --> the disappearance of the bubonic plague! Improvements in water supply and sewage resulted in better public health. -
Urban Guilds
Guilds continued to dominate production in towns and cities by providing their masters with economic privileges and a proud social identity, but they increasingly struggled against competition from rural workers. Those excluded from guild membership worked on the margins of the urban economy. In the second half of the 18th century, critics (including Adam Smith) attacked the guilds as institutions that obstructed technical progress and innovation. -
Atlantic Slave Trade
Forced migration of Africans across the Atlantic for slave labor on plantations and other industries. Shipments averaged more than 80 thousand slaves per year to satisfy the rising demand for labor power and slave owners' profits. Resulted from the rise of plantation agriculture. European governments cut back on warfare and concentrated on commerce, where the slave trade became the largest source of economy and industry in the 18th century. -
Enclosure Movement
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. Although landowners and lords profited from this movement (because they were able to farm and reap the rewards of their own crops without the use of peasants), the common rights of poor men and women were eliminated, and greatly reduced their access to the land, destroying their economic structure. -
Economic liberalism
A belief in free trade and competition based on Adam Smith's argument that the invisible hand of free competition would benefit all individuals. Also the belief that the pursuit of self-interest in a competitive market would be sufficient to improve the living conditions of citizens. Smith's provocative work (wanted to raise workers' living standards, adversary of gov intervention in economy) had a great impact, inspiring domestic reformers and independent merchants who called for free trade. -
Mixed-race communities
New identities emerged that elicited new social structures. Mixed-race populations became frequent and intermingled with the white population of the Americas. Spanish conquistadors consolidated their power through marriage to daughters of local rulers. Many masters in the Caribbean freed mixed-race children, leading to sizable populations of free people of color. Creoles and Mestizos were among the colored population that were placed in the social hierarchy, either very high or very low.
