Merriman Teacher Notes 11 Summer 2023 PDF

## Specialization - Agriculture * More efficient & market oriented. * 1450 to 1650, the yield of grain/acre increased. * Landowners brought land marshes and woodlands under cultivation (30%). * Nobility kept large land estates * Increased land through primogeniture (oldest son gets full inheritance...

## Specialization - Agriculture * More efficient & market oriented. * 1450 to 1650, the yield of grain/acre increased. * Landowners brought land marshes and woodlands under cultivation (30%). * Nobility kept large land estates * Increased land through primogeniture (oldest son gets full inheritance). * Younger sons went into the church, military, or urban trades. * Commercial farming and sheep raising. * Yeoman (farmers who owned land) also became more market oriented. * Landlords raised rents, altered conditions of land tenure (shorter leases, entry fees*). ## 1500s Began Enclosure Movement * Parliament passed Enclosure Acts, which allowed land owners to buy up wastelands, arable land, and take over common bands and pasture areas. * Eventually, there were no more common bands (areas of communal pasture). ## Overseas colonial ventures w/ profit motive. * 1577-1580, Sir Francis Drake sailed Cape Horn (South America) looking for trade routes to Asia. ## An Emerging Empire of Trade * England settled colonies in North America (as did French colonists). * London replaced Antwerp as the leading trade center. ## Representative Assemblies * Sense of political participation for men who owned land (most men in the colonies). * Religious freedom for selves, less drive to convert Natives, much less intermarriage than in Spanish colonies. ## Spanish Economic Decline * **Trade:** Textiles and manufactured goods from Europe, Slaves, Gold, Ivory from Africa, Sugar from West Indies (Caribbean). * **1600 East India Company Chartered** * **1584-1587:** Sir Walter Raleigh tried to establish permanent colonies on the North American coast – no success. * **1607:** Jamestown, the 1st permanent English colony (became Virginia) * Tobacco became a cash crop. * The English to the New World trade. * **Virginia Company** (Joint-Stock Company) * **1620:** Puritan settlements in Massachusets. ## Communal Agriculture * Population decline in the 1600s. * 1500s: 1 million. * Middle 1600s: 5.2 million. * Harvest failures, plague, smallpox, war, and emigration. ## Price Revolution * A sharp rise in inflation. * Accelerated by gold and silver from the New World. ## Royal Policies of Currency Debasement * Monarchy declared bankruptcy and suspended payments in 1575. * Renegotiated loans for better rates in 1557 and 1596. ## Expenses * 1568 to 1598, Spain’s military expenses were higher than the Dutch, English, and French combined. * Dependence on overseas goods, stagnation. * Difficulty competing with England at home. * Dutch & English Kings imposed a tax on most valuable real estate in each parish (high taxes). * In 1590, the Coutes (assembly) allowed a tax on towns. * Excise tax on consumption.