Italian City-States & Dutch Republic Economy PDF

## The City States of the Italian Peninsula - **Basic government structure in Italian Peninsula** - **Most urbanized part of Europe** - **Several hundred independent cities states** ### Thriving Economies - **Expansion of commerce in Italy** - **Led to prosperity in city-states** - **Natural p...

## The City States of the Italian Peninsula - **Basic government structure in Italian Peninsula** - **Most urbanized part of Europe** - **Several hundred independent cities states** ### Thriving Economies - **Expansion of commerce in Italy** - **Led to prosperity in city-states** - **Natural point of exchange between East, North, and South** - **Roman Law = Framework for order and public life** - **Affected by the Black Death - Small economic recession** - **Florence rebounded with textile production (wool from England and Spain) with 30,000 workers in the industry** - **Woolens traded throughout the Mediterranean and to France, England, and Asia** - **Tuscany and Lombardy - Apiculture** - **Production of grain, wine, vegetables, and other food staples** - **Drained swamps/marshes and irrigated drier areas** - **Fed urban population - Traded surplus** - **Invested in commerce and manufacturing** - **Commerce quickly revived due to the Mediterranean Trade** - **Growth of the banking families** ### Bank of Amsterdam Founded 1609 - **Facilitated Amsterdam’s foreign trade** - **Encouraged merchants to make payments in bills drawn on the bank** - **Amsterdam’s banking credit, horses unmatched in Europe** - **Good credit meant Netherlands could easily raise funds** ### Dutch Republic Expanded its resources throughout the early 1600s - **Agricultural surplus invested in commerce and manufacturing** - **Larger population - Million by 1645** - **Commercial livestock/dairy** - **Capital Intensive farming** - **Most densely populated** - **People lived in towns** - **Amsterdam reached 200,000 people in 1670** ### Early 1400s - **3 Large canals** - **Boats to dock outside merchant warehouses** - **Townhouses of wealthy and burghers** - **500 miles of canals** - **Good foods 500 miles of canals** - **Dutch economy grew rapidly 1400s** - **Circa 1546 began revolt against Spanish rule** - **1402 Dutch East India Company founded** ### Expanding Economy - **Dutch traders specialized as middlemen** - **Merchant fleet 9 x 1600 - 1450** - **Shipbuilding** - **Windmill powered sawmills** - **2,500 ships by 1530s (ball of European shipping)** - **Capital investment, knowledge of markets** - **Herring trade (200 million/year)** ### Stopped pursuing a middle class - **New business ventures instead** - **Privilege (bought noble titles)** - **1609 King was kicked out of Marisco (Muslim descendants)** - **Lost skills of crafts men and farmers** - **Nobles took more and more land, but no interest in Greece** - **Increased productivity of being market driven** - **State imposed fixed maximum on grain prices (discouraged innovation)** - **Became dependent on imported grain** - **State favored sheepherding as produce, because those are easier to tax** - **Woolens manufactunity lost out to English and Flemish** ### Colonial Administration - **State had to pay for all wars and fight ways to put down rebellions** - **By early 1700s far fewer Spanish poll taxes, Spain prohibited emigration to colonies** - **Moved to collection of higher taxes** - **Inefficient fake collection and higher taxes= peasant revolts** - **Miguel de Cervantes wrote *Don Quixote* - National disillusionment in the face of natural decline** - **El Greco( Painter originally from Greece) - Not Mannerism** - **Asymmetrical/Exaggerated bodies/Limbs - Unnaturally elegant** - **Compositional tension, and instability** - **Religious emotion with exaggerated detail** - **Burial of the Count Orgaz (1586)**