段太尉逸事状翻译-专心一志
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(三
):Seventeenth-Century European Economic Growth
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Seventeenth-Century European Economic Growth
In
the
late
sixteenth
century
and
into
the
seventeenth,
Europe
continued
the
growth that had lifted it out of the relatively less prosperous medieval period (from
the
mid
400s
to
the
late
1400s).
Among
the
key
factors
behind
this
growth
were
increased agricultural productivity and an expansion of trade.
Populations
cannot
grow
unless
the
rural
economy
can
produce
enough
additional
food
to
feed
more
people.
During
the
sixteenth
century,
farmers
brought
more
land
into
cultivation
at
the
expense
of
forests
and
fens
(low-lying
wetlands).
Dutch land reclamation in the Netherlands in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
provides
the
most
spectacular
example
of
the
expansion
of
farmland:
the
Dutch
reclaimed more than 36.000 acres from 1590 to 1615 alone.
Much of the potential for European economic development
lay in
what
at
first
glance
would
seem
to
have
been
only
sleepy
villages.
Such
villages,
however,
generally lay in regions of relatively advanced agricultural production, permitting not
only the survival of peasants but also the accumulation of an agricultural surplus for
investment. They had access to urban merchants, markets, and trade routes.
Increased
agricultural
production
in
turn
facilitated
rural
industry,
an
intrinsic
part
of
the
expansion
of
industry.
Woolens
and
textile
manufacturers,
in
particular,
utilized
rural
cottage
(in-home)
production,
which
took
advantage
of
cheap
and
plentiful
rural
labor.
In
the
German
states,
the
ravages
of
the
Thirty
Years'
War
(1618-1648) further moved textile production into the countryside. Members of poor
peasant families spun or wove cloth and linens at home for scant remuneration in an
attempt to supplement meager family income.
More extended trading networks also helped develop Europe's economy in this
period. English and Dutch ships carrying rye from the Baltic states reached Spain and
Portugal.
Population
growth
generated
an
expansion
of
small-scale
manufacturing,
particularly of handicrafts, textiles, and metal production in England, Flanders, parts
of
northern
Italy,
the
southwestern
German
states,
and
parts
of
Spain.
Only
iron
smelting
and
mining
required
marshaling
a
significant
amount
of
capital
(wealth
invested to create more wealth).
The
development
of
banking
and
other
financial
services
contributed
to
the
expansion
of
trade.
By
the
middle
of
the
sixteenth
century,
financiers
and
traders
commonly accepted bills of exchange in place of gold or silver for other goods. Bills
of exchange, which had their origins in medieval Italy, were promissory notes (written
promises to pay a specified amount of money by a certain date) that could be sold to
third parties. In this way, they provided credit. At mid-century, an Antwerp financier
only slightly exaggerated when he claimed, “0ne can no more trade without
bills of
exchange than sail without water.
over
long,
dangerous
journeys.
An
Amsterdam
merchant
purchasing
soap
from
a
merchant in Marseille could go to an exchanger and pay the exchanger the equivalent
sum
in
guilders,
the
Dutch
currency.
The
exchanger
would
then
send
a
bill
of
exchange to a colleague in Marseille, authorizing the colleague to pay the Marseille
merchant in the merchant's own currency after the actual exchange of goods had taken
place.
Bills of exchange contributed to the development of banks, as exchangers began
to
provide
loans.
Not
until
the
eighteenth
century,
however,
did
such
banks
as
the
Bank of Amsterdam
and the Bank of England begin
to
provide capital
for business
investment. Their principal function was to provide funds for the state.
The
rapid
expansion
in
international
trade
also
benefitted
from
an
infusion
of
capital, stemming largely from gold and silver brought by Spanish vessels from the
Americas.
This
capital
financed
the
production
of
goods,
storage,
trade,
and
even
credit across Europe and overseas. Moreover an increased credit supply was generated
by
investments
and
loans
by
bankers
and
wealthy
merchants
to
states
and
by
段太尉逸事状翻译-专心一志
段太尉逸事状翻译-专心一志
段太尉逸事状翻译-专心一志
段太尉逸事状翻译-专心一志
段太尉逸事状翻译-专心一志
段太尉逸事状翻译-专心一志
段太尉逸事状翻译-专心一志
段太尉逸事状翻译-专心一志
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