WEBVTT 1 00:00:21.280 --> 00:00:25.440 Hello, and welcome to Western SIV Early Modern Overview Number 2 00:00:25.480 --> 00:00:30.719 four Religion, Economics and Technology. Well, I'm certainly not going 3 00:00:30.760 --> 00:00:34.280 to rehash our entire series on the Reformation and the 4 00:00:34.359 --> 00:00:37.719 early wars of religion here, I do want to note 5 00:00:37.759 --> 00:00:41.240 a few broad trends and changes over the course of 6 00:00:41.359 --> 00:00:45.759 the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. One thing I do 7 00:00:45.799 --> 00:00:48.640 want to explain is how the sixteenth century was truly 8 00:00:48.679 --> 00:00:54.039 the age of persecution. Interestingly enough, for much of the 9 00:00:54.079 --> 00:00:59.600 Middle Ages, the Catholic Church was surprisingly tolerant. There were 10 00:00:59.640 --> 00:01:05.760 grumm blayings about superstitions, etc. Etc. But there was very 11 00:01:05.799 --> 00:01:09.519 little that the Church could do about these issues anyway, 12 00:01:10.040 --> 00:01:14.359 even if it had wanted to. But by the sixteenth century, 13 00:01:15.000 --> 00:01:19.280 two key things had happened. One there was now a 14 00:01:19.319 --> 00:01:24.719 real enemy, the other for Catholics, these were Protestants and 15 00:01:24.799 --> 00:01:29.079 vice versa. Interestingly, both sides were more than willing to 16 00:01:29.120 --> 00:01:31.760 ally with the Ottoman Muslims if it gave them an 17 00:01:31.799 --> 00:01:36.879 advantage over their Christian adversaries. The other was also now 18 00:01:36.920 --> 00:01:38.560 just a lot more radical than it had been in 19 00:01:38.560 --> 00:01:42.719 the Middle Ages. Now people were rejecting things like infant 20 00:01:42.760 --> 00:01:47.920 baptism and openingly questioning the Trinity. But the second factor 21 00:01:48.079 --> 00:01:53.640 was more important. Governments had become much more sophisticated by 22 00:01:53.640 --> 00:01:57.519 the sixteenth century. As a result, they, in conjunction with 23 00:01:57.599 --> 00:02:01.359 the Church, could now crack down oh non aberrant behavior. 24 00:02:02.120 --> 00:02:06.760 This drove persecution and ultimately the religious wars of the 25 00:02:06.840 --> 00:02:11.479 late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It's worth pointing out as 26 00:02:11.479 --> 00:02:15.159 we begin that the Eastern Orthodox Church did not split 27 00:02:15.560 --> 00:02:18.840 in the same way the Catholic Church did in the West, 28 00:02:18.879 --> 00:02:24.439 so this wasn't a pan European phenomenon necessarily. Now, the 29 00:02:24.439 --> 00:02:28.240 biggest source of conflict in the late sixteenth century was 30 00:02:28.319 --> 00:02:34.159 not between Lutherans and Catholics, or Anglicans and Catholics. It 31 00:02:34.240 --> 00:02:39.479 was driven by what might be called the more radical reformers. 32 00:02:41.879 --> 00:02:45.000 Some individuals and groups rejected outright the idea that the 33 00:02:45.080 --> 00:02:47.719 church and state needed to be united and sought to 34 00:02:47.759 --> 00:02:51.439 create voluntary communities of believers as they understood that they 35 00:02:51.520 --> 00:02:54.199 might have existed at the time that the New Testament 36 00:02:54.280 --> 00:02:59.000 was first written. In terms of theology and spiritual practice, 37 00:02:59.400 --> 00:03:03.639 these and groups very wildly, though they were generally sort 38 00:03:03.680 --> 00:03:08.360 of termed radicals for their insistence on a more extensive 39 00:03:08.719 --> 00:03:12.560 break with the medieval past. Many of them, as I mentioned, 40 00:03:13.039 --> 00:03:18.240 outright repudiated infant baptism. They wanted as members only those 41 00:03:18.319 --> 00:03:24.639 who had intentionally chosen to belong. Some adopted baptism of believers, 42 00:03:24.680 --> 00:03:28.159 for which they were given the title of anabaptists or 43 00:03:28.280 --> 00:03:34.159 rebaptizers by their enemies. Others saw the outward sacrament of 44 00:03:34.639 --> 00:03:39.719 rituals as misguided and concentrated on total inner spiritual transformation. 45 00:03:40.800 --> 00:03:44.759 Some groups attempted to follow Christ's commandments in the gospels literally, 46 00:03:45.319 --> 00:03:50.080 while others reinterpreted the nature of Christ. Radicals were often 47 00:03:50.159 --> 00:03:54.080 pacifists and refused to hold any office or swear oaths, 48 00:03:54.680 --> 00:03:58.639 which were required of nearly anyone with any position of authority, 49 00:03:59.080 --> 00:04:03.159 including city midwives, toll collectors, as well as anyone involved 50 00:04:03.199 --> 00:04:08.400 in a court proceeding. Some groups attempted communal ownership of property, 51 00:04:08.919 --> 00:04:11.919 living very simply and rejecting anything that they thought was 52 00:04:11.960 --> 00:04:16.800 on biblical. Different groups blended these practices in different ways, 53 00:04:16.959 --> 00:04:20.920 and often reacted very harshly to members who deviated, banning 54 00:04:20.959 --> 00:04:24.480 them from the group and requiring other group members, sometimes 55 00:04:24.519 --> 00:04:28.160 including their spouses, to shaan or have no contact with 56 00:04:28.199 --> 00:04:32.839 them until they had changed their behavior. Others, in turn, 57 00:04:33.399 --> 00:04:38.240 argued for complete religious toleration and individualism. That idea was 58 00:04:38.360 --> 00:04:41.800 especially common against the radicals, who rejected the idea of 59 00:04:41.800 --> 00:04:48.040 the Trinity and viewed Christ as thoroughly human. The majority 60 00:04:48.319 --> 00:04:53.519 of those expressing radical beliefs were not theologians, nor were 61 00:04:53.519 --> 00:04:58.279 many particularly learned. Many, in fact, were women. One of 62 00:04:58.319 --> 00:05:02.680 the issues facing many Anabaptist groups were whether mixed marriages 63 00:05:02.879 --> 00:05:09.040 between those of different faiths were even permissible. Persecution also 64 00:05:09.160 --> 00:05:12.800 led radical leaders and their followers to migrate to parts 65 00:05:12.839 --> 00:05:16.519 of Europe that were more tolerant. Sympathetic nobles in the 66 00:05:16.519 --> 00:05:20.199 Holy Roman Empire sometimes allowed them to live in their territories, 67 00:05:20.839 --> 00:05:24.759 as did nobles in Moravia modern day Slovakia and Czech Republic, 68 00:05:25.240 --> 00:05:30.839 Silatia in modern day Poland and other parts of Eastern Europe. Eventually, 69 00:05:31.279 --> 00:05:33.680 many of these groups were forced to move even further. 70 00:05:34.639 --> 00:05:39.360 In the seventeenth century, some polls of an anti Trinitarian 71 00:05:39.439 --> 00:05:43.519 sect went into exile in what is Transylvania modern day Hungary. 72 00:05:44.279 --> 00:05:51.120 Mennonites and Huterites moved to southern Russia. The radicals represented 73 00:05:51.160 --> 00:05:55.079 one way that the early reformers were pushed further. Many 74 00:05:55.120 --> 00:05:58.879 of their ideas had social, economic, and political implications, which 75 00:05:58.879 --> 00:06:01.680 is in part why already saw them as so dangerous. 76 00:06:02.439 --> 00:06:06.920 Groups that linked Protestant ideas directly to various political and 77 00:06:07.000 --> 00:06:11.079 social programs were threatening. In fifteen twenty two to fifteen 78 00:06:11.120 --> 00:06:15.040 twenty three, free Imperial knights, who controlled small territories in 79 00:06:15.079 --> 00:06:18.800 the Empire and numbered in the thousands, revolted against their 80 00:06:18.879 --> 00:06:25.279 larger territorial princes. Their grievances were basically economic and military, 81 00:06:25.839 --> 00:06:30.439 but they used Lutheran ideas to justify their movement. Armies 82 00:06:30.519 --> 00:06:34.160 led by territorial princes quickly suppressed the revolt and burn 83 00:06:34.240 --> 00:06:37.720 a number of the knights castles. The Knights revolt thus 84 00:06:37.920 --> 00:06:41.680 succeeded only in making some princes more weary of these 85 00:06:41.720 --> 00:06:46.439 new religious ideas. And then, of course, the German peasants Revolt, 86 00:06:46.480 --> 00:06:48.560 which we talked about in the past, had much more 87 00:06:48.639 --> 00:06:53.160 far reaching consequences. Peasants in many parts of Germany objected 88 00:06:53.160 --> 00:06:56.879 to new laws limiting hunting and fishing rights, the rising 89 00:06:56.959 --> 00:07:02.160 levels of taxation, and the imposition of labor organizations. Local 90 00:07:02.160 --> 00:07:07.279 groups of peasants formed regional revolutionary organizations and military alliances 91 00:07:07.319 --> 00:07:11.560 in what was then central and southeastern Germany. In March 92 00:07:12.040 --> 00:07:15.399 of fifteen twenty five, a union of these groups issued 93 00:07:15.560 --> 00:07:18.759 the Twelve Tables of Mimigan, a manifesto that called for 94 00:07:18.800 --> 00:07:22.639 the total abolition of serfdom, hunting and fishing rights, reduced 95 00:07:22.720 --> 00:07:26.120 taxation and labor services, the right of the community to 96 00:07:26.160 --> 00:07:31.000 elect and dismiss pastors. Most dramatically, the Twelve Articles stated 97 00:07:31.000 --> 00:07:34.439 that any practice not in accordance with the Gospels should 98 00:07:34.480 --> 00:07:38.360 be rejected, thus linking the word of God what we 99 00:07:38.439 --> 00:07:43.319 might call divine law, with issues of social justice. All 100 00:07:43.399 --> 00:07:46.120 of this was expressed in clear language, and the articles 101 00:07:46.160 --> 00:07:49.240 were published as a small pamphlet which was quickly reprinted. 102 00:07:50.240 --> 00:07:53.600 The demands of the Twelve Articles were backed by military action, 103 00:07:54.160 --> 00:07:57.759 and peasant armies seized castles, noble houses, abbeys, and even 104 00:07:57.759 --> 00:08:01.959 a few cities. Of course, in the end we know 105 00:08:02.120 --> 00:08:05.959 what would become the largest peasant uprising until we get 106 00:08:05.959 --> 00:08:09.639 to The French Revolution was brutally crushed by the Emperor 107 00:08:09.759 --> 00:08:13.040 and the nobles, but to an extent, the genie was 108 00:08:13.040 --> 00:08:16.959 out of the bottle. Though peasant grievances long predated the Reformation, 109 00:08:17.519 --> 00:08:20.720 the ideas of Luther and Zingli and others about Christian 110 00:08:20.800 --> 00:08:24.720 freedom and the reshaping of Christian life certainly influenced the 111 00:08:24.759 --> 00:08:28.519 way in which the peasants now called for change. The 112 00:08:28.600 --> 00:08:34.919 response by magistraal reformers was uniformly hostile. However, Luther urged 113 00:08:35.000 --> 00:08:39.279 rulers quote as God soored on earth to knock down, strangle, 114 00:08:39.879 --> 00:08:43.120 and stab the insurgents as one would a mad dog 115 00:08:43.279 --> 00:08:48.000 end quote. He and other reformers constantly asserted that their 116 00:08:48.080 --> 00:08:51.159 message was not to be linked with economic, social, or 117 00:08:51.200 --> 00:08:54.919 political grievances, and that the peasants and poor people owed 118 00:08:54.960 --> 00:09:00.799 their superiors obedience spiritual reasons never gave in individuals the 119 00:09:00.879 --> 00:09:04.799 right to oppose political authority by force, an idea that 120 00:09:04.919 --> 00:09:10.200 Zwingli later reaffirmed in fifteen twenty six. Now, not surprisingly, 121 00:09:10.600 --> 00:09:13.639 these reform efforts lost a lot of their popular appeal 122 00:09:13.879 --> 00:09:18.159 after fifteen twenty five, when they were brutally crushed, though 123 00:09:18.200 --> 00:09:21.320 peasants in urban rebels sometimes found a place for their 124 00:09:21.360 --> 00:09:25.600 social and religious ideas within the radical groups of the period. 125 00:09:26.840 --> 00:09:30.440 The Reformation brought with it more than one hundred years 126 00:09:30.679 --> 00:09:35.639 of nearly NonStop religious warfare. In fifteen fifty five, the 127 00:09:35.679 --> 00:09:38.399 initial stage of that conflict came to a brief pause 128 00:09:38.759 --> 00:09:43.399 in the Holy Roman Empire with the Peace of Augsburg. However, 129 00:09:43.840 --> 00:09:46.600 one of the key limitations of said peace was that 130 00:09:46.639 --> 00:09:50.679 it did not recognize Calvinism as a faith, which by 131 00:09:50.679 --> 00:09:53.879 fifteen fifty five was perhaps the most dynamic form of 132 00:09:53.960 --> 00:09:59.159 Christianity in Europe. It spread mostly in territories in which 133 00:09:59.200 --> 00:10:03.120 the nobility was relatively free to make decisions about their religion. 134 00:10:04.000 --> 00:10:06.600 In fact, in some parts of Germany and for a 135 00:10:06.639 --> 00:10:10.519 time in Poland, calvin became the official state religion, even 136 00:10:10.559 --> 00:10:13.360 though it was never recognized by the Peace of Augsburg. 137 00:10:14.759 --> 00:10:18.120 If Calvinism was the most important Protestant factor in the 138 00:10:18.159 --> 00:10:21.759 second half of the sixteenth century, the Jesuits were by 139 00:10:21.799 --> 00:10:27.559 far and away the most important Catholic innovation. The Society 140 00:10:27.600 --> 00:10:31.759 of Jesus or the Jesuits, had been founded by Ignatius Loyola. 141 00:10:32.279 --> 00:10:35.159 Loola was a Spanish knight who became acquainted with the 142 00:10:35.200 --> 00:10:38.399 works of religious writers and mystics while his leg was 143 00:10:38.480 --> 00:10:41.679 mending after being broken in several places during a battle 144 00:10:41.720 --> 00:10:47.279 in one of the ongoing Habsburg Valooi Wars. Like Luther, 145 00:10:47.919 --> 00:10:50.960 Loyola went through a period of inner turmoil and a 146 00:10:51.039 --> 00:10:54.879 crisis of conscience, but resolved this through a rigorous program 147 00:10:54.919 --> 00:10:59.799 of contemplation rather than a new theology. He later described 148 00:10:59.840 --> 00:11:03.919 his techniques in the Spiritual Exercises, which set out a 149 00:11:03.960 --> 00:11:08.279 training program of structured meditation designed to develop a spiritual 150 00:11:08.320 --> 00:11:11.399 discipline and allow one to meld one's word with God. 151 00:11:12.919 --> 00:11:16.600 The ultimate aim of Loyola's program, though, was action on 152 00:11:16.679 --> 00:11:20.879 behalf of God. Though Loyola had never studied as a humanist, 153 00:11:21.320 --> 00:11:25.399 his stress on individual will and possibility of self control 154 00:11:25.440 --> 00:11:29.559 and holiness certainly fitted with the idea of Erasmus and others. 155 00:11:30.840 --> 00:11:35.879 Their training and control of educational institutions made the Jesuits 156 00:11:36.000 --> 00:11:41.200 extremely effective. The Jesuits would, as a result, continued to 157 00:11:41.240 --> 00:11:45.320 be the most important Catholic order in Europe throughout the 158 00:11:45.440 --> 00:12:11.720 early modern period. What's been the rest of this our 159 00:12:11.840 --> 00:12:18.159 final overview episode discussing economics and technology. Needless to say, 160 00:12:18.320 --> 00:12:23.320 in both Arena's life changed a lot for Europeans. In fact, 161 00:12:23.360 --> 00:12:27.840 a lot more for Europeans between fourteen sixty and sixteen 162 00:12:27.919 --> 00:12:32.240 fifty two hundred years than it had perhaps between eight 163 00:12:32.399 --> 00:12:36.279 hundred of the Common Era and fourteen hundred six hundred years. 164 00:12:36.559 --> 00:12:40.840 In fact, some might argue that it changed more than 165 00:12:40.879 --> 00:12:44.240 it had between the year one of the Common Era 166 00:12:44.440 --> 00:12:50.639 and fourteen hundred. By the eighteenth century, economics and economists, 167 00:12:50.679 --> 00:12:53.440 and both of those were starting to become things began 168 00:12:53.559 --> 00:12:59.639 emphasizing the powerful role of capitalism, though it certainly had 169 00:12:59.679 --> 00:13:05.039 become force long before it was recognized. Obviously, the biggest 170 00:13:05.120 --> 00:13:08.519 name in the game here is Adam Smith, whose inquiry 171 00:13:08.600 --> 00:13:11.200 into the naturing causes of the Wealth of Nations in 172 00:13:11.279 --> 00:13:16.600 seventeen seventy six became virtually gospel until the twentieth century. 173 00:13:17.559 --> 00:13:20.200 For Smith, people had a natural tendency to trade with 174 00:13:20.240 --> 00:13:23.840 one another. This inclination led to the specialization of trade, 175 00:13:24.240 --> 00:13:28.480 as first individuals, then groups, then regions, and ultimately nations 176 00:13:28.919 --> 00:13:32.320 concentrated on products and tasks that they could produce or 177 00:13:32.360 --> 00:13:36.039 carry out better than their neighbors. The highest level of development, 178 00:13:36.120 --> 00:13:39.879 production and innovation. In other words, the greatest wealth of 179 00:13:40.000 --> 00:13:44.120 nations would be achieved by allowing free trade and open 180 00:13:44.159 --> 00:13:48.360 competition in both products and labor, an economic system later 181 00:13:48.440 --> 00:13:52.360 called capitalism, though I think it's worth noting Adam Smith 182 00:13:52.519 --> 00:13:57.879 never used that term. The development of capitalism was slow, uneven, 183 00:13:58.000 --> 00:14:01.919 and complicated. It involved change in the organization of production 184 00:14:02.399 --> 00:14:05.200 and the handling of money. And also increase in the 185 00:14:05.240 --> 00:14:09.639 amount of goods manufactured, bought, and sold. This expansion of 186 00:14:09.679 --> 00:14:12.840 the European economy was driven in part by a growth 187 00:14:12.840 --> 00:14:19.240 in population. Population statistics before the advent of regular registrations 188 00:14:19.279 --> 00:14:23.080 of births, baptisms, marriages, and deaths are sketchy at best, 189 00:14:23.639 --> 00:14:27.679 but many demographers set the population of Europe at about 190 00:14:27.960 --> 00:14:33.080 eighty million in thirteen hundred. Famine, plague, and other diseases 191 00:14:33.480 --> 00:14:35.360 killed at least a quarter of the population of the 192 00:14:35.399 --> 00:14:39.360 next century, but by about fifteen hundred it climbed again 193 00:14:39.440 --> 00:14:42.120 to pre plague levels, and over the next century it 194 00:14:42.320 --> 00:14:46.279 gradually grow to about one hundred million. Rulers and their 195 00:14:46.279 --> 00:14:49.399 officials regarded the growth in population as a good thing, 196 00:14:49.879 --> 00:14:53.200 for more people offered the possibility of greater economic and 197 00:14:53.240 --> 00:14:59.960 military power. The rising population brought problems as well as opportunities, though, 198 00:15:00.799 --> 00:15:04.159 The demand for food increased, leading to a sharp rise 199 00:15:04.240 --> 00:15:08.679 in food prices, especially the price of grain, which increased 200 00:15:08.679 --> 00:15:12.039 between four and seven times in Europe during the period 201 00:15:12.320 --> 00:15:16.919 from fourteen fifty to sixteen twenty. Prices of firewood and 202 00:15:17.039 --> 00:15:20.840 charcoal also rose as people chopped down trees for fuel 203 00:15:21.159 --> 00:15:23.360 or to increase the amount of land under the plow 204 00:15:24.440 --> 00:15:28.879 forests contracted sharply in size, and new land was created 205 00:15:28.879 --> 00:15:33.240 as coastal areas and marshes were drained. The hardest hit 206 00:15:33.279 --> 00:15:35.600 by the rising prices were those who had to buy 207 00:15:35.679 --> 00:15:38.600 all or most of their food, especially the urban and 208 00:15:38.720 --> 00:15:42.879 rural poor. This throughout the period led to bread and 209 00:15:43.039 --> 00:15:47.200 other types of riots. In fourteen ninety seven, five years 210 00:15:47.279 --> 00:15:50.759 after Columbus discovered the New World, a crowd of poor 211 00:15:50.799 --> 00:15:54.679 people in Florence attacked the city's public granary, provoking a 212 00:15:54.759 --> 00:15:56.759 riot in which some of them were trampled to death 213 00:15:57.240 --> 00:16:01.480 when crushed. In fifteen eighty five, a city council in 214 00:16:01.559 --> 00:16:04.200 Naples ordered that the standard loaf of bread would be 215 00:16:04.240 --> 00:16:07.679 smaller but cost the same, a common practice in cities 216 00:16:07.960 --> 00:16:11.960 during times of shortage. A mob seized one of the 217 00:16:12.039 --> 00:16:16.720 council members who made that decision, killed him, mutilated his corpse, 218 00:16:17.200 --> 00:16:21.840 and then burned his house to the ground. Crowds did 219 00:16:21.919 --> 00:16:27.080 not regularly kill officials, but they did often riot, seizing grain, flour, 220 00:16:27.399 --> 00:16:30.120 or bread and then selling it at what they regarded 221 00:16:30.399 --> 00:16:35.600 as the just, that is, the lower price. Governments, private 222 00:16:35.639 --> 00:16:38.919 groups like guilds and trading companies, and even the Church 223 00:16:39.039 --> 00:16:43.399 often attempted to shape economic growth by imposing tariffs and taxes, 224 00:16:43.919 --> 00:16:49.639 setting wages, establishing monopolies, and passing all other sorts of regulations. 225 00:16:50.279 --> 00:16:53.679 National governments attempted to build up their own industries by 226 00:16:53.720 --> 00:16:58.120 setting high tariffs on imported manufactured goods and promoting exports. 227 00:16:58.639 --> 00:17:02.919 We still do that today. Government actions to ensure a 228 00:17:02.960 --> 00:17:06.359 positive balance of trade were part of an economic doctrine 229 00:17:06.359 --> 00:17:10.000 that later would be called mercantilism, which was the most 230 00:17:10.039 --> 00:17:13.799 popular form of economics in Europe between the sixteenth and 231 00:17:13.880 --> 00:17:18.359 eighteenth centuries. Mercantilists saw the amount of trade and production 232 00:17:18.440 --> 00:17:21.640 as fixed, so their policies were directed at grabbing a 233 00:17:21.680 --> 00:17:25.039 bigger piece of the pie and then taxing it and 234 00:17:25.079 --> 00:17:31.440 defending it, sometimes by military force. Government and personal responses 235 00:17:31.759 --> 00:17:37.240 to rising prices generally made things worse. Governments devalued coins, 236 00:17:37.240 --> 00:17:41.039 which meant minted coins with less precious metal content, either 237 00:17:41.079 --> 00:17:44.519 by making the coins smaller or by mixing the precious 238 00:17:44.559 --> 00:17:48.240 metals with other metals like lead. But this only drove 239 00:17:48.319 --> 00:17:52.039 prices up faster as people demanded more devalued coins for 240 00:17:52.079 --> 00:17:56.440 any purchase. Merchants and miller's hoarded grain and flour in 241 00:17:56.480 --> 00:18:00.000 the hopes of greater profits, which drove prices up further, 242 00:18:00.880 --> 00:18:04.000 and cities and nations prohibited the export of food, which 243 00:18:04.039 --> 00:18:07.519 often kept food from where it was actually needed to go. 244 00:18:08.759 --> 00:18:13.200 Most famines in Europe were actually completely localized and avoidable. 245 00:18:14.359 --> 00:18:16.880 One valley might have two little rain well the next 246 00:18:16.880 --> 00:18:20.799 one was totally fine. Or one village might experience especially 247 00:18:20.880 --> 00:18:25.799 devastating hailstorms right at harvest time their neighboring villages they 248 00:18:25.839 --> 00:18:30.119 were unscathed. The increasing population meant there was no shortage 249 00:18:30.119 --> 00:18:34.400 of tenants and landowners raised fees, fines and rents. Rents 250 00:18:34.440 --> 00:18:37.119 on Land and England may have increased as much as 251 00:18:37.240 --> 00:18:41.400 nine times between fifteen ten and sixteen forty, while grain 252 00:18:41.480 --> 00:18:47.039 prices simultaneously went up four times. Rural rebellions such as 253 00:18:47.079 --> 00:18:51.759 the German Peasants War or kentce Rebellion in England combined 254 00:18:51.759 --> 00:18:55.160 religious demands with those on a rollback to earlier levels 255 00:18:55.200 --> 00:18:59.119 of rents or fees. There was also no shortage of workers, 256 00:18:59.200 --> 00:19:03.000 especially those who little or no specialized training, so that 257 00:19:03.039 --> 00:19:05.920 wages increased much more slowly than food prices or rent 258 00:19:06.400 --> 00:19:11.079 and real wages declined. Wages in general increased more slowly 259 00:19:11.119 --> 00:19:14.880 than prices for manufactured goods, and enterprising investors saw the 260 00:19:14.920 --> 00:19:19.400 opportunity for enhanced profits in manufacturing. They developed new forms 261 00:19:19.440 --> 00:19:23.039 of capitalist organization for the production of goods, hiring families 262 00:19:23.079 --> 00:19:27.599 of workers while retaining ownership of the raw materials, tools, 263 00:19:27.640 --> 00:19:31.640 and finished products. Some of these merchant entrepreneurs were able 264 00:19:31.680 --> 00:19:34.559 to benefit from the enormous amount of gold and silver 265 00:19:35.000 --> 00:19:38.920 flowing into Europe from the Americas. This influx of precious 266 00:19:38.920 --> 00:19:41.559 metals drove down the value of coinage, which was made 267 00:19:41.599 --> 00:19:44.559 from gold and silver, the same way that an increase 268 00:19:44.599 --> 00:19:48.880 in the supply of any commodity were reduced price. The 269 00:19:48.960 --> 00:19:53.039 long period of price increases, which economist historians have labeled 270 00:19:53.200 --> 00:19:56.359 the price revolution, enhanced the wealth and power of long 271 00:19:56.400 --> 00:20:00.559 standing elites such as Eastern European noble landlords, and of 272 00:20:00.640 --> 00:20:06.319 relative newcomers such as Western European merchant entrepreneurs. Trade production, 273 00:20:06.400 --> 00:20:11.400 and population growth are all important factors in explaining Europe's 274 00:20:11.440 --> 00:20:17.000 economic expansion in the early modern period, though that expansion 275 00:20:17.039 --> 00:20:20.160 didn't change the fact that the vast majority of Europeans 276 00:20:20.200 --> 00:20:23.400 lived in rural villages, growing crops and raising animals for 277 00:20:23.440 --> 00:20:26.039 their own use. For the use of their landlords and 278 00:20:26.119 --> 00:20:29.599 for sale. In fourteen fifty, about one out of every 279 00:20:29.599 --> 00:20:32.519 twenty Europeans lived in a town or city with more 280 00:20:32.599 --> 00:20:37.240 than ten thousand inhabitants. By eighteen hundred, that proportion had 281 00:20:37.279 --> 00:20:40.119 only climbed to one out of every ten. There were 282 00:20:40.160 --> 00:20:44.079 places like the Netherlands, for example, where about eighteen hundred 283 00:20:44.480 --> 00:20:46.519 three out of every ten people lived in the city, 284 00:20:47.039 --> 00:20:50.400 but these, of course were offset by other geographic locations, 285 00:20:50.799 --> 00:20:54.599 places like Scandinavia and Spain in Eastern Europe, where there 286 00:20:54.599 --> 00:20:58.359 were almost no cities at all. Now, thinking about late 287 00:20:58.400 --> 00:21:02.599 medieval agriculture, terns of land ownership varied from one region 288 00:21:02.599 --> 00:21:05.359 of Europe to another, and one village to another, and honestly, 289 00:21:05.720 --> 00:21:09.000 sometimes one family to another within a single village. Some 290 00:21:09.160 --> 00:21:12.359 land that was termed allodial was owned by the peasants 291 00:21:12.359 --> 00:21:15.519 who farmed it, who might owe fees for certain services, 292 00:21:15.880 --> 00:21:19.400 but no other direct obligations. Most land was held by 293 00:21:19.400 --> 00:21:23.039 an absentee landlord, which might be an individual or an institution, 294 00:21:23.200 --> 00:21:27.200 oftentimes a monastery. The peasants who farmed it paid rents, taxes, 295 00:21:27.400 --> 00:21:30.240 and fees to the landowner, which had earlier been paid 296 00:21:30.279 --> 00:21:34.319 in labor or agricultural products, but which by the mid 297 00:21:34.359 --> 00:21:38.559 fifteenth century in Western Europe was increasingly paid with cash. 298 00:21:39.200 --> 00:21:42.359 This transformation to cash payments had been accompanied by disappearance 299 00:21:42.400 --> 00:21:45.319 of serfdom, so the peasants were no longer legally tied 300 00:21:45.319 --> 00:21:48.359 to the land, but were tenants of the landowner. They 301 00:21:48.359 --> 00:21:51.759 still often owed fees based on earlier feudal rights, such 302 00:21:51.799 --> 00:21:55.079 as special fees to mill grain or pressed grapes, to 303 00:21:55.160 --> 00:21:58.359 buy sell inherent land, or to take a case to court, 304 00:21:59.000 --> 00:22:00.920 and in some areas they still had a few labor 305 00:22:00.960 --> 00:22:04.359 obligations called the courvet in France that's going to be 306 00:22:04.359 --> 00:22:08.680 hated by the way going into the revolution. Peasants also 307 00:22:08.759 --> 00:22:11.200 generally paid taxes and fees to support the church, which 308 00:22:11.200 --> 00:22:13.640 were collected by the village priest and then shared with 309 00:22:13.680 --> 00:22:17.920 his superiors. Priest himself was often poor and integrated into 310 00:22:17.920 --> 00:22:20.440 the economic life of the village, so that he farmed 311 00:22:20.480 --> 00:22:25.880 during the week alongside his parishioners. Landlords generally appointed officials 312 00:22:25.920 --> 00:22:29.000 from the outside village to oversee the legal and business 313 00:22:29.000 --> 00:22:33.160 operations of their holdings, collecting taxes and fees, handling disputes. 314 00:22:33.920 --> 00:22:36.960 The lords of their officials also had courts at regular 315 00:22:37.000 --> 00:22:41.839 intervals which handled legal matters like fights, assaults, robberies, litigations 316 00:22:41.839 --> 00:22:46.559 between villagers, and infractions of laws and customs regarding roads 317 00:22:46.640 --> 00:22:50.720 or public places. These courts relied more on the collective 318 00:22:50.720 --> 00:22:54.160 memory of village traditions and customs than unwritten laws, so 319 00:22:54.160 --> 00:22:57.480 that groups of responsible adult men in England called jurors, 320 00:22:58.039 --> 00:23:00.680 were often asked to decide issues such as who had 321 00:23:00.720 --> 00:23:03.160 the right to a certain piece of land, by simply 322 00:23:03.240 --> 00:23:07.279 talking amongst themselves and to others who might know. Because 323 00:23:07.279 --> 00:23:10.240 of this, jurors were chosen from among those most likely 324 00:23:10.319 --> 00:23:13.079 to know the facts of the case, quite the opposite 325 00:23:13.200 --> 00:23:18.440 of modern jury selection. Landlords and government officials had direct 326 00:23:18.480 --> 00:23:22.160 power in the countryside. By the fifteenth century, villages in 327 00:23:22.200 --> 00:23:26.440 many parts of Europe had also developed self governing institutions 328 00:23:26.480 --> 00:23:29.960 to handle issues like crop rotation and to choose additional 329 00:23:30.039 --> 00:23:36.519 officials such as constables, churchwardens, and even ale testers. How 330 00:23:36.640 --> 00:23:39.319 they were chosen and elected was more often a matter 331 00:23:39.359 --> 00:23:42.559 of oral tradition than written law. That both those who 332 00:23:42.640 --> 00:23:46.680 chose officials and the officials themselves were almost always adult men, 333 00:23:47.079 --> 00:23:51.119 and generally the heads of households. Women had no official 334 00:23:51.200 --> 00:23:53.880 voice in the running of the village, though they did buy, sell, 335 00:23:53.880 --> 00:23:57.599 and hold land independently. There were handfuls of cases in 336 00:23:57.680 --> 00:24:02.200 England of women chosen as churchwardens in the minor office, 337 00:24:02.559 --> 00:24:06.400 charged with the physical upkeep of the parish church, especially 338 00:24:06.400 --> 00:24:09.720 as widows. Women headed households and were required to pay 339 00:24:10.000 --> 00:24:13.359 all rents and taxes. Being a woman might have meant 340 00:24:13.359 --> 00:24:15.559 you had no sand government, but you still had to 341 00:24:15.559 --> 00:24:19.640 pay your taxes. In areas of Europe where men were 342 00:24:19.640 --> 00:24:22.599 going for long periods of time foresting or fishing, like 343 00:24:23.119 --> 00:24:26.720 Portugal or the northern Basque region of Spain, or were 344 00:24:26.720 --> 00:24:29.839 men left seasonally or more permanently in search of work Elsewhere, 345 00:24:30.480 --> 00:24:33.720 women made decisions about the way village affairs were to 346 00:24:33.759 --> 00:24:37.559 be run, though they did not set up formal institutions. 347 00:24:39.319 --> 00:24:41.680 In a previous episode, I mentioned this, but it bears 348 00:24:41.680 --> 00:24:46.000 repeating that most parts of Europe depended on grain based agriculture. 349 00:24:46.799 --> 00:24:50.240 In southern Europe this meant rye while oats were dominant 350 00:24:50.279 --> 00:24:53.839 in the north. Along the coasts, many people dependent on fishing. 351 00:24:53.960 --> 00:24:58.119 Of course, in the more rugged terrains of Brittany, Scandinavia 352 00:24:58.359 --> 00:25:01.759 and Ireland, the grays of sheep, goats and cattle with 353 00:25:01.880 --> 00:25:05.720 the most important economic activity, and of course all of 354 00:25:05.759 --> 00:25:10.759 these are primarily agricultural activities. In Western and Central Europe, 355 00:25:10.839 --> 00:25:14.519 villages were generally made up of small houses for individual 356 00:25:14.599 --> 00:25:19.079 families with one marital couple, their children, including step children, 357 00:25:19.240 --> 00:25:22.720 and perhaps one or two other relatives, a grandmother or 358 00:25:22.720 --> 00:25:27.960 perhaps a cousin whose parents had died. A significant minority 359 00:25:28.000 --> 00:25:30.519 of the population didn't marry until late in life or 360 00:25:30.599 --> 00:25:34.440 not at all, so some households contained only an unmarried 361 00:25:34.480 --> 00:25:37.920 person or a widow, or several unmarried people who lived together. 362 00:25:38.759 --> 00:25:42.400 Villages themselves were nucleated. What I mean by that is 363 00:25:42.400 --> 00:25:45.559 that houses were clumped together, with the field stretching beyond 364 00:25:45.599 --> 00:25:48.599 the group. Each house might have a tiny yard for 365 00:25:48.640 --> 00:25:51.480 smaller animals like chicks or ducks, and of course a 366 00:25:51.599 --> 00:25:55.960 vegetable garden. Crops were rotated according to tradition and need, 367 00:25:56.440 --> 00:25:59.839 and some fields were left unworked or fallow to a 368 00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:04.160 allow the soil to rejuvenate. Most families also allowed to 369 00:26:04.240 --> 00:26:07.079 let their pigs, oxen, cows, and sheep grays in the 370 00:26:07.119 --> 00:26:12.440 woods and meadows beyond the fields. They worked to gather firewood, nuts, mushrooms, 371 00:26:12.480 --> 00:26:15.039 and other foods from these areas. They were called the 372 00:26:15.119 --> 00:26:18.519 commons because they were held in common by the village whole. 373 00:26:18.960 --> 00:26:22.359 Remember in England this is the fierce debate over the 374 00:26:22.480 --> 00:26:27.359 enclosure movement in Southern In some parts of Eastern Europe, 375 00:26:27.519 --> 00:26:31.000 though nuclear families and single person households were not unknown, 376 00:26:31.400 --> 00:26:34.279 extended families were more likely to live in the same 377 00:26:34.319 --> 00:26:38.599 household or very near to one another than in Northern Europe. 378 00:26:38.759 --> 00:26:42.079 Father and son or two married brothers might share a 379 00:26:42.119 --> 00:26:46.319 house with both of their families, forming what demographers call 380 00:26:46.559 --> 00:26:50.799 the stem or complex household. The milder climate and the 381 00:26:50.839 --> 00:26:54.519 Mediterranean allowed for more frequent planting and greater range of 382 00:26:54.559 --> 00:27:02.240 agricultural products. Commercial agriculture developed mostly in more urbanized regions 383 00:27:02.240 --> 00:27:07.480 of Europe, where city populations provided a concentrated market for crops. 384 00:27:07.519 --> 00:27:11.759 In Flanders, peasant farmers worked their land more intensively by 385 00:27:11.880 --> 00:27:17.039 multiple hoeings, plowings and weedings, and planted bean crops and 386 00:27:17.119 --> 00:27:20.799 peas to cover and rejuvenate the soil rather than allowing 387 00:27:20.839 --> 00:27:27.079 it to lie fallow. Rural areas, however, were not static 388 00:27:27.559 --> 00:27:31.519 and changed tremendously over the course of the early modern period, 389 00:27:32.319 --> 00:27:36.160 in both areas with specialized agriculture and places where traditional 390 00:27:36.160 --> 00:27:40.519 grain growing predominated. The relative prosperity of most peasants in 391 00:27:40.519 --> 00:27:45.079 the fifteenth century generally gave way to an impoverishment of 392 00:27:45.119 --> 00:27:48.519 a majority of these same people. By the late sixteenth century, 393 00:27:49.559 --> 00:27:53.319 landlords increased rents and fees faster than the prices for 394 00:27:53.400 --> 00:27:58.839 agricultural products rose. Centralizing states, always in need of money, 395 00:27:59.039 --> 00:28:05.319 increased tax let throughout the incredibly expensive sixteenth century. Wealthier 396 00:28:05.359 --> 00:28:08.559 peasants were sometimes able to take advantage of the situation 397 00:28:09.000 --> 00:28:12.680 and purchase more land, but this came from middling and 398 00:28:12.759 --> 00:28:16.240 poor peasants, who, as a result, were reduced to holding 399 00:28:16.279 --> 00:28:20.559 nothing but a cottage or no property at all. In England, 400 00:28:20.880 --> 00:28:25.160 by sixteen twenty, around forty percent of rural residents held 401 00:28:25.240 --> 00:28:29.480