EXPANSION IN THE
18TH CENTURY
Chapter 19
I. The Agricultural Revolution
A. Agriculture pre 1700
1. Low output
2. Open-field system
B. Features of the Agricultural Revolution
1. Production: increased crop and
animal yields fed more people.
2. Cultivation: growing crops on
reclaimed wastelands and
uncultivated common lands
3. Selective breeding: livestock
raising linked to crop growing;
fertilizer = greater crop yields
C. Use of science and technology applied to
agriculture (empiricism)
1. Low Countries were leaders
a. limited land & dense population
b. strong commercial economy
c. new agricultural methods:
1) Drainage - Cornelius Vermuyden
2) Enclosure of open-fields
3) crop rotation
4) heavy fertilization
D. England
1. Influenced by Dutch innovations
2. Crop rotation
1) Viscount Charles Townsend
Turnip Townshend
2) Nitrogen-rich crops enriched soil
and provided food for livestock
3. Jethro Tull: seed drill (empiricism)
4. Robert Bakewell: Selective breeding
a. More manure available for fertilizer
E. Enclosure movement (England)*
1. Commercialization of agriculture
a. Increased number of large and
middle-sized farms
b. Greater economic prosperity = more
investment in technology (capital $)
Typical English
Community BEFORE
enclosure acts
Typical English
Community AFTER
enclosure acts
Key
Barron’s Land
Rich Farmer’s
Land
2nd Rich Farmer’s
land
Common Land
Small Farmers’
lands
2. Parliament legalized the movement
a. wealthy landowners encouraged enclosure
3. Impact on the peasantry
a. Proletariat = landless labor
1) peasants are driven off the land to
become wage earners
F. Population explosion
1. Irregular cycle of growth pre 1700.
2. New pattern in population growth after 1700.
a. Fewer deaths due to disease
1) Improved sanitation
b. Improved transportation of food.
c. Increased food supply; new foods
-$ Lower prices  more +$ for consumer goods
d. Less destructive wars
III. The Cottage Industry
A. Putting-out system
1. Textile industry in England
2. Continental Europe slower to develop
B. Problems with Cottage Industry
Spinster
1. Constant disputes over weights &
quality of cloth
2. Difficult to organize & control labor
output
a. “Holy Monday”
B. Technology in the textile industry
1. 1733, John Kay: flying shuttle
2. 1764, James Hargreaves: spinning jenny
3. 1769, Richard Arkwright: water frame
4. Crompton’s Spinning
Mule
Samuel Crompton was a mill
worker who had learned to spin
using a Spinning Jenny. He noted
that one of the problems with the
Spinning Jenny was that the thread
was not strong enough and it kept
breaking. In 1779, Crompton
designed a new machine which he
called the Spinning Mule. His
machine combined the best features
of both the Spinning Jenny and the
Water Frame.
Samule Crompton’s
Spinning Mule
5. Eli Whitney: cotton gin
a. designed to separate raw cotton fibers from seeds
IV. The Atlantic Economy in the 17th and 18th
Centuries
A. World trade
a. Sugar
b. Slave trade
French and Spanish Occupation of North
America
B. British mercantilism
1. Gov’t should serve needs of private
individuals and groups; also needs of
state.
2. Britain became leading maritime power
in the world
3. Navigation Laws
4. Anglo-Dutch Wars
a. negative impact on Dutch economy
V. Mercantile Wars of the 18th century
A. War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1713)
1. Peace of Utrecht (1713)
a. French expansion stopped
B. War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748)
1. Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 – Maria Theresa
2. Prussia doubled its size by taking Silesia
3. Treaty of Aix-la Chapelle (1748)
a. Prussia becomes a major power
C. Seven Years’ War (1756-63)
1. French & Indian War – North America
b. British & American Colonies vs. France & Native
Americans
b. British victory – Treaty of Paris, 1763
1) France lost North America & India
2. European War: Prussia vs. Austria, Russia, France
a. Prussia is saved by Tsar Peter III
European Powers: 1754 & 1763
VI. Commercial Empires of the 18th century
A. British America
1. provided land and opportunity for a growing
population
2. Colonist became a market for British
manufactured goods
3. Cash crops increase need for slave labor:
a. tobacco, cotton
B. Atlantic Slave Trade
1. Triangle Trade
2. Plantation agriculture
3. led to political division
Olaudah Equiano
C. Colonial Latin America
1. Viceroyalties – administrative divisions
a. Viceroy (Imperial Governor)
b. Audiencia (Intendants)
2. Mercantilist principle – colonies existed for the
financial benefit of the homeland
a. Quinto – King took 1/5th of precious metals
3. Social hierarchy:
a. Creoles – of Spanish blood born in the America
b. Mestizos – mix of Spanish & Indian
Viceroyalties in
Latin America in
1780
Map shows Spanish
Bourbon monarchy’s
attempt to establish
more direct control of
Latin America.
D. Economic Liberalism
1. Adam Smith – Inquiry into the Nature and Causes
of the Wealth of Nations, 1776
a. basis of modern economics – Capitalism
1) Free market / Laissez-Faire / “Invisible Hand”
b. Government should limit itself to:
1) defense against foreign enemies
2) maintain social order
3) sponsor important public works