March 7, 2021
Seok Hyun Kim
HIST 125-K02
Week #2 Assignment
The biological old regime was a social organization that farming peasants supported
the ruling elites. The population growth and increasing population density had led to the rise
of civilization and the agricultural revolution. It has emerged binary social structure; the
ruling elites such as rulers and landlords, and the farming peasants. As a result, the elites
earned their living by collecting taxes and rents while peasants attained self-sufficiency
through farming.
This old regime entailed several limitations; famine, epidemic disease, and ecosystem
damage. A famine broke forth when the harvest fell short when experienced a natural
disaster. However, to make the matter worse, the rulers and landlords didn't reduce the taxes
and rents, which pushed the peasants below the subsistence level and caused the farming
deficit. The agricultural revolution and the expansion of the human population have led
people to find new fertile lands. The humans wiped the forests out of their land to cultivate
more crops and hunted wild animals for food and protection. However, this time, the natural
environment attacked humans adversely. The microparasites carried fatal and communicable
diseases such as Black Death, smallpox, and influenza virus globally. The long-distance trade
back in the thirteenth century has spread the illness in every continent and killed staggering
numbers of people.
Around 1300-1400, the whole world was interconnected by several different trading
zones and routes, which showed an integrated trading system. It allowed the different regions
of the world to sell their specialty to other continents, and have cultural and technological
exchanges. The most distinguishable fact of the trading system in this era was that it was
polycentric. There was no single dominator or controller over the international trade since the
rulers found out protecting and encouraging trading is more beneficial to themselves than
seizing the traders as they could collect more taxes from it.