Test # ________
CHAPTER 7 UNIT EXAM:
SOCIETY AND ECONOMY UNDER THE OLD REGIME
IN THE 18TH CENTURY
1) The term "Old Regime" has come to refer to:
A) the gradual transition of Europe's monarchies to that of democracies and republics.
B) the economic policies that existed across Europe before the 18th-century Industrial
Revolution.
C) the social, political, and economic relationships that were prevalent in Europe before
the French Revolution.
D) the social and political infrastructure that existed before the Protestant Reformation.
E) the system of taxation employed by most of Europe's monarchs prior to 1848.
Answer: C
2) Which of the following was NOT a basic social characteristic of pre-revolutionary Europe?
A) aristocratic elites possessing a wide variety of inherited legal privileges
B) a peasantry subject to high taxes and feudal dues
C) established churches intimately related to the state and the aristocracy
D) an urban labor force usually organized into guilds
E) a politically-active middle class
Answer: E
3) Eighteenth-century Europeans enjoyed:
A) civil rights.
B) individual rights.
C) community rights.
D) personal property rights.
E) universal rights.
Answer: C
4) In 18th-century Europe, the nobility consisted of approximately:
A) 1 to 5 percent of the population.
B) 5 to 10 percent of the population.
C) 10 to 15 percent of the population.
D) 15 to 20 percent of the population.
E) half of the population.
Answer: A
5) Which of the following is NOT true of the European aristocracy in the 18th century:
A) They were the single wealthiest sector of the population.
B) They had considerable political power.
C) They had the widest degree of social power.
D) They had the largest degree of economic power.
E) Their numbers were expanding rapidly.
Answer: B
6) The smallest, wealthiest, and best defined aristocracy resided in:
A) Austria.
B) Spain.
C) France.
D) Germany.
E) Great Britain.
Answer: E
7) French nobles were technically responsible for payment of the vingtième, which resembles
what modern-day tax?
A) income tax
B) property tax
C) sales tax
D) state/local tax
E) estate tax
Answer: A
8) The corvée
A) was a tax assigned exclusively to French nobles that required them to pay their serf’s
feudal dues.
B) was involuntary forced labor forced on French peasants.
C) was a special, annual tax exemption granted to French nobles.
D) was a tool that improved the annual plowing of soil intended for agricultural use.
E) was the annual tax increase levied against nobles in France.
Answer: B
9) All of the following were features of the Russian Charter of Nobility EXCEPT:
A) exemption from personal taxes.
B) judicial protection of noble rights and property.
C) Nobles could transmit noble status to a spouse or children.
D) requiring that nobles serve in the military.
E) considerable power over serfs.
Answer: D
10) French nobles were divided between nobles of the "sword" and nobles of the:
A) "church."
B) "crown."
C) "robe."
D) "blood."
E) "law."
Answer: C
11) The economic basis of 18th-century life was:
A) land.
B) regional trade.
C) industry.
D) international trade.
E) intellectual property.
Answer: A
12) Nearly all French peasants were subject to certain feudal dues called ________.
A) Corvées
B) Le taille
C) Banalités
D) Vingtiéme
E) Hors d’ouvres
Answer: C
13) Peasant rebellions tended to be ________ in that peasants generally wanted to restore
customary rights.
A) liberal
B) conservative
C) religious
D) communist
E) democratic
Answer: B
14) From 1671 to 1831, English Game Laws
A) gave people of lower classes equal access to game animals.
B) provided landless nobles with the opportunity to hunt game nobles.
C) gave needy peasants the right to hunt game on the properties belonging to landowners.
D) gave members of Parliament the exclusive right to hunt game animals.
E) gave English landowners the exclusive right to hunt game animals.
Answer: E
15) In pre-industrial Europe, the economy of a household that developed on farms, in artisans'
workshops, and in small merchants' shops, and was known as the:
A) household economy.
B) domestic economy.
C) family economy.
D) merchant economy.
E) private economy.
Answer: C
16) The process in which children in their young teens would leave their nuclear family, learn a
trade, and eventually marry and form their own independent household was known as:
A) neolocalism.
B) taille.
C) corvées.
D) hobereaux.
E) alienation.
Answer: A
17) Given what you know about households, which of the following statements is most
applicable with regards to the European family structure in the 18th century:
A) Eastern European families had more independence and autonomy than did
Northwestern families.
B) The land cultivation of Northwestern Europe caused families to arrange marriages
within a short set of time.
C) Eastern European grandparents had the opportunity to form closer relationships with
their grandchildren than did Northwestern European grandparents.
D) Widows in both Northwestern and Eastern European did not seek to remarry due to
their religious views.
E) Most Northwestern European families were made up of nine or more members.
Answer: C
18) All of the following is true of the family economy EXCEPT:
A) The family economy did not dominate the life of skilled urban artisans.
B) In Eastern Europe, the family economy functioned in the context of serfdom and
landlord domination.
C) All goods and income produced went to the household rather than to the individual
family member.
D) Depending on their ages and skills, everyone in the household worked.
E) Members of a family often worked as servants.
Answer: A
19) In pre-industrial Europe, the dominant concern of married women was:
A) childbearing.
B) childrearing.
C) producing enough farm goods to ensure an adequate food supply.
D) domestic duties such as cooking, cleaning, and sewing.
E) improving the social status of their husbands.
Answer: C
20) All of the following were true of children in the 18th century EXCEPT:
A) The birth of a child was not always welcome.
B) The number of illegitimate births seems to have decreased during the 18th century.
C) Most infants were sent to a wet nurse for months or even years due to economic
necessity.
D) There was a close relationship between rising food prices and the increasing numbers
of abandoned children.
E) There was new interest in educating children.
Answer: E
21) At marriage, a woman was expected to contribute to the household's capital in the form of a
________.
A) dowry
B) slave
C) farm
D) gown
E) meal
Answer: A
22) During the 18th century, bread prices:
A) fluctuated wildly.
B) declined.
C) remained the same.
D) slowly but steadily rose.
E) were of little concern to most Europeans.
Answer: D
23) The Dutch tried each of the following methods to increase the productivity and output of
their land EXCEPT this:
A) building better dikes.
B) experimenting with new crops, such as turnips and clover.
C) increasing the supply of animal fodder to restore the soil.
D) casting seeds rather than planting wheat by a drill, which was more successful.
E) draining thousands of acres of land.
Answer: D
24) Between 1700 and 1800, Europe's population rose from 100-120 million people to:
A) about 520 million people.
B) about 310 million people.
C) almost 190 million people.
D) almost 150 million people.
E) almost 750 million people.
Answer: C
25) Introduced from the New World, this new product allowed a more certain food supply in
Europe and enabled more children to survive to adulthood and rear children of their own:
A) maize.
B) squash.
C) potato.
D) corn.
E) wheat.
Answer: C
26) To improve their lifestyle and income, landlords in Western Europe began a series of
innovations in farm production that became known as the ________.
A) Industrial Revolution
B) Cultural Revolution
C) Agricultural Revolution
D) Consumer Revolution
E) Capitalist Revolution
Answer: C
27) England's ________ were controversial because they disrupted the economic and social life
of the countryside but they may have led to more food production and economic growth.
A) enclosures
B) income taxes
C) artisan guild strikes
D) merchant oligarchies
E) textile mills
Answer: A
28) Which of the following was NOT a result of European industrialization:
A) It gave human beings greater control over nature than they had ever known before.
B) In the long run, industrialization raised the standard of living and overcame the
poverty that most Europeans had resigned themselves to.
C) The goods produced met immediate consumer demand and also created new demands.
D) It never overcame the economy of scarcity.
E) It resulted in a dramatic increase in the availability of consumer goods.
Answer: D
29) During the Industrial Revolution, consumption was not automatic so manufacturers did all of
the following to sell their product EXCEPT:
A) Update and advertise a new version of a product to replace the older and thus less
desirable and fashionable product.
B) Appeal to contemporary Christians to sell products to cleanse their outward
appearance during services.
C) Appeal first to the aristocracy and once their business had been gained, produced a
less expensive version of the product to sell to the middle-class.
D) Salespeople used bilingual catalogs and went all over Europe to demonstrate products.
E) Learn lessons from past failures and successes.
Answer: B
30) The single largest free-trade area in Europe during the 18th century was:
A) Italy.
B) Spain.
C) France.
D) Great Britain.
E) Germany.
Answer: D
31) What industry pioneered the Industrial Revolution?
A) textiles
B) housing
C) transportation
D) food processing
E) luxury goods
Answer: A
32) Factory production of purely cotton fabric was made possible by the invention of the:
A) water frame.
B) spinning jenny.
C) pulling-out system.
D) steam engine.
E) flying shuttle.
Answer: A
33) By the early 19th century, the steam engine had become a prime mover for all of the
following industries EXCEPT:
A) ships.
B) wagons.
C) iron rails.
D) automobiles.
E) mining.
Answer: D
34) The Industrial Revolution came first to:
A) the Netherlands.
B) Germany.
C) Spain.
D) France.
E) Great Britain.
Answer: E
35) Given what you know about the impact of the agricultural and industrial revolutions
concerning the lives of women, which of the following statements is most applicable:
A) As the revolutions progressed, the role and importance of women already in the work
force diminished.
B) Women sought their traditional roles and would not, despite social pressures, work in
factories.
C) Women were unable to work in factories with the same output and effectiveness as
their male counterparts.
D) The economic freedoms women gained during the industrial revolutions carried over
to the early years of the suffrage movement.
E) As a group, women gained in independence and status.
Answer: A
36) Which of the following is NOT a clearly defined long-term result of the shift in female
employment:
A) Women, as a group, made little or no economic contribution to Europe's economy.
B) Women's work became associated with the home rather than with places where men
worked.
C) The laboring life of most women was removed from the new technologies in farming,
transportation, and manufacturing.
D) During the 19th and early 20th centuries, people assumed that women worked only to
supplement a husband's income.
E) Domestic service became the single largest field of female employment.
Answer: A
37) Which of the following statements regarding marriage is TRUE for both the noble classes as
well as the working classes in Europe?
A) Working class women preferred to focus on their careers instead of marriage, while
noble women were more devoted to being wives.
B) For people in all social classes, marriage was an economic and social necessity.
C) Noblewomen often married for love, while peasant women married for economic gain.
D) Raising children was a top priority for women of all social classes.
E) Most peasant women were homemakers and stay-at-home mothers.
Answer: B
38) ________ was the home of the Industrial Revolution and, until the middle of the 19th
century, remained the industrial leader of Europe.
A) Germany
B) Belgium
C) France
D) America
E) Great Britain
Answer: E
39) The ________ not only vastly increased and regularized the available energy, but also made
possible the combination of urbanization and industrialization.
A) spinning jenny
B) cotton gin
C) steam engine
D) internal combustion engine
E) water frame
Answer: C
40) Englishwoman Priscilla Wakefield wrote about women’s work opportunities in England in
1798. Which of these statements best summarizes her argument?
A) Women should occupy themselves with child-rearing in the home, as a woman’s most
important role is that of mother.
B) Women should be given equal work and equal pay as men, particularly in jobs that
require heavy physical labor.
C) Women should not be afraid to “lean in” to the workforce and show men that they too
can be effective managers and workers.
D) Women should be given jobs that involve lighter-weight but skilled work, such as
watch-making, dress-making, tailoring, bookkeeping, accounting, and apothecaries,
and for these jobs they should be paid fairly and equally.
E) Women should be allowed to have jobs within the government and medical field.
Answer: D
41) In the years between 1600 and 1750, the cities that grew most vigorously were:
A) capitals and ports.
B) military forts and capitals.
C) industrial cities and ecclesiastical cities.
D) ports and cities bordering the national line.
E) free cities and coastal cities.
Answer: A
42) From the late Middle Ages through the end of the 18th century, medical manuals advised
people to:
A) bathe once a week.
B) bathe every day.
C) bathe once a year.
D) wash only the parts of their bodies that were covered by clothes.
E) wash only the parts of their bodies that could be seen in public.
Answer: E
43) Which of the following is NOT true of the 18th-century artisan guilds:
A) They provided a framework for social and economic advancement.
B) They were particularly weak in central Europe.
C) They determined who could pursue a craft in order to lessen competition.
D) They provided social benefits, such as guaranteed admission to the guild, for an
artisan's son.
E) They offered protection for artisans against the commercial market.
Answer: B
44) The largest single group in 18th-century cities was/were:
A) clergy.
B) the unemployed.
C) the middle class.
D) merchants.
E) shopkeepers, artisans and wage earners.
Answer: E
45) The bourgeoisie were the merchants, trades people, bankers, and professional people that
constituted the ________.
A) artisan guilds
B) noble tradesmen
C) middle class
D) urban workers
E) monastic guilds
Answer: C
46) In the 18th century and thereafter, the Jewish population of Europe was concentrated in:
A) Germany, Poland, and Ukraine.
B) Germany, Poland, and Hungary.
C) Poland, Lithuania, and Ukraine.
D) Hungary, Lithuania, and Germany.
E) France, Germany, and Belgium.
Answer: C
47) Until the late 18th century, European Jews who did not convert to Christianity:
A) were accepted as equals by Christians.
B) were discriminated against.
C) were among the most powerful social groups.
D) enjoyed a good standard of living as a group.
E) were active in most trades.
Answer: B
48) Except in ________, Jews could not and did not mix in mainstream society.
A) England
B) Spain
C) Russia
D) France
E) Germany
Answer: A
49) In 1762, Catherine the Great of Russia specifically ________ Jews from a manifesto that
welcomed foreigners to settle in Russia.
A) included
B) excluded
C) targeted
D) criminalized
E) forgave
Answer: B
50) Jewish communities and villages in ancién régime Europe were called
A) projects
B) suburbs
C) ghettos
D) utopias
E) kibbutz
Answer: C