Chapter 15 Study Questions with Answers
1.
What is meant by the Ancien Régime or the Old Regime?
The Old Regime refers to the aristocratic, social and political system established in France from
approximately the 15th century to the 18th century but in a broader sense it referred to all of Europe
especially in the eighteenth century.
2. What four broad social groups existed in Europe before the revolutions of the late 18th century?
(1) an aristocratic elite which possessed numerous and inherited legal privileges
(2) established churches which intricately intertwined with the state and the aristocrats
(3) an urban labor force which was usually organized into guilds
(4) a rural peasantry which was oppressed by high taxes and feudal dues (i.e., required labor).
3. Under the Ancien Regime, Both nobles and peasants called for the restoration of traditional rights. Explain
 The nobility resisted the intrusion of monarchs who were striving to build strong, centralized states
 The peasants –through petition or revolt – wanted to keep their ancient manorial rights that allowed
them access to certain lands and protection in the courts.
4. What is an agrarian society? What is a hierarchical society?
 An agrarian society is based on farming.
 A hierarchical society comes from the word hierarchy which is an arrangement of items, ideas or people
in which the some are represented as being "above," "below," or "at the same level as" others. An army
is a good example: a general ranks above a corporal.
5. What were Sumptuary Laws?
Sumptuary Laws regulated and reinforced social hierarchies and morals through restrictions on clothing,
food, and luxury items. In many European cities, Sumptuary Laws forbade persons of one class from
wearing clothes like those of those who were higher in the social hierarchy.
6. How did the eighteenth century idea of community differ from ours?
 Eighteenth century people regarded society as a community composed of numerous smaller
communities each of which enjoyed rights and privileges that were guaranteed to their own particular
communities or sub-groups of a community.
 We, on the other hand, are less community minded and more concerned with individual rights.
7. Give some examples of eighteenth century community rights or privileges.
Exemption from taxation or from humiliating punishments; the right to practice a certain trade or craft – and
the right of one’s children to inherit that right; Churches often had the right to collect the tithe – 10% of the
members’ earnings.
8. In general terms, characterize the aristocracy in the eighteenth century.
 their numbers were small (one to five percent of the population)
 they possessed the greatest wealth
 they also had the highest degree of social, political and economic power
 they owned most of the land
 they received most of the income
 they set the social tone for society.
 they almost always controlled the legislative assemblies
 Manual labor was considered beneath their status
9. In some parts of Europe, the nobility embraced innovation in economics, commerce and invention. Why and
with whom did they make common cause (i.e., work with)?
 To protect their wealth.
 They made common cause with the rising middle class.
10. In what country were the nobility the smallest, wealthiest, best defined and socially respectable in Europe?
England/Great Britain
11. In France, into what two classes were the French nobility divided?
 Nobles of the Sword (whose nobility was derived from military service)
 Nobles of the Robe (whose titles were acquired by serving in the bureaucracy or by purchasing them).
12. Who were the Court Nobility? Who were the Hobereaux?
 The Court Nobility (at Versailles) were the royal favorites who were rewarded with high offices which
allowed them to reap immense wealth as well as royal appointments in the church, the army and the
bureaucracy
 The Hobereaux were the nobles who were not connected to the Court at Versailles or the Court Nobility
and who were often only a little better off than wealthy peasants.
13. What were the Taille, Vingtième and the Corvée? Which ones did the nobility have to pay?
 The Taille was a land tax (the nobility were exempt)
 The Vingtième was an income tax (the nobility had to pay BUT the nobility rarely paid the full amount)
 The Corvée was manual labor (forced on peasants too poor to pay other taxes).
14. Who were the Szlachta? What were their rights?
The Szlachta were the Polish nobility who were exempt from taxes and had great power over their serfs
15. Who were the wealthiest aristocratic family in Hungary?
The Esterhazy who owned ten million acres of land
16. Name the nobility of Prussia whose loyalty Frederick II bought by giving them power over their serfs.
Junkers
17. What was the purpose of Peter the Great’s Table of Ranks?
The Table of Ranks obliged the nobility (the Boyars) to serve in the government.
18. What did Catherine the Great accomplish in her Charter of the Nobility?
Catherine’s Charter of the Nobility legally defined the rights and privileges of the nobility. In exchange for
their loyalty and service to the state, the Boyars gained heredity transferring of noble status, considerable
power over their serfs and exemption from personal taxes.
19. What was aristocratic resurgence?
Aristocratic Resurgence was the phenomenon of the nobility fighting back against the threats posed to their
social position and privileges that were eroding as monarchs centralized their authority and grew in power.
20. In what four ways did the aristocrats fight back against the encroachments of the monarchs?
 First, they tried to make it more difficult to become a noble.
 Second, they fought to retain their appointments in the church, army and government bureaucracies.
 Third, they attempted to use the authority of existing institutions to hamper the monarchs.
 Lastly, they sought to improve their financial position by gaining further exemptions from taxation
and/or by collecting additional rents or feudal dues from the peasants.
21. In an agrarian economy, what is the source of wealth and status?
Land
22. What is the difference between peasants and serfs?
Peasants are free but serfs are bound to the land.
23. What were Banalités? Give some examples
 They were feudal dues (fees) owed by nearly all French peasants.
 Charges for the right to use the lord’s mill to grind grain or oven to bake bread or the Corvée.
24. Name the “Peasant Emperor” – son of Maria Theresa – who tried to improve the lot of the serfs.
Joseph II
25. What was the Robot? What was the Barschchina? How were they different?
 In Hapsburg lands (Austria, Hungary, Bohemia), the Robot was the requirement for serfs to work for the lord.
 The Barschchina was the Russian counterpart that required serfs to work six days a week
 The Barschchina was much more callous and severe and made Russian serfs little more than slaves.
26. What was the Çift? What was the Resm-i Çift?
 The Çift was farmland which was the measure (size) of land that could be ploughed by a pair of oxen
 The Resm-i Çift was the tax owed for a Çift?
27. What was Pugachev’s rebellion?
Pugachev’s rebellion was the largest of the peasant rebellions caused by Boyar cruelty to the serfs. His
rebels (peasants, Cossacks, and serfs) wanted an end to taxes, government intrusion and the draft. They killed
thousands of landlords, officials and priests. Their army was destroyed and Pugachev executed.
28. What were the English Game Laws? What did these game laws represent?
 These laws gave exclusive rights to hunt game animals (from rabbits to deer) to English landowners.
 The English Game Laws were an example of legislation designed to benefit only one social class (that
is, the nobility at the expense of all the other classes).
29. Who were Higglers and Coachmen?
Higglers (later called Coachmen) were people who bought game meat from local country people (poachers)
and resold the meat in the cities for a handsome profit.
30. What was the Family Economy?
In pre-industrial Europe, the Family economy was the system of manufacturing that centered in homes (i.e.,
households) and villages (small shops).
31. Explain the difference between the Nuclear Family (Simple Household) and the Extended Family models.
 The Nuclear Family consists of parents, children and maybe a grandparent.
 The Extended Family consists of up to four generations living under one roof.
32. What was the custom of Neolocalism?
Neolocalism was the practice of young men and young women moving away from home when they married
which was in the eighteenth century occurred in the early twenties.
33. Why did Russian landlords require serfs to marry young in arranged marriages and in the Extended Family
model?
So that illness or death would not diminish the workforce and thus their landowner’s rents.
34. In general terms, what was the expectation for women in both East and West Europe?
In both east and west the function of women was seen primarily as the maintainer of the household.
35. For their own protection, women had to be married and in a household. Name some examples of women
who became economically independent.
 Aristocratic women (some but not all)
 Women in religious orders (especially aristocratic women who became heads of religious houses)
 Some wives who inherited a husband’s business
 Midwives.
36. What were the results of poor medical understanding (even the germ theory), poorly trained midwives,
excruciating poverty and just plain (from our perspective) medical incompetence (like bleeding)?
High infant and maternal mortality – and even though not in the book: shorter life spans in general.
37. What were Foundling Hospitals?
Foundling Hospitals were not hospitals but homes for unwanted or abandoned children.
38. History often refers to two Agricultural Revolutions. Name them and explain.
 The first was the Neolithic Revolution (starting about 10,000 BC) which transformed hunter gatherer
societies into agricultural societies.
 The second (sometimes called the British Agricultural Revolution) occurred in the eighteenth century
AD, when landlords in Western Europe (mostly in the Netherlands and Great Britain) undertook gradual
innovations in farm production such as draining marshes, enriching the soil, developing more efficient
machinery and breeding superior animals.
39. What was the Industrial Revolution? What did that mean for society?
 The Industrial Revolution occurred when machines began to replace human hands and animal power in
the production process.
 The Industrial Revolution began a massive technological, economic and social change around the world
which is still evolving.
40. What was the difference in attitude in agriculture before and after the Second or British Agricultural
Revolution?
 Before the British Agricultural Revolution the goal of agriculture was to ensure the local food supplies –
with only a few exceptions; like growing winter-wheat in Northern Europe for export.
 During the British Agricultural Revolution, landlords, driven by the motive of higher profits, sought to
produce larger quantities of farm products. In other words, they commercialized agriculture and ran their
farms on a more business oriented basis.
41. Why did bread prices rise during the eighteenth century?
Bread prices steadily rose because of population growth without an increase in food supply. [i.e., more
people + same amount of food = higher food prices or inflation].
42. Who was hurt and who profited from the inflation of bread prices in the eighteenth century?
The poor and the urban classes were hurt the most because bread was their staple food.
The wealthy landlords and wealthier peasants benefitted because they had surpluses of grain to sell.
43. How did this situation lead to the Second Agricultural Revolution?
The landlords realized that they could make more money, if they produced more food to sell. So they looked
for ways to increase agricultural output.
44. What role did the Scientific Revolution play in the development of the Second Agricultural Revolution?
Landlords turned to scientists and inventors to develop technologies that would increase production.
45. What role did Dutch farmers and inventors play in this process?
Dutch farmers and inventors devised better ways to build dikes and drain the land (i.e., reclaim land from
the sea); and they also experimented with new crops such as clover and turnips that would increase the
supply of animal fodder (food for domestic animals) and restore the soil.
46. Why did King Charles I and the English landlords hire Cornelius Vermuyden? What was the result?
 Vermuyden drained thousands of acres of useless marshy land (called Fens) in East Anglia especially
around Cambridge.
 These successes were soon followed by a string of English agricultural innovations.
47. Who was Jethro Tull? What were his contributions?
 Jethro Tull was an experimenter who even financed the experiments of others.
 Although he was mistaken in his rejection of manure to enrich the soil, he developed heavier iron plows
and invented a mechanical seed drill which deposited seed in rows instead of wasting seed by scattering.
48. Who was Charles “Turnipseed” Townshend? What were his contributions and results?
 Charles “Turnipseed” Townsend was an inventor who learned from the Dutch how to cultivate in sandy
soil using fertilizer.
 He instituted crop rotation, using wheat, turnips, barley and clover. This revolutionary system replaced
the old medieval Three Field System which left one third of a farm fallow (not planted) each year.
Turnips, which he encouraged, not only enriched the soil but also provided more feed for farm animals.
 This meant more farm animals which meant for manure for fertilizer for grain crops.
49. Who was Robert Blackwell and what were his contributions?
Robert Blackwell bred stronger horses and fatter livestock (cows) which meant more and better animals,
meat and milk.
50. Who was Arthur Young? What did he write and why was it important?
Arthur Young (1741 –1820) was an English writer on agriculture, economics and social statistics who edited
the Annals of Agriculture and became secretary of the British Board of Agriculture.
He wrote The Example of France a Warning to England, in which he warned the English not to repeat the
same mistakes the French made by oppressing the poor.
51. Why was the Enclosure Movement able to replace the Open Field System?
 In the Open Field System, land was cultivated by small farmers and either two or three fields were left
out of production. This inefficient and less and less productive; and helped cause inflation.
 Large landowners – seeing a chance to expand their profits - began to buy up small farm land and
cultivate new crops in large fields called Enclosures where they experimented with new forms of
agricultural technology.
 So Enclosures created more food while at the same time making food production more efficient and less
labor-intensive.
52. How did the Enclosure Movement affect the poor and small farmers?
Small farmers lost their jobs and farms and poor became poorer because fewer laborers were needed.
53. How did the displaced small farmers factor into cottage industry and the emerging factory system?
The small farmers who lost their farms were forced into cottage industry but - as the number of factories in
the emerging Industrial Revolution multiplied – these displaced small farmers – and many of the poor migrated into urban areas where their labor skills could be used in factories.
54. How was Capitalism related to the Industrial Revolution? What about consumerism?
In many ways the Industrial Revolution was simply an extension of what early capitalist society had already
created. Capitalism had raised material standards of living and increased demand for consumer goods. In
fact in order to fulfill that demand, the Industrial Revolution also fed the growing Consumer Revolution.
55. What factors caused Capitalism to create higher consumer demand?
 A larger middle class
 More personal income
 Imported wealth from across the seas
56. How did these factors in turn feed the Industrial Revolution?
These factors all raised the European standard of living to such a point that the result was stronger and
stronger consumer demand which – in turn - encouraged manufacturers to seek greater efficiency so they
could increase production – and, of course, reap greater profits.
57. Name the eight factors that answer the question why the Industrial Revolution came to Britain first?
I.
Large deposits of coal and iron ore – perhaps the most important.
II.
The Protestant Work Ethic
III.
Large numbers of inventors and craftsmen
IV.
The Enclosure Movement
V. Excellent Infrastructure
VI.
Liberal government: not afraid of change and willing to support inventors and entrepreneurs
VII.
Sophisticated banking and financial institutions, especially Joint Stock Companies
VIII.
London was the largest city in Europe and if not the center, certainly, a major center of fashion
and taste, pleasure and the arts; all of which fueled consumer demand.
58. What industry pioneered the Industrial Revolution?
The Textile Industry
59. What are textiles?
Textiles can be called cloth. Yarn or thread is produced by spinning raw fibers of wool, flax, cotton or other
material to produce long strands called thread which are woven into cloth or textiles.
60. Describe the Domestic or Putting Out System. In modern terminology what might we call this system?
 Entrepreneurs (businessmen who organize, manage, and assume risks) delivered unfinished materials
like wool, buttons, thread (yarn) and patterns to rural households. Families in those households then
would then spin the wool into yarn, weave the yarn into cloth, cut the clothes according to patterns, and
assemble the pieces into garments. The entrepreneur then came back, paid the family for their services,
and sold the finished clothing on the open market.
 Subcontracting
61. During the seventeenth century, why did the English become fond of calicoes imported from India?
Calicoes were inexpensive, brightly printed cotton textiles. Cotton was in great demand because it was
lighter, more comfortable, easier to wash, and quicker to dry than traditional wool, which was the principal
fabric of European clothing before the nineteenth century.
62. Why did this frighten wool dealers and how did the fight back?
They were losing sales and so British wool producers persuaded Parliament to pass a series of laws to
protect the domestic wool industry. These Calico Acts of 1701 and 1721 prohibited the importation of
printed cotton cloth and restricted the sale of calicoes in England. (Parliament even passed a law requiring
corpses to be buried in woolen shrouds).
63. But consumers still demanded cotton and this demand created the British textile industry. Who made the
first technological breakthrough? Describe it.
John Kay, a Manchester mechanic, invented the Flying Shuttle, which made weaving cloth more efficient.
64. In 1764, what did James Hargreaves contribute?
James Hargreaves invented the Spinning Jenney which was a multi spool weaving machine which, along
with the Flying Shuttle, greatly speeded up the weaving process and thus stimulated demand for thread.
65. Who solved the problem of the greater demand for thread?
In 1779, Samuel Crompton invented The Mule which could turn out higher quality thread 100 times faster
than a spinning wheel. So high quality thread was produced faster than weavers weave the thread into cloth.
66. Who was the clergyman without technical training who solved the problem of excess thread?
Edmund Cartwright invented a power loom that greatly speeded up the weaving process.
67. Kay, Hargreaves, Crompton, Cartwright and many others were inventors, but who was the entrepreneurial
genius that encouraged the inventors, patented their ideas and financed their projects?
Richard Arkwright
68. But what was Arkwright’s most important contribution to the Industrial Revolution?
Arkwright’s most important contribution was the creation of the cotton mill which brought all the
production processes together in a single factory in which he used various modes of power – first horse
power, then water and finally steam– to make cotton manufacturing a mechanized industry.
69. Textile factories put many weavers out of work. How was this problem ameliorated (made better)?
The lost jobs were quickly replaced as this new industry created even more jobs than had been lost. By
1830, half a million people worked in the English cotton industry, which accounted for 40% of England’s
work force.
70. What was the relationship of the Consumer Revolution to the Industrial Revolution?
The relationship between the two revolutions was that, as more goods [clothing, kitchen utensils,
candlesticks, toys, furniture, watches, jewelry, soap, foodstuffs and liquor] became available, the desire to
possess those goods grew which in turn increased production.
71. What role did Josiah Wedgewood play in the Industrial/Consumer Revolution?
Josiah Wedgewood (1730-1795), a porcelain manufacturer of fine chinaware first sought customers from the
aristocracy but once famous for his chinaware. Then he then produced cheaper quality chinaware for middle
class customers. To increase sales, he opened showrooms in London and sent salesmen all over England
with samples and catalogues. Wedgewood is important because he was first to take these marketing steps.
72. How did this change society?
New products were demanded by the public (i.e., the growing middle class). Clothing fashions were copied
– made faster by catalogues and fashion publications. Servants began to dress in more fashionable style –
not luxurious but respectable. Dishware became common in even modest homes. Tea and coffee became
ubiquitous (found everywhere). Thus consumption and production became a defining characteristic of
modern Western society to our very day.
73. If the smelting of iron and steel was not new, what was the key to producing higher quality iron and steel?
The key to producing higher quality iron and steel was Coke which is bituminous (soft) coal that is baked in
ovens to force out the volatile gasses. Coke then burns very hot and without smoke. Before Coke was
invented the only way to melt iron ore was to use charcoal which was very expensive because huge numbers
of trees had to be cut down. Thus, Coke was ideal because it was cheaper and burned hotter which removed
more impurities from the iron ore.
74. What contributions did Abraham Darby and Henry Court make in iron and steel production?
 In 1709 an Iron smelter, Abraham Darby, used coke to create the Blast Furnace which dramatically
lowered the price of iron making.
 In 1784, Henry Cort introduced a new puddling process which allowed more impurities to be removed
from the molten iron thus making a stronger product.
75. Why was steam the most popular symbol of the Industrial Revolution?
Steam power replaced horse and water power as the primary means of mechanical generation (making
machines move) and more than any other invention, steam power radically changed the way production was
organized, first in industrial uses and then in transportation.
76. What was Thomas Newcomen’s contribution to the Industrial Revolution?
Thomas Newcomen (1663-1729) invented the first practical steam powered engine. It was big, inefficient,
awkward and almost impossible to move from one place to another but it was of inestimable (of the greatest)
value in pumping ground water out of coal and tin mines.
77. How did James Watt improve on Newcomen’s work?
In 1765, James Watt, (an instrument maker at the University of Glasgow), invented the first all-purpose steam
engine, whose push-pull (in-out) motion forced a piston to turn a wheel, whose rotary (circular) power was
used to drive factory machines. At first, Watt’s engine was used to suck dangerous ground water out of
mines but soon it was adapted to power cotton mills and later railroad locomotives.
78. From where did the term horsepower come?
In the eighteenth century, people began to use the word “horsepower” to measure the energy generated by a
steam engine, since these steam engines did the work once done by horses.
79. Why did the Factory System replace the Putting-Out System?
The Factory System replaced the Putting-out System for two reasons:
I.
Industry used newly invented machines that where too large and expensive for home use and put
them in factories.
II.
This factory system centralized production and brought raw materials, machines and workers
together into one location. The nature of work now changed dramatically as workers became more
specialized and more efficient.
80. What was the downside to the Factory System in terms of people’s lives?
 Workers became wage-earning laborers who serviced machines.
 Individual skills were sacrificed and a whole new world was created: time clocks, noisy machinery, shop
rules and rhythms of work more rigid than the leisurely pace of cottage industry.
 Women were particularly affected because the spinning they once did at home was no longer profitable.
When women moved from cottage industry to the factory, they became more necessary to family
income but their work was often considered of lesser importance than that of their husbands.
81. Who was Priscilla Wakefield and what were her attitudes about this cheapening of women’s lives?
Priscilla Wakefield (an English writer and philanthropist), best known for her works on botany and children’s
literature, believed the kinds of employment for women were narrowing and called for new occupations for
women such as accounting, food production, toy making and watchmaking.
82. What groups made up the urban upper classes and what was their role in urban areas?
They were a small group of nobles, wealthy merchants, owners of large banking houses, financiers
(entrepreneurs), upper clergy and government officials, who usually were a self-appointed and self-electing
oligarchy. They almost always controlled the political, economic and social life of most towns as they
manipulated elections and dominated city management.
83. Who were the urban middle classes and what was their role in urban areas?
 The urban middle classes took advantage of growing Consumption Revolution and were diverse and
dynamic; not as important as the upper classes, they were prosperous, hardworking, thrifty (using money
wisely) and had comfortable life styles. They were divided into two broad groups.
o The smaller but more important group consisted of smaller bankers, merchants, factory owners,
retail businessmen as well as professionals like doctors and lawyers whose services were
demanded by growing urban populations. These wealthier, property-holding, capitalist oriented
upper class were called the Bourgeoisie.
o The largest but less important group of middle class urban dwellers was the less wealthy artisans
(or the Artisan Class); this group consisted of shopkeepers, grocers, butchers, carpenters,
cabinetmakers, smiths, tailors, and so on.
 They normally supported reform, change and economic growth but did not seek to challenge the status
of the urban upper classes rather seeking to increase their own wealth, prestige and political power.
84. Why did both groups of the urban middle class fear the urban poor?
Both the artisan class and the bourgeoisie feared the urban poor because they saw the urban poor as a
disruptive element in society, a threat to property (their property!) and a drain on natural resources.
85. The urban poor had no professions and almost no way to better themselves. Where and how did they live?
 The urban poor lived on the streets or in slums along rivers and whose dwellings (if any) were filled with
filth, stench and death.
 The urban poor usually begged, became prostitutes, engaged in crime or had day jobs (when they could
get work) and, if they had any extra money, they literally blinded and killed themselves with cheap
liquor.
86. What was the name given to London in the middle of the eighteenth century?
The Gin Age
87. What was the most common reason for urban rioting in the eighteenth century?
High bread prices
88. Why was the price of bread a critical component in urban unrest? Who was most affected? Who benefitted?
 Because bread was the staple food of most people in the eighteenth century
 The urban poor and lower middle classes like small shopkeepers, artisans and wage earners
 The wealthy benefitted, i.e., the bourgeoisie (upper middle class) and upper classes (nobility) who often
controlled the sale of bread and the price of bread
89. When the wealthy did NOT raise bread prices for fear of rioting or when the artisan class seized expensive
bread and sold it at reasonable prices, what conclusion can be drawn?
These conditions and practices show that Bread Riots were not the result of irrational mobs but the results of
economic scarcity characteristic of the Old Regime.
90. In England, when religious feeling incited urban riots, what two groups faced the most anger?
Catholics and Jews
91. What were the causes of the 1753 London Riots and the 1780 Gordon Riots?
 The 1753 London Riots were sparked by Parliament passing a law to allow Jews to become citizens.
 The 1780 Gordon Riots were sparked by the 1778 Catholic Relief Act (The Papists’ Act) which relieved
military recruits from taking an “anti-Catholic” oath.
92. Besides anti-Catholic anger, what else did the Gordon Riots reveal?
Although the Gordon Riots were ostensibly religious, they also showed political dissatisfaction because
anger was also directed at Parliament (which the rioters threatened to invade) and the Bank of England
which was physically attacked along with a large prison.
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