Economic History Of Europe, p. 1-18

Introduction, The Context Of Economic History

1. Economic history, man’s struggle to satisfy his material wants
2. fundamental needs: food, shelter
3. elaborate food & dwelling space
4. wish to accumulate more wealth
5. desire for greater economic, political, social power
6. housewives WERE busy
7. less developed: extremely high %age of the population works

Three Primary Factors
1. physical environment
a. kind of soil, kind of climate
b. waterfalls can be used to provide power
2. equipment & knowledge available: technological advancement
a. Stone Age men couldn’t fell trees
b. plow had to be devised to break up heavy clay
c. pumps had to be developed to prevent mines from being flooded
d. refrigeration had to be developed
e. improvements in mining technology, agriculture, industry, transportation, trading, banking, transferring $ from buyer to seller, keeping accounts
f. the last two centuries have brought rapid change
g. tradition: very little determination to find new ways of doing things
3. social environment
a. man is a social animal
b. man is a member of a group or groups
c. family: companionship of the other sex, working team, division of labor, sense of solidarity, kept together for the infant
d. rural families: produced most of the foods/manufactured articles they consumed
e. families are not a world unto themselves
f. families are part of a larger community, village > small town > large territory 
g. division of labor: each individual concentrates on their own tasks
h. production can become commodities for the market
i. organization of capital
j. entrepreneur/enterpriser: provided water supplies, canals or other services
k. entrepreneur has to rely on others for what he lacks
l. craftsman may train other journeymen & borrow raw materials/credit
m. large manufacturer may provide material & have men work out of their homes

Question
1. costs to be paid by the entrepreneur
2. price he gets for his product when he takes it to the market
3. the profit/loss left after meeting his costs
4. organization of enterprise created recognizable classes: landlords, planters, slaves, serfs, tenant farmers, peasant proprietors, farm laborers, merchants, big industrialists, craftsmen, wage earners, investors
5. discontent/suffering/envy of the more successful/powerful may occur. 
6. agitation for reform + help from the state may occur

Religion & Politics
1. every society has its priesthood
2. church may influence the wealth-getting of the faithful
3. Hinduism placed restraints on economic activity
4. Islam/Christianity influenced economic activity

The State
1. always engaged in some economic enterprises of its own
2. rulers had estates, mines, workshops
3. government may own railroads, ships, light & power plants, factories, banks, the postal service
4. the state has always protected, aided, regulated the enterprise of its people
a. laws determine rights and obligations
b. laws define property & contract
c. provides roads, harbors, lighthouses, water supplies, controls, currency
d. tariffs/prohibitions on imports, bounties/subsidies to specific industries, discriminating against foreign ships
e. claims a share of the income produced by the people, power to tax/confiscate
f. power to conscript individuals for military service, road work, or other types of labor
g. government was to advance individual rights
h. totalitarian governments exercised absolute power over economic life
i. Marx’s economic interpretation of history: mode of production creates social relationships & hierarchies
j. government is the servant of the most powerful economic class, and laws are the expression of the will of that class
k. political, religious, intellectual, military causes are secondary
l. Europe: birthplace of most of the development of ideas, technology & organization
m. Europe stimulated development in the New World

Ch. I Overview
a. prehistory, human race emerged as a distinct species of animal
b. the human discovered new ways of working, created new products, made tools

Ch. II Overview
a. 5,000-6,000 years ago, favorable environment of Egypt, Mesopotamia & NW India
b. elaborate economic & political societies were built

Ch. III Overview
a. 4,000-5,000 years ago
b. discoveries/developments of W. Asia & NE Africa were influencing Europe
Primitive Man
1. advanced food gathering capacity by collecting wild plants, nuts, fruits, grasses, slow moving animals & insects
2. devised hunting & fishing traps & weapons, captured beasts of fleet, foot, fin, wing
3. domesticated animals: 5,000 BC, farm animals were tamed
a. dogs helped with hunting
b. cows, goats, sheep, swine: useful flesh & hides, milk, fleece or fibers
c. ox: draft animal, used plow/wheel
d. ass/camel: draft animal, horse was of limited value
e. the ox was a more valued/versatile animal until the Middle Ages
f. before 6,000BC, barley and emmer were cultivated near the Tigris & Euphrates rivers, Syria, Egypt, the Danube Valley,
g. 2,000 BC: barley in France, Britain, Spain 
h. pointed stick/crude hoe broke the earth, slow laborious process 
i. Nile, Tigris, Euphrates, Indus: nature helped
j. water, silt, sun made agriculture easy 
k. Europe: no rivers, harder work, smaller yield

The Development of Industries
1. tools made from wood, flint, bone, horn, fiber, hide
2. hammers, knives, scrapers, awls, needles, weapons, hunting/fishing gear were made
3. learned to make fire > baking, grilling, smelting
4. pottery appeared, containers for food storage
5. brewing & wine provided beverages
6. skins > cloth for clothing, tanning as an industry increased
7. developments: pottery, cloth-making, leatherwork, domesticated plants, domesticated animals, 
8. skilled craftsman emerged
9. flints, furs, fish, shells were traded
10. gold, silver, copper, lead: scarce, soft, desirable ornaments
11. copper: bad ax > bronze: hard metal
12. bronze: for craftsman & the rich
13. 1500 BC, widespread use of iron, NE Asia Minor
14. 1000 BC, iron weapons overthrew a bronze using aristocracy, metals were scarce commodities
15. appropriation without production: live by stealing from others, priests took much from their peoples

(page 13) The River Valley Civilizations
1. growing technical capacity in agriculture/industry 
2. mature development in Egypt, W. Asia
3. 3,000 BC, elaborate governments, highly organized religions, system of writing, knowledge of numbers, a calendar
4. everything depended on the river
5. yield could be made large
6. farmer could produce more for myself
7. extra food for manufacturing, trading, priestly, ruling classes
8. substantial industrial, commercial, religious & political urban superstructure
9. grand-scale projects are required
10. a 750 mile irrigation project of the Lower Nile was undertaken by priests
11. kings, temples, nobles owned large estates, drew produce from their farms, mines & workshops, made profits from trading & financial enterprises
12. elites used slaves/hired laborers & gathered the yield into their own granaries, cellars, wardrobes, purses
13. temples, type of landowner in Mesopotamia
a. directed irrigation
b. assigned each person a piece of land
c. loaned rations/seed out of storehouses
d. claimed workers produce as rent, interest, principal or tithe
e. temples conducted much production & trade
f. church & state were deep in “big business”
g. palaces, temples, pyramid tombs, giant statues, fortifications, building for the wealthy
h. tombs had a high level of arts & crafts
i. goldsmith’s skill was measured by gold coffins/statues & precious stones
j. gold, ebony, silver, ivory decorated cabinets

Trade & Trade Routes
1. few of the materials could be obtained @ home
2. Egypt had to take things by force or develop foreign trade
3. linen, glass, wool, vegetable oils were exported
4. gold & ivory came from central Africa, Asia, Syria, Asia Minor
5. Monsoon winds would blow ships from Red Sea to India & back again
6. the “Great Road” started @ the Nile delta, crossed as Suez isthmus and turned N. to Syria
7. clay tablets kept trading records
8. 2100 BC, Code of Hammurabi
9. great division of labor in Mesopotamia
10. laws regulating apprenticeship, mortgages, leases, promissory notes, seed loans, interest rates, partnerships & for doctors that operate unsuccessfully, tenants that don’t keep their dikes clean, exorbitant prices, excessive interest rates
11. simple farming technique + ambitious state water control > extracted a large product from rich soil 
12. a new urban population of specialized craftsman, merchants, priests, officials & clerks was developed
13. higher standard of living for peasants in the fertile crescent than Africans/Asiatics who lived away from the fertile banks