1. Proto-Industrialization
Early 18c Europe:
Proto-Industrialization
By: Ms. Susan M. Pojer Horace Greeley HS Chappaqua, NY

2. Medieval “Warm Period”
The “Little Ice Age”
Medieval “Warm Period”
In the 17c, Europe relied on a very inefficient agricultural system to feed its population.

3. 17c European Agrarianism

4. Feudal Common Field System

5. Yield Ratio for Grain Crops (1400-1800)

6. Grain Supplies in 16c Europe

7. Cereal Crops in 18c Europe

8. Village and
Small Town
Life

9. Small Town “Farmer’s Markets”

10. The Village School (17c)

11. Country People
Playing a Ball Game

12. A Lace Maker

13. Supplemental Income  Cottage Industries:
“Putting-Out” System

14. The “Putting-Out” System

15. Advantages of the Putting-Out System
Peasants could supplement their agricultural incomes.
Take advantage of winter months when farming was impossible.
Merchants could avoid the higher wages and often demanding regulations of urban labor.
Easier to reduce the number of workers when the economy was bad.
Merchants could acquire capital, which would later play a part in funding industrialization itself.
Peasants acquired future skills.
Young people could start separate households earlier, thus contributing to population growth.

16. Disadvantage of the Putting-Out System
When demand rose [which it did in the 18c] this system proved inefficient.
Merchant-capitalists found it difficult to induce peasant-workers to increase their output.
This dilemma eventually led to the factory system
All the workers were concentrated in one place under the supervision of a manager.
Water or steam power could easily be applied there.

17. “Apprentices at Their Looms” William Hogarth, 1687

18. Population
Changes

19. Population Density: 18c Europe

20. 18c Population Growth Rate

21. European Urbanization: 1500-1800

22. Industry & Population: 18c Europe

23. “Gin Lane” William Hogarth 1751

24. “Beer Street” William Hogarth 1751

25. Emancipation of the Peasantry to 1812

26. Impediments
to Economic
Innovation
in the 18c?

27. Why Was England
Different?

28. “Enclosed” Fields

29. British Raw Materials

30. 18c British Port

31. The Growth of England’s Foreign Trade in the 18c

32. 18c English “Nouveau Riche”: The Capitalist Entrepreneur

33. Adam Smith’s Warning (actually, Wealth of Nations contains a lot of warnings about capitalists)