Economic and Social Transformations in the 18th Century
Articles
Small-scale production (no technical innovations).
Organized in large workshops.
Capital: it puts the employer’s scale.
Workers receive a wage for work performed.
Control is outside the union.
It is the market that sets prices in manufacturing.
The form and stage of production is determined by each employer.
Home Industry
Dispersed cottage industry: not developed in a workshop, but is distributed among the peasants of a village or more.
The employer puts the capital, raw materials, and machinery.
The last two circulate among the peasants.
It is textile crafts.
Its production is conducted in three phases: spinning, dyeing, and fabric.
Each one of them is between the farmers; they specialize in one phase.
Farmers are paid by the job. The market is realized by the one who puts their money in manufacturing, that is, the technology used is craft weaving.
1700-1746 Felipe V, Fernando VI: 1746-1759, Carlos III: 1759-1788, Carlos IV: 1788-1808
Quesnay: The engine of development is on land. The primary sector development will stimulate the development of the industrial and tertiary sectors.
Smith: The motor industry’s development, because it provides the process or machinery necessary for the development of other sectors.
Voltaire: He supported a limited monarchy to respect the freedoms of citizens.
Montesquieu argued the need to separate the three powers of the state (legislative, executive, and judicial).
Rousseau asserted that the sovereignty or supreme power resides in the nation or group of citizens.
Crisis of Estate Society
Throughout the eighteenth century, all social groups expressed their discontent.
The nobility was living beyond their means, that is, spending more than they admitted. They borrowed from the bourgeoisie. They also lost a certain social role, losing political and military officials.
Farmers experienced economic hardship and paid high taxes, so they were a discontented group.
The craftsmen of the guilds and manufacturing were also unhappy; their salaries were lower than the high prices of food and manufactures.
Both the farmers and artisans were impoverished, barely surviving in this society.
The bourgeoisie had the economic power but not the social or political power.
Domestic Trade Features
Not national, that is, not structured. There was no transport network throughout the country, allowing raw materials and manufactured goods to reach the whole territory.
Unpaved roads.
Transportation: carriages and horses, mules, etc.
These features made trade very slow and expensive.
Types of Domestic Trade
Local Market: weekly or bi-weekly, depending on their importance. Agricultural commodities or livestock and handicraft manufacturing were traded. Exceptionally, luxury products reached these markets.
Regional Market: between cities and villages. The same goods were exchanged as in the local markets.
International Trade
Maritime: Triangular Trade
Network of trade between Asia, Africa, America, and Europe.
Raw materials were traded from the first three to Europe, and Europe traded manufactured products.
Controlled by privileged trading companies.