Social and Economic Transformations in 18th-Century Europe
Population: Growth Factors
The population of Europe in the late 18th century was about 188 million inhabitants. In general, this century had been an era of peace and of industrial and commercial progress, justifying a significant population increase.
The nations that benefited most from this were those with the demographic momentum of Western Europe. All their numbers increased, along with an increase in population density. These nations benefited from the development of industrial agriculture. The concentration of workers in the emerging industrial cities favored the mass displacement of the population from rural areas to cities, so that the urban population increased in unprecedented proportions.
Rise and Consolidation of the Bourgeoisie: The Aristocratic Crisis
With the Old Regime crisis came hard times for the nobles, who were impoverished because of the appropriation of their property by the State. The 18th-century bourgeoisie took hold as a platform on which the weight of political demonstrations, economic and cultural aspects of humanity would gravitate. The national bourgeoisie had taken over the management of commercial and financial capital. The *haute bourgeoisie* reached the 18th-century nobility, but the bourgeois mass as a whole was not privileged. Among them spread the new ideological concepts, and critical rationalists postulated a social and political transformation. The nobility reserved political and church officials and military officers. The middle bourgeoisie engaged in industrial occupations or liberal professions, and the lower classes were entrusted to agriculture or work in factories or manufacturing.
The Urban Working Class
The proletariat faced harsh living conditions. Apart from the workers who still lived in a cooperative regime and those who divided their occupations between agriculture and industry, workers in manufacturing plants were subject to strict discipline and a working day of sixteen hours. They were paid insufficient wages, which always lagged behind the general rise in prices. This scheme led to outbursts of anger, which were accentuated as the century progressed. Strikes began to be frequent. Worse was the suffering of children exploited by an industry hungry for cheap labor.
The Rural Landscape: Conflict and Tension
The deteriorating living conditions of the poorest had significance in the countryside, where old feudal privileges flared up.
In Eastern Europe, serfdom had spread since the early 16th century. In Turkey, where the military feudalism of the Janissaries reigned, the peasantry was subject to the soil and the power of the noble lord or owner of the field.
The situation was serious in Russia, where the owners treated their serfs as slaves, leading to violent uprisings, culminating in that of Pugachev. In Poland, Prussia, Austria, and Hungary, the situation of the serfs was little more comfortable. The peasants of the soil were considered the property of a man in life and possessions. Germany was a transition zone between this type of bondage and the agrarian social conditions in Western Europe.
Spain: The Clergy, Nobility, and Ideological Changes
The Europeanization of Spain and the introduction of the enlightened spirit in government, administration, society, and culture of the country by Carlos III and his minister, the Marquis de Esquilache, faced violent popular hostility. Despite the resignation of the Marquis, the reforms continued their course, and their scope was revealed. The ministers of Charles III, Encyclopedists, held the clergy to the real power and limited the inquisitorial jurisdiction.
Urban Areas, the Peasantry, Minority Groups, and the Marginalized
The reforms introduced by Orry and Amelot were perfected in the time of Carlos III. Campomanes and Jovellanos oriented them in the sense of promoting the welfare of the working classes. Creating Economic Societies of Friends of decentralization was a means of promoting the wealth and culture of the provinces. The development of the doctrines of free trade opened traffic with the Indies to a large number of Spanish ports, allowing an increase in wealth. Economic change had a social impact because it benefited the working class and wider social sectors. The middle class became wealthier, and financiers and professionals had easier access to wealth and contact with the upper classes. Progress favored the formation of the proletarian class.
Agricultural Growth: Demand and Technological Change
Population growth in Europe stimulated an increase in the consumption of products. More meat, wheat, and other spices were consumed. Coffee, sugar, cocoa, and snuff had become established in continental tastes since the 18th century. Population growth was also boosted by an increase in food production. The agricultural revolution was manifested by increased yields and an increased volume of crops. New types of plows and threshing machines were introduced, with iron replacing wood. Years later, iron rakes and rollers were introduced. At the same time, the Society of Arts in England offered prizes for new inventions and discoveries, such as crop rotation and the substitution of barley and oats for wheat. Suddenly there was local specialization: the regions of eastern and southern England gave preference to growing grasses and plants for cattle and horses. A better diet, made from wheat, potatoes, and meat, was the immediate impact of technical agriculture.
Ownership of the Land: Its Structure
In England, the modernization of the countryside was helped by enclosures. Fences were put up around plots, forcing them to be concentrated. Many small landowners were ruined as the large landowners widened their properties, improved their work techniques, and obtained higher yields. In this country, a social hierarchy of peasant agriculture had formed that applied to large cities and introduced new methods. Rural differences in modern Europe were sharply manifested in the structure of land ownership. In the West, there were various types of contracts and forms of land use, among which leasing appeared and stood out. In Eastern Europe, the usual formula was direct exploitation by the owner, through slave labor.