THE AGE OF THE REFORMATION
Worksheet 11: Jensen, Ch. 10 Economic and Social Crisis
Essential Question: What were the causes and results of the
price revolution of the sixteenth century and the economic crisis of the
seventeenth?
| 1. |
A Century of Inflation |
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In what sense was the price revolution of the sixteenth and early seventeenth
centuries both a regional and Europeanwide phenomenon? Which two
commodities were especially affected by inflation? To what factors
did sixteenth-century Europeans attribute the inflation of the period?
Which areas of Europe experienced the inflation first? What was the
general trend in moneys of account during the century between 1550 and
1560? How were prices and wages related during this period?
Who were the first victims of the price-wage deviation? Why did the
lesser nobility suffer during this period? Who were the chief beneficiaries
of inflation? How did governments attempt to deal with their financial
problems? What factors led to the financial collapse of the 1650s?
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| 2. |
International Trade and Banking |
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How did the European trade network function? Why was northern
European trade becoming more important? Which nation became the undisputed
leader in carrying trade? Which nation dominated the northern fishing
trade? What factors helped create a Europewide interest and activity
in commerce? How did the commercial revolution of the seventeenth
century prepare Europe to become a worldwide power? What was the
most successful form of commercial organization in the seventeenth century
and how did it function? What factors favored Amsterdam as the center
of seventeenth-centry banking? What was the purpose of the Bank of
Amsterdam?
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| 3. |
Mercantilism |
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What is mercantilism? How did mercantilism function? In
what sense were the Dutch "out of step" with the rest of Europe with regard
to mercantilism? What three factors favored the Dutch in their "unique"
economic policies?
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| 4. |
The Crisis in Agriculture |
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To what extent did agricultural practices change between the thirteenth
and seventeenth centuries? Which area of Europe was noted for his
production of cereal grains? What new innovation by the Dutch aided
in cattle production? What new food crops were brought from the Americas?
Why did agriculture remain serious underproductive until well into the
eighteenth century? What impact did the growing market economy have
upon local manorial farming? How did agricultural patterns differ
in Eastern Europe, why?
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| 5. |
Industrial Development |
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Why was mining underproductive relative to the population during this
period? What products were often subject to government monopoly?
What was the nature of the technological progress of this period?
Which nation led the way in coal production? What was the greatest
stimulation iron production? Which nation led the way as a leading producer
and exporter of iron and steel? Which areas were relatively prosperous
and why? In which European areas were industry and commercial expansion
either static or declining during the third decade of the seventeenth century?
Where was the economic recession of the 1650s particularly acute?
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| 6. |
Population and Plague |
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By how many millions did Europe's population grow during the sixteenth
century? Why did population decline during the decades of the 1620s,
30s, and 40s? To why single factor do economic historians now generally
give more weight for the price revolution? Which area of Europe had
the densest population in 1600? What caused a marked decline in Italy
during the 1650s? What caused massive population movements during
the late sixteenth century in the Netherlands? What accounts for
the steady rise in Dutch population? How did most people live in
Central Europe? Why was the population in this region always in flux?
Where was France's population growth most notable? What factors
tended to impede English population growth? Why did the population
surge in the early years of the seventeenth century come to an end in Germany?
Which Spanish city experienced the greatest growth? What factors
caused a decline in Spanish population? Which were the areas of Europe
that continued to experience some population growth in the seventeenth
century? Which areas suffered the greatest decline? What factors
most explain Europe's population slump in the seventeenth century?
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| 7. |
Towns and Cities |
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Where was most of Europe's large cities located in 1500? How
did the Counter-Reformation popes demonstrate their attention to matters
of urban development? What was the greatest impetus to city growth?
What factors led to the decline of Naples? What led to the prosperity
of Seville and then to its eventual decline? On what did Lisbon's
prospersity based? Which city became the most cosmopolitan city in
western Europe by 1650? What was the key to its success? Why
did the English government try to stop building outside the walls of London?
On what was London's wealth based? What two factors made Paris the greatest
city of seventeenth-century Europe? What fact tended to keep most
capital cities in a state of tension during the early seventeenth century?
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| 8. |
Society in Transition |
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What did most Europeans conceive of as the natural order? What
factors prompted social mobility and how pervasive was such mobility?
How was mobility upward most often achieved? What caused downward
nobility? What practice tended to infuse new vitality into the nobility?
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| 9. |
The Changing Family |
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How did the importance and responsibility of the extended family change
during this period? What became increasingly the focus of loyalties?
Why did the hierarchical structure tend to gain prominence during this
period? How and why were children "more nurtured" during this period?
Why did parents believe it their duty to repress their children and break
their will to resist? Which class of children tended to be least subjected
to parental abuse, why? How did the Reformation change the image
of women, and in what sense were the old stereotypes reinforced?
How did women express their economic and social "independence"? In
what sense did the Reformation and Counter-Reformation both "liberate and
enslave" women? |