Question

Economical condition of Europe before eighteenth century

Answer 1

Answer:

The age of discovery, seen from the European point of view, introduced major economic changes. The Columbian exchange resulted in Europe adopting new crops, as well as shaking up traditional cultural ideas and practices. The commercial revolution continued, with Europeans developing mercantilism and European imports of luxury goods (notably spices and fine cloth[17]) from eastern and southern Asia switching from crossing Islamic territory in the present-day Middle East to passing the Cape of Good Hope. Spain proved adept at plundering the gold and silver of the Americas, but incompetent at converting its new wealth into a vibrant domestic economy, and declined as an economic power. From the 1600s, the centres of commerce and manufactures shifted definitively from the Mediterranean to the centres of shipping and colonisation on the western Atlantic coastal fringe: economic activity went into a relative decline in 17th century Italy and Turkey - but to the advantage of Portugal, Spain, France, the Dutch Republic and England/Britain. In eastern Europe, Russia suppressed the Tatar slave-trade, expanded commerce in luxury furs from Siberia and rivalled the Scandinavian and German states in the Baltic. Colonial goods like sugar and tobacco from the Americas came to play a role in the European economy. Meanwhile, changes in financial practice (especially in the Netherlands and in England), the second agricultural revolution in Britain and technological innovations in France, Prussia and England not only promoted economic changes and expansion in themselves, but also fostered the beginnings of the industrial revolution.