LECTURE IV

LECTURE IV: Markets, Hierarchies, & Images of Power:
Transformation of Traditional Economy & Society in the Ancien Regime

Please Note: Be able to define words and phrases in this color.
Sentences in red indicate activities you should try as you interact with this material

TB EXERCISES
QUIZ A
QUIZ B
Interactive Maps

IMAGES OF POWER TOUR

VIRTUAL SESSION

SYLLABUS

ThemeEighteenth-century society was still largely traditional. It was basically agrarian, dominated by kings and aristocrats with large land holdings, grounded in privileges for nobles, clergy, towns and provinces. But several changes were transforming that tradition, moving the western world into the modern age. Click here for an overview of the chapter.) Remember, we are using chapter 24 for three topics, last week's, this week's, and next week's. That means you can keep trying the same quiz exercises for three weeks as you work through the chapter.

Introduction Three areas contributed to the transformation of traditional life in Europe. After the real-time lecture, working through the notes below, and reading TB material in chap. 24, try to explain each one in a sentence of two in your notes..

Rapid population growth

Agricultural Revolution

Increase in world trade & the Commercial Revolution

Learning Hint: As you listen, read, and make notes on changing demographic, economic and social patterns, use these online notes, keeping in mind the following two questions: (In your notes, write one sentence for each question.)

1. What do you think the following statement means: "These three forces, working within the Ancien Regime's traditional way of life, produced social and political tensions?"

2. How might that idea be used for interpreting the Rousseau document historically?

Remember ----> This lecture outline is interactive. It contains questions which you should answer in your notebook as you go along. These activities are colored red. Refer to your TB or SB as needed.

1. Refer to TB Sections: chap. 16, pp. 503-511; chap. 18

2. As you work through these readings and notes, try the online quiz exercises on the TB materials. [See the links in the upper right table at the top of this page.] Use the hints to find the facts as you work. When you get at least 70% right on a quiz, send me the results. Follow the online directions.

3. Virtual Session #2 is part of this lecture topic.

Reading

TB:
chap. 24, 652-658

SB:
Colbert, 11-13
Rousseau, 38-41

Population, Food, Industry

Steady population growth after 1750

More food produced by the Agricultural Revolution

	Agricultural practices improve, especially in England and Holland
	Potato and maize from America enrich the European diet
	Enclosure Movement in Britain & Commercialization of Agriculture

World Trade (Remember the West & the Wider World Documentary in Lecture II.) Also refer to this Commercial Revolution overview.

Merchants and traders

18^th century great increase in global trade and emergence of a "world market".

New World gold and silver to Spain used to buy products from England, France and Holland

English, French, and Dutch use profits for tea, spices, silks and cotton from East Asia and India to sell in Europe

British ships carry goods to Africa to trade for slaves and shipped to America to buy tobacco. The tobacco was sent back to England, processed and sold in Europe for cash.

Slaves were perhaps the most profitable trade. Click on the thumbnail image and note the slave trade pattern..

Trade enabled England and France to overtake Spain, Portugal and Holland in the 18^th century

England and France built profitable empires in the 18^th century

Mercantilism & the Dynastic State

	Mercantilism: "Theory & system of political economy in Europe after the decline of feudalism, based on national policies of accumulating bullion, establishing colonies, and a merchant marine, and developing industries and mining to attain a favorable balance of trade." [American Heritage Dictionary}
	Read the Colbert document in the SB. Click here for a sketch of Colbert's life. Write a sentence or two explaining how this source can be used to understand how the principles of Mercantilism helped in the early modern transformation of the Dynastic State (Review Lecture III.)

Transformation of Society

Medieval Tradition – status determined by divinely sanctioned traditional "orders" and "estates" determined by heredity and quality rather then wealth and economic position (How much of this tradition do you find reflected in Domat's views of social order)

	Feudal System
	Manorial System

The growth of cities and new economic patterns linked to a developing market economy. by the end of the medieval period were transforming the traditional social order. In the early modern period (15th - 18th centuries) the social configuration was characterized by:

Peasantry remained the largest segment – c. 85%

	Serfs and free peasants (in France by 1789 40% of free peasants owned little or no land.)
	Tenant farmers
	Tithes
	Village life

Nobles – 2 to 3 % dominated society

Townspeople � minority except in Britain, Holland, and parts of Italy

Towns played key role in Europe

City Patricians

Upper Crust of Middle Class [Bourgeoisie]: office holders, financiers, bankers, merchants etc

Petty Bourgeoisie (lower middle class)

Dependent labor

	Unskilled labor, servants etc.
	Influx of rural people added to urban problems

Slaves: The spread of European empires into North and South America from the 16th through the 18th centuries made chattel slavery a major part of western economic and social life outside of Europe itself and the slave trade a major source of western wealth.

The transformed social order attracted the attention of leading thinkers.

	Jean Jacques Rousseau : Read his document in the SB and try to find ways his ideas reflect early modern social structure and its issues
	John Locke : Compare Locke's views on social order with Rousseau's.

IMAGES OF POWER

This art exhibit is part of Virtual Session 2.

	Historians also use visual sources to understand the past. Take the following tour. Look at each image as a source of information about the social hierarchy of the Ancien Regime.
Task	1. Note which images are useful for illustrating parts of the Lecture IV outline above?
Task	2. Note which images you would use for understanding or illustrating two documents from the Ancien Regime.
Task	3. Go to the Virtual Session 2 assignment.

The World of Monarchy & Aristocracy
(Click on Thumbnails for Full Image)

	:Crown of Catherine the Great Remember Domat's imagery of society as a human body with the king as the head. (Check the SB for the reference). How does this crown symbolize the role of the monarchy as the head of society? Can you explain why people speak of The Crown as something more than a physical object?

The age of Royal Absolutism was the age of Baroque and Rococo art. Both styles were useful in celebrating the power of the Crown and the ideals of aristocracy. Since the TB has nothing on this art, look up Baroque and Rococo art through these links and skim the information, making a few notes for later reference. Then examine the following images carefully, noting how each one shows how the artist or architect expressed the ideals of monarchy and aristocracy in the Ancien Regime.

	The ritual of Coronation was a traditional religious rite. It confirmed the *sovereignty* of the monarch as God's anointed. Note how *majesty* is conveyed by this coronation portrait :.Louis XV in Coronation Robes Write in your notebook some of the ways majesty is expressed. What symbols are used? What characteristics, if any, of baroque art do you find in this painting?

A coronation was a public event. What does this admission ticket to Westminster Abbey for the coronation of George III tell you about monarchy in England in the mid 18th century? Note the letters SPQB. It's a Latin abbreviation - Senatus Populusque Britannicus (The British Senate and People). Can you guess why it's there? What does it mean? Can you catch the classical (Core Studies 1)allusion?

Baroque music served the crown as well. The music of George Friedrich Handel, the composer of the anthem used at the coronation of King George II of England, is an outstanding example of the grandeur and ornamentation of the baroque style. [You will hear this anthem in class.] Note here the wig, clothing, and posture in the portrait. Artists like Handel, dependent on royal and aristocratic patronage, moved in elite circles

Versailles Louis XIV's great palace was the setting for a glittering royal court where aristocratic courtiers served the king and where the king could keep an eye on the nobility. Note how this baroque building (click on the thumbnail at the left) developed the symmetry and rationality of classical forms on a grand scale. Spend a day with Louis XIV: how did his daily routine fit the style and policies of royal absolutism?

	Hall of Mirrors at Versailles The palace's interior, a dramatic setting for elaborate court ceremony, illustrates the highly ornamental side of baroque and rococo design. Enter here for an experience of stepping into the Hall of Mirrors. While you're at the Versailles site take a walk around the king's bed chamber.
	The interiors of palaces were decorated with baroque painting of heroes from classical mythology and history. Note the drama, color, and dramatic swirling movement in this ceiling fresco.


	Peterhof, St. Petersburg Peter the Great's palace shows how other dynasties followed the lead of the Bourbon Sun King.

Blenheim, the estate of the Duke of Marlborough. The first Duke of Marlborough, John Churchill, was made a noble by the crown after his victory over the French at Blenheim in 1704. Service to the dynastic state could result in great wealth and aristocratic titles. Estates like his, covering hundreds of acres, were sources of wealth for the landed aristocracy.

The stone monument carries a statue of the first duke. See the sheep grazing on Blenheim's fields. Wool, an important product for textile trade since the Middle Ages, had caused great landowners to fence off some of their fields traditionally open for poorer farmers to use. This enclosure movement (as it came to be known) meant more profits from commercial agriculture for the landowners but was a growing hardship for poor farmers in the early modern period. In 18th-century England, 400 great families owned 25% of the land.

What do the following four portraits reveal about the ideals and values of the aristocracy? Write a sentence about each one.

	George III, Queen Charlotte and Children, 1770. The English Royal Family.
	Duke and Duchess of Marlborough: Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792) painted this family portrait of one of England's noble families about 1778. Some noble families were around since the middle ages and others, like the Churchills (Dukes of Marlborough) were of more recent origins. The first Duke was ennobled for his military victory against Louis XIV of France at the Battle of Blenheim in 1704. This upper echelon of the social hierarchy had titles and great estates.
	Royal mistresses were part of the aristocratic world. What does this portrait tell you about Madame de Pompadour, mistress of King Louis XV of France?
	Aristocratic life is also caught in this painting by the French painter, Fragonard, Hazards of the Swing. What is the artist's point? To learn more about the Fragonard and French art of the 18th century, look at this exhibit at the National Gallery.

Below the Aristocracy

GENTRY & GRAND BOURGEOISIE

	In England the gentry, people of wealth but without titles, copied the style of the nobility by buying estates and living as grandly as possible. Their fortunes were often made in commerce or through service to the crown or connections with the great families of the kingdom. This portrait of Mr. and Mrs. Andrews by Thomas Gainsborough(1727-1788) shows a gentry couple in proud possession of their estate. How would you describe the social values of this couple? Can you choose a quote from Rousseau to use as a caption?
	The gentry ideal was also found in the colonies. Look at this plantation house in Virginia, Mount Airey. See how it reflects, in a modest way, the baroque architecture of the English elite - note the symmetry. What other architectural features do you find? And here is a bedroom of another Virginian plantation, Carter's Grove. What do the furnishings tell you about the life style of the plantation elite and about world trade?

In the towns and cities of English America, elite, the upper bourgeoisie, were likely to be great merchants, like the Bostonian, John Hancock. John Singleton Copley painted this portrait in 1765. Hancock, one of America's wealthiest merchants, made a fortune during the French and Indian War. What does this portrait suggest about his values? Copley (1738-1815) a major colonial American painter also did the portrait of Paul Revere. He became a Loyalist and left for England when the Revolution appeared threatening.

Mrs. Robert Morris, 1782, by Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827). How would you characterize this portrait of the wife of Robert Morris, an important Philadelphia merchant? Make careful note of her appearance. Make careful note of her appearance. How would you use this image to illustrate 18th-century trade?

The urban elite lived in fine town houses like this one, the Derby House. Gracious and impressive, they were, however, much more modest than the great houses of the aristocracy in the mother country. In 18th-century England and English America, when all the kings were named George, this style architecture is called Georgian. How would you describe this style in comparison with baroque architecture?


	The urban gentry enjoyed the polite society of great cities like London. These two London scenes show places where the wealthy and prominent could mingle. Thames Embankment, Caneletto. Look at another of his London scenes, Westminster Abbey and note the ceremonial procession exiting the abbey. St James Park. (See the dome of St Paul's Cathedral near the Thames and the tower of Westminster Abbey in the background of St James Park.)

THE MIDDLING SORT & THE LOWER CLASSES

The petty bourgeoisie, like shopkeepers, artisans, and the like also lived in cities towns. A Boston artisan, the silversmith, Paul Revere, is shown in this portrait with one of his products. It was painted by John Singleton Copley

The Dress Maker, a painting by the French artist, Boucher, shows how wealthy families provided work for skilled labor. What do you think was the relationship between this class and those above them in the social hierarchy?


	The English satirical artist, William Hogarth(1697-1764) gives glimpses of the street life of such people as well as poorer dependent laborers in drawings like Beer Street. What do you learn about economic life from this picture? And what about this painting, The Enraged Musician? What facts about social and economic life can you discover in it? How would you describe Hogarth's point?


	Here in Gin Lane Hogarth shows the lowest rungs of urban society. What is Hogarth's point in this painting? What material about London's society and economy do you find here?

In the overwhelmingly agrarian world of the Ancien Regime, most people lived in the countryside, not in cities like London. In this scene of rural workers at rest, describe how these people compare with urban folk and the upper classes in the preceding images..

In Europe there were some independent or yeoman farmers (to use the English term) but many more tenant farmers and estate workers. In English America there were more opportunities to own land. This painting of an American yeoman farmer shows the pride of a man who works his own land. Note the rural setting. How does this farmer appear to differ from the rural folk in the preceding image? Take a look at the SB document by Crevecoeur and find a quote to use as a caption for the yeoman farmer picture. What is Crevecouer's view on the difference between American and European society?

In the 18th-century property, whether in land, commerce, or craft, was the key to independence. In that world, slavery was the prime example of total dependence --- to be the property (chattel) of another person. And the slave trade itself, which provided African labor to the plantations of the European empires in the Americas, reaped great fortunes for merchants and aristocratic investors while condemning thousands of Africans to the cruelty of slavery. This drawing of a slave ship gives a small idea of the suffering of a transatlantic crossing in a packed, dark and filthy cargo hull. What does the slave trade reveal about economic forces transforming the economy of early modern Europe? (Find the TB section that deals with this issue. Review what the documentary, The West and the Wider World, said about this issue.)


	After viewing John Singleton Copley's painting, Head of a Negro, read the SB document by Gustavus Vassa. Do you think Copley is making a statement about slavery in this portrait? How would you describe it?

LECTURE IV: Markets, Hierarchies, & Images of Power: Transformation of Traditional Economy & Society in the Ancien Regime

IMAGES OF POWER

SYLLABUS

NOTES

LECTURE IV: Markets, Hierarchies, & Images of Power:
Transformation of Traditional Economy & Society in the Ancien Regime