CHAPTER 20

DRIVEN BY GROWTH: THE GLOBAL ECONOMY IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

FOCUS QUESTIONS

WHY DID the world’s population rise in the eighteenth century?

WHY DID rising population stimulate economic activity in parts of Europe?

WHY WAS China’s position as the world’s richest economy threatened in the late eighteenth century?

HOW DID British exploitation affect India’s economy?

HOW DID imperial expansion stimulate economic activity?

RISE IN GLOBAL POPULATION

China: population doubled between 1700 and 1800.

Europe: population doubled between 1700and 1800.

Americas: population increased six times.

Ottoman and Persian empires remained static.

URBANIZATION

More people moved to cities.

London grew to 1 million; Paris had 500,000; Amsterdam had 200,000.

Americas, especially in the Spanish Americas, developed significant towns and cities.

REASONS: BETTER MEDICAL CARE AND EVOLUTION OF CERTAIN DISEASES

Western medicine remained mired in ignorance, but did develop cures/prevention for scurvy and smallpox.

Plague becomes less virulent of its own accord.

Also better nutrition and an improved food supply

ACCESS TO RESOURCES

Europe’s situation was unique: with access to varieties of foods and different climates around the globe a revolution in human cuisine was possible.

Centers in Madrid, London, Amsterdam, and Paris now collected, catalogued, and experimented with different types and varieties of plants.

From these centers, new types of ventures could be tried in the far-flung empires of Europe.

DEVELOPMENT OF WORLD EMPIRES

Creation of new sources of raw materials

Coffee could now be grown in Java, thus breaking the Arabian monopoly.

Tea could be grown in India, thus Britain could enjoy its national drink grown within its own empire.

Australia began to be developed to increase the availability of wool for British textile factories.

Control over Trade The development of commercial empires meant a

shift and an expansion in the control of global trade.

European control over the Americas gave it tremendous access to the resources produced there: sugar, tobacco, timber, furs, gold, silver, etc.

Dutch monopoly of trade with Japan: advantage in the silver market

British dominance in India: control over revenues, cheap labor, and a vast market

French, English, and Venetian merchants took control over Ottoman trade and markets.

NEW TECHNOLOGIES

Development, first by Britain, of steam power for textile, ceramic, and mining industries

Production of manufactured goods is faster, cheaper, and often better

WHY NOT CHINA?

For centuries, the world economic superpower Huge, cheap labor force Enormous internal market

The “high-level equilibrium trap” No ability to increase output No incentive to innovate (develop new technologies)

Europeans could now produce their own products. Tea, silk, ceramics, etc.

Importation of opium into China by Britain, America, and other European powers

Millions of opium addicts led to a debilitated workforce, drain of money.

Control over the Americas and global trade gave Europeans, especially Britain, an edge that it had never had before. The economies of Asia were now slipping or had slipped well behind.

TODAY’S QUESTIONIs unlimited growth possible?

Consider

The eighteenth century was not the only one driven by growth: the global capitalist economy has ever since been built on continued growth.

Some have worried about infinite growth in a finite world, and called for either sustainable growth or economic stasis.

Others point out that basic commodities have become steadily cheaper since 1800, and claim market mechanisms will always find replacement resources (solar for hydrocarbon fuels, for example) and production techniques.

Is unlimited growth possible indefinitely into the future? Or will the global economy face a crisis of diminishing

resources?