Please Read The Requirement And Write The Essay
You should consult Robert B. Marks, The Origins of the Modern World: Fate and Fortune in the Rise of the West Roman and Littlefield, 4th or 3rd edition(Chaps 3) and David Landes, The Wealth and Poverty of Nations, 1999, W.W.Norton (Chaps 9 and Chap 10, pp173-85), and the lecture slides as you write your essays. Please read Dutch Golden Age Chaps 9-10 slides.
1. In the Dutch Golden Age, markets were more fully developed in the United Provinces than anywhere else in Europe. What kinds of markets existed? Why were they more fully developed than elsewhere? (Think about what markets need.)
2. What advantages did the United Provinces have over Portugal in their efforts to gain profits from their activities in the Indian Ocean? In other words, why were the Dutch able to replace the Portuguese as the dominant European power in the Indian Ocean?
Lecture 10 European Marriage Pattern
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European Marriage Pattern
Hajnal 1965; line from St Petersburg to Trieste
EMP to the west, other marriage pattern to the east and south
EMP especially strong in Low Countries and England
European Marriage Pattern
Marriage postponed until couple could support themselves; hence later age of marriage
New couple establishes separate household: nuclear family
Consent of each partner required
European Marriage Pattern
Church had tradition of respecting women, from early years of Church in Roman times
As pagan Europe was converted, marriages took place in Church
Church doctrine: marriage based on consent; firmly established in doctrine by 1100
Not readily accepted by aristocracy (why not?), but accepted by common people
EMP and markets
Existence of labor market (for servants, farm laborers, apprentices) made it possible for young people to set up separate household
Existence of EMP expanded the labor market
Existence of EMP expanded the capital market, esp for lifetime annuities
Children not responsible for taking care of parents (Korean problem today)
Labor and capital markets
Labor market penetration: 50% in Low Countries in 1500; around 2% in China in 1500
Capital market penetration to ordinary households in Low Countries by 1500; shares in voyages and companies down to small levels; tradable shares
Black Death 1350
Labor became scarce; land abundant; wages rose, land rents fell
New opportunities for those who survived; guilds accepted new members; more opportunities for women
Prosperity reinforced EMP and growth of markets
Investment in human capital
Literacy was 30-40% in Low Country towns in 1300s, and in Italian city states
In 1400s an increase in apprenticeships; girls worked as servants and acquired human capital there
In 1500s public schools; orphans taught to read in public orphanages, in prep for apprenticeships
Protestant Reformation
In Middle Ages, the Church dominated ideology and intellectual discourse
The popes and the curia pronounced doctrine
Monasteries and universities trained clerics
Parish priests delivered salvation
First two communicated in Latin, the last in the local vernacular
Domination by Catholic Church
Church got income from lands, tithes, and sale of indulgences
Substantial flow of resources from northern Europe to Rome
Powerful interest group; it defended its ideological monopoly by persecution of heretics
Communications Revolution
Very slow in Middle Ages; paper replaced parchment around 1100, but copying was very expensive
Printing press with movable type around 1450; Gutenberg was expert in inks and with winepress; cut the cost of copying to 3% of cost of scribe
Communications Revolution
Illiterate population; small market for books
Little incentive to learn to read
Resistance to printing press by scribes? Yes, in other cultures, but not effective in Europe
Printing press promoted standardization of the vernaculars; books were printed in them
Protestant Reformation
Luther 1517; partly a German reaction against Italian exploitation
You can achieve salvation by reading the scriptures yourself; you don’t need the parish priest to administer the sacraments
Higher literacy in the Protestant areas, reversing earlier pattern of higher literacy in southern Europe
CQ14 EMP
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Why were Dutch prosperous?
Markets: what do markets need?
What types of markets?
What political institutions support markets?
First Modern State: United Provinces
UP: known as Holland, or the Netherlands
Collection of towns with assemblies and local administrations; run by 10,000 business people, dominated by a few hundred families
Constraints on executives; predictable rules; property rights respected
Substantial collection of taxes, on trade and land
First Modern State
Public schools, hospitals, health inspectors, safety net for the poor (good business to keep the peace), ports, harbors, canals, dikes
Effective army: drill instructors for musketeers, manuals, Dutch tactics spread across Europe
Netherlands preserved its independence while Italian cities fell victim to Spanish and French armies
Modern State
Financial Revolution: Dutch East India Company sold shares to the public; stock market; marine insurance, interest rates at 3-4%
All this supported by efficient information system: literate population, written materials, standardized contracts
Emergence of national consciousness
Institutional measures
Interest rates. High interest rates usually reflect high probability of default on the loan; lack of secure contract enforcement
Before modern era, interest rates typically above 30% (annual rate, perhaps 2-3% per month)
Interest Rates
Low Countries: rates fell from around 30% in early Middle Ages to 10% around 1250
Institutional changes: courts, law merchant, Community Responsibility System
Rates fell again to around 6% around 1450 (Black Death period; capital less scarce)
Rates were 3-5% in Holland in 1600s
Interest Rates
Why are interest rates important? Investment in physical and human capital; inventions
Impersonal exchange based on rule of law; large amounts of capital for trading ventures; UP state able to borrow from the public and from foreign publics; many small savers put their funds into Amsterdam financial market
Decentralized resource allocation
Skill premia
Construction workers: skilled workers versus unskilled wage premium
It partly reflects the cost of capital
Skill premium fell in Low Countries in parallel with decline in interest rates; from 100% down to 60% premium from 1250 to 1450
Low Countries: around 50% after 1600