Robert b marks origins of the modern world pdf

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