Many of the wealthy ignored their children because their vast fortunes allowed them to. In poorer families, it was unpredictable what the structure and attitude was like inside the household; it could be dangerous, warming, or all around indifferent.
Another problem for impoverished families, as previously mentioned, was an increased infant mortality rate. Yet, this was mostly offset by large birthing rates, which often compensated for this facet.
For the most part, these households, ranging from rich to poor, owned animals of some sort. The upper class had a collection of animals ranging from dogs to horses with the extraneous instance of some having pet monkeys.
The middle class mostly had cats and birds along with dogs who could act as protection for the household. The poorer families mostly had animals who could provide food for the families, such as cows, pigs, and geese. Divorce and Separation Divorce was carried out through Parliament and was a lengthy and extremely expensive process reserved mainly for the bourgeoisie.
Between and , only 13 cases of divorce were reported. These separations could be made in private agreement or in public, ecclesiastical court. Many lived in one or two room houses that were often crowded with large families, as well as lodgers that shared their living space.
Women typically gave birth to eight to ten children; however, due to high mortality rates, only raised five or six children. The children of average or poor families began working very early on in life, sometimes even as early as age seven. They worked mostly on farms as shepherds, cowherds, or apprentices and often left home to do so. Daughters of these families remained home, often aiding the matriarch of the household until they found a husband and started a family of their own.
The oldest son of each family would stay as home as well, in order to inherit the farm. The concept of inheritance was often a source of tension for many families. The average and poor families of the late 17th century England did not yet have the luxury of piped water, which created a rarity in bathing. Because of the unhygienic lifestyle, lice and vermin were very common with these families. Upper Class Wealthy families of the late 17th century England enjoyed many more luxuries than the average and poor families.
As opposed to the rural properties of the average families, the wealthy lived in beautiful suburbs or villages. Houses were beginning to be designed to display and boast the wealth of the families that lived in them. For the first time, the wealthy were enjoying the luxury of piped water into their homes. These homes contained families with an average of ten or more people.
The women of these households were responsible for keeping everything running smoothly. They were in charge of the servants and ran the estate if the husband was not around. Similarities Between Families in Both Classes Despite the difference in economic status, there were many similarities between wealthy and average or poor families. In both families marriages were more of a business deal than a relationship.
Love was not a factor in a marriage in 17th century England. A woman typically married in her early twenties.
Arranged marriages occurred primarily for resources such as money and land. It was expected that a man would beat his wife and not seen as an issue.
Children did not have close relationships with their parents or siblings either. High infant mortality rate was a common issue and the reason why many women had a high number of childbirths but a lower number of children. Labor In agricultural families, men, for the most part, took care of the majority of the household income.
Households were first and foremost a patriarch; they controlled every aspect of the house. Women were to act as subordinates. Men did the most tiring labor in the field such as clearing, plowing, sowing seed, harvesting, and threshing.
This was also with the help of their sons and hired laborers. Women were helped by their daughters or servants in everything from knitting; to cleaning; to tending to the animals; to teaching the children. In shopkeeping families, the men and women both worked in the shop.
In artisanal families, the wife was still responsible for housecleaning but she sometimes oversaw the workers. As with the more personal family life, life in the public spectrum was often defined by social class. The more wealthy groups were able to send their children to private school, something that most people still could not afford to do at this time. This made the education gap significant during the period, and made it difficult for the poorer people of Britain to move up the social ladder.
Some things permeated the entire society without regard to class, however; both the theater and, later, the increasing role of organized sports were both things that were available and enjoyed by everybody.
This hierarchy determined everything about society and etched their fate eternally in stone. Among the differences in these classes were the attitudes that each one exhibited. No matter the pigeonholes that were set on those of poorer status, there was still a pecking order and sense of loyalty to social superiors.
The one way to move up in this time period was to own land. Landowners held power and influence. This made it difficult to move up the social ranks, seeing as how buying land was considered a luxury even in those days. Social Class Structure Wealthy Landowners This was the most powerful group, which made up the smallest amount of the population.
It included the most important of the aristocracy and squires. Gentry This included those who received a high standard of upbringing but were not as important as the upper echelon of wealth. This included: gentlemen, merchants, wealthy tradesmen, and well-off manufacturers. Yeoman Yeoman were those who owned and worked their own land. The upper middle class included certain professionals and merchants. The lower middle class included artisans, shopkeepers, and tradesmen.
Black Britons Though they made up a small portion of the population, black slaves existed and were a hot issue during the early half of the century. Their labor made commodities available and cheap, but the idea of slavery as wrong was extremely prevalent. No matter the protest, though, the labor and trade continued until its abolition in Though this class structure was almost always set from birth and heavily protected by those were already inducted into high social standing, it was not impossible for those of lower status to break through.
Everyone was mainly subject to the same body of law as everyone else and certain privileges for ruling classes only went so far. Property was the key to wealth and power, and property could be purchased. So, any man could amass a fortune and land, and begin to climb the social ladder; and any family could lose all of its estate and see their social standing vanish. London and the Job Market. London was the biggest and most commercialized and industrialized city in England at the time.
It was home to roughly half a million citizens at the beginning of the century and would only grow from there. One could come across any business from merchant shops to ale houses and the people were as eclectic as the commerce with numerous faces, such as: the wealthy and their servants, inn keepers, beggars, doctors, prostitutes and pickpockets. The noble and the lowly all walked the same streets painting a great picture of social life in the 18th century.
Unfortunately for the better half of the century, the streets they walked on were atrociously covered in filth and dirty water that had been dumped from upper windows. Horse manure and human waste were also common to come across on the street. New foods were eaten like bananas, pineapples, and chocolate for the upper class.
Tea and coffee were also introduced as exciting new drinks and coffee shops were up and coming, helping with the economy and job market. Education Rich children, both boys and girls, were sent to petty school, like a preschool. However, only boys went to elementary school or grammar school, while upper class girls were tutored. Some mothers taught their daughters in the middle class until boarding schools began to take place. These girls were often taught writing, music, and needlework.
While boys studied more academic subjects, girls were believed to only need to be taught subjects that were more on the line of abilities. At the grammar schools, boys attended school from about 6 or 7 in the morning until around 5 at night. They were allowed some breaks for meals, but if they acted out of hand they would be punished with a smack on their bare butt with birch twigs. For the better part of the century, these suffocating devices were thought a necessity for good posture.
There were both arguments for and against these dress contraptions. Nay-sayers complained that they made women struggle to get around and ruined comfort, but those in support insisted it ke. Caps were immensely popular for the majority of women and embraced a lace around the brim.
And not as uncommon as today, fashionable women were many accessories that interchanged between different gloves, watches, masks, and jewelry. Men wore mostly bland haircuts while some wore wigs which at the beginning of the century tended to be long.
Hats varied in width and were comm only worn among these wigs. Three piece suits also ruled the male fashion scene, containing a jacket, vest, and pants as the essentials. With these suits, men wore black leather shoes with stockings underneath. Coats appeared as longer waist coats with the rich showing off many different features while the working class displayed much simpler details. When outdoors, a gentleman wore cloaks, which later became highly unfashionable.
Below all of this, a man wore breaches. Dating and Social Interactions Dating life for women in the 18th century had started to change as they had more of a say in their marriages and weddings. It was at this time the idea of marrying because of who your parents arranged had died, and the idea of marrying on the basis of personal affection and started taking its place.
The average age women had started to marry was 22 compared to decades before when the age was much younger. Not until the eighteenth century, when the Netherlands as a whole faced declining fortunes would the inland provinces begin to match the growth of the coastal core of the country.
During the fifteenth century, and most of the sixteenth century, the Northern Netherlands provinces were predominantly rural compared to the urbanized southern provinces. Agriculture and fishing formed the basis for the Dutch economy in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
One of the characteristics of Dutch agriculture during this period was its emphasis on intensive animal husbandry.
Dutch cattle were exceptionally well cared for and dairy produce formed a significant segment of the agricultural sector. During the seventeenth century, as the Dutch urban population saw dramatic growth many farmers also turned to market gardening to supply the cities with vegetables. Some of the impetus for animal production came from the trade in slaughter cattle from Denmark and Northern Germany. Holland was an ideal area for cattle feeding and fattening before eventual slaughter and export to the cities of the Southern provinces.
The trade in slaughter cattle expanded from about to , but protectionist measures on the part of Dutch authorities who wanted to encourage the fattening of home-bred cattle ensured a contraction of the international cattle trade between and Although agriculture made up the largest segment of the Dutch economy, cereal production in the Netherlands could not keep up with demand particularly by the seventeenth century as migration from the southern provinces contributed to population increases.
The provinces of the Low Countries traditionally had depended on imported grain from the south France and the Walloon provinces and when crop failures interrupted the flow of grain from the south, the Dutch began to import grain from the Baltic. Baltic grain imports experienced sustained growth from about the middle of the sixteenth century to roughly when depression and stagnation characterized the grain trade into the eighteenth century.
Over the long term, the Baltic grain trade gave rise to shipping and trade on other routes as well as to manufacturing industries.
Along with agriculture, the Dutch fishing industry formed part of the economic base of the northern Netherlands. Like the Baltic grain trade, it also contributed to the rise of Dutch the shipping industry. The herring bus was developed in the fifteenth century in order to allow the herring catch to be processed with salt at sea. This permitted the herring ship to remain at sea longer and increased the range of the herring fishery. Herring was an important export product for the Netherlands particularly to inland areas, but also to the Baltic offsetting Baltic grain imports.
The herring fishery reached its zenith in the first half of the seventeenth century. Estimates put the size of the herring fleet at roughly busses and the catch at about 20, to 25, lasts roughly 33, metric tons on average each year in the first decades of the seventeenth century.
The herring catch as well as the number of busses began to decline in the second half of the seventeenth century, collapsing by about the mid-eighteenth century when the catch amounted to only about lasts. This decline was likely due to competition resulting from a reinvigoration of the Baltic fishing industry that succeeded in driving prices down, as well as competition within the North Sea by the Scottish fishing industry.
The heartland for textile manufacturing had been Flanders and Brabant until the onset of the Dutch Revolt around Years of warfare continued to devastate the already beaten down Flemish cloth industry. But textiles remained the most important industry for the Dutch Economy. But by the s Leiden had abandoned the heavy traditional wool cloths in favor of a lighter traditional woolen laken as well as a variety of other textiles such as says , fustians , and camlets.
Total textile production increased from 50, or 60, pieces per year in the first few years of the seventeenth century to as much as , pieces per year during the s.
By the end of the seventeenth century foreign competition threatened the Dutch textile industry. Production in many of the new draperies says , for example decreased considerably throughout the eighteenth century; profits suffered as prices declined in all but the most expensive textiles. Although Leiden certainly led the Netherlands in the production of wool cloth, it was not the only textile producing city in the United Provinces.
Amsterdam, Utrecht, Delft and Haarlem, among others, had vibrant textile industries. Haarlem, for example, was home to an important linen industry during the first half of the seventeenth century. Not only was locally produced linen finished in Haarlem, but linen merchants from other areas of Europe sent their products to Haarlem for bleaching and finishing.
The number of sugar refineries in Amsterdam increased from about 3 around to about 50 by , thanks in no small part to Portuguese investment. Dutch merchants purchased huge amounts of sugar from both the French and the English islands in the West Indies, along with a great deal of tobacco.
Tobacco processing became an important Amsterdam industry in the seventeenth century employing large numbers of workers and leading to attempts to develop domestic tobacco cultivation.
It would seem that as far as industrial production is concerned, the Dutch Golden Age lasted from the s until about This period was followed by roughly one hundred years of declining industrial production. De Vries and van der Woude concluded that Dutch industry experienced explosive growth after s because of the migration of skilled labor and merchant capital from the southern Netherlands at roughly the time Antwerp fell to the Spanish and because of the relative advantage continued warfare in the south gave to the Northern Provinces.
After the s most Dutch industries experienced either steady or steep decline as many Dutch industries moved from the cities into the countryside, while some particularly the colonial industries remained successful well into the eighteenth century. Dutch shipping began to emerge as a significant sector during the fifteenth century.
Probably stemming from the inaction on the part of merchants from the Southern Netherlands to participate in seaborne transport, the towns of Zeeland and Holland began to serve the shipping needs of the commercial towns of Flanders and Brabant particularly Antwerp. The Dutch, who were already active in the North Sea as a result of the herring fishery, began to compete with the German Hanseatic League for Baltic markets by exporting their herring catches, salt, wine, and cloth in exchange for Baltic grain.
Baltic grain played an essential role for the rapidly expanding markets in western and southern Europe. By the beginning of the sixteenth century the urban populations had increased in the Low Countries fueling the market for imported grain.
The grain trade sparked the development of a variety of industries. In addition to the shipbuilding industry, which was an obvious outgrowth of overseas trade relationships, the Dutch manufactured floor tiles, roof tiles, and bricks for export to the Baltic; the grain ships carried them as ballast on return voyages to the Baltic.
The importance of the Baltic markets to Amsterdam, and to Dutch commerce in general can be illustrated by recalling that when the Danish closed the Sound to Dutch ships in , the Dutch faced financial ruin.
But by the mid-sixteenth century, the Dutch had developed such a strong presence in the Baltic that they were able to exact transit rights from Denmark Peace of Speyer, allowing them freer access to the Baltic via Danish waters. Despite the upheaval caused by the Dutch and the commercial crisis that hit Antwerp in the last quarter of the sixteenth century, the Baltic grain trade remained robust until the last years of the seventeenth century.
Building on the early successes of their Baltic trade, Dutch shippers expanded their sphere of influence east into Russia and south into the Mediterranean and the Levantine markets. By the turn of the seventeenth century, Dutch merchants had their eyes on the American and Asian markets that were dominated by Iberian merchants.
Before Dutch shippers could even attempt to break in to the Asian markets they needed to first expand their presence in the Atlantic. These merchants set up the so-called Guinea trade with West Africa, and initiated Dutch involvement in the Western Hemisphere. Trade with West Africa grew slowly, but competition was stiff. By , the various Guinea companies had agreed to the formation of a cartel to regulate trade. Continued competition from a slew of new companies, however, insured that the cartel would be only partially effective until the organization of the Dutch West India Company in that also held monopoly rights in the West Africa trade.
The Dutch at first focused their trade with the Americas on the Caribbean. By the mids only a few Dutch ships each year were making the voyage across the Atlantic.
When the Spanish instituted an embargo against the Dutch in , shortages in products traditionally obtained in Iberia like salt became common. Dutch shippers seized the chance to find new sources for products that had been supplied by the Spanish and soon fleets of Dutch ships sailed to the Americas.
The Spanish and Portuguese had a much larger presence in the Americas than the Dutch could mount, despite the large number vessels they sent to the area. Dutch strategy was to avoid Iberian strongholds while penetrating markets where the products they desired could be found. For the most part, this strategy meant focusing on Venezuela, Guyana, and Brazil. Indeed, by the turn of the seventeenth century, the Dutch had established forts on the coasts of Guyana and Brazil.
While competition between rival companies from the towns of Zeeland marked Dutch trade with the Americas in the first years of the seventeenth century, by the time the West India Company finally received its charter in troubles with Spain once again threatened to disrupt trade.
Funding for the new joint-stock company came slowly, and oddly enough came mostly from inland towns like Leiden rather than coastal towns. The West India Company was hit with setbacks in the Americas from the very start. The Portuguese began to drive the Dutch out of Brazil in and by the Dutch were loosing their position in the Caribbean as well. Dutch shippers in the Americas soon found raiding directed at the Spanish and Portuguese to be their most profitable activity until the Company was able to establish forts in Brazil again in the s and begin sugar cultivation.
Sugar remained the most lucrative activity for the Dutch in Brazil, and once the revolt of Portuguese Catholic planters against the Dutch plantation owners broke out the late s, the fortunes of the Dutch declined steadily. The Dutch faced the prospect of stiff Portuguese competition in Asia as well. But, breaking into the lucrative Asian markets was not just a simple matter of undercutting less efficient Portuguese shippers. The Portuguese closely guarded the route around Africa. Not until roughly one hundred years after the first Portuguese voyage to Asia were the Dutch in a position to mount their own expedition.
Thanks to the travelogue of Jan Huyghen van Linschoten, which was published in , the Dutch gained the information they needed to make the voyage. Linschoten had been in the service of the Bishop of Goa, and kept excellent records of the voyage and his observations in Asia. The first few Dutch voyages to Asia were not particularly successful. These early enterprises managed to make only enough to cover the costs of the voyage, but by dozens of Dutch merchant ships made the trip.
This intense competition among various Dutch merchants had a destabilizing effect on prices driving the government to insist on consolidation in order to avoid commercial ruin.
This joint stock company attracted roughly 6. Management of the company was vested in 17 directors Heren XVII chosen from among the largest shareholders.
While Coen and later governors-general set about expanding the territorial and political reach of the VOC in Asia, the Heren XVII were most concerned about profits, which they repeatedly reinvested in the company much to the chagrin of investors. In Asia, the strategy of the VOC was to insert itself into the intra-Asian trade much like the Portuguese had done in the sixteenth century in order to amass enough capital to pay for the spices shipped back to the Netherlands.
This often meant displacing the Portuguese by waging war in Asia, while trying to maintain peaceful relations within Europe. As the English and French began to institute mercantilist strategies for instance, the Navigation Acts of and in England, and import restrictions and high tariffs in the case of France Dutch dominance in foreign trade came under attack. Rather than experience a decline like domestic industry did at the end of the seventeenth century, the Dutch Asia trade continued to ship goods at steady volumes well into the eighteenth century.
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