Chapter 7 The Struggle for Wealth and Empire

A History of the Modern World

Part 1 The Global Economy of the Eighteenth Century

Overview of Chapter 7

This chapter covers the period of the 18th century.

It elaborates how the western powers accumulated their wealth and expanded their territory.

Contents of Chapter 7

31. Elite and Popular Culture

32. The Global Economy of the 18th Century

33 Western Europe after the Peace of Utrecht

34 The Great War of the Mid-18th Century

31. Elite and Popular Cultures

National languages Oral vs. print culture Living standards Housing conditions Religion Health Politeness, etiquette, entertainment

32. The Global Economy of the 18th Century

1. Rural Industry in the 18th Century

Most people in the 18th century lived in the country. Agriculture was the greatest single industry and source of wealth. Cities remained small. After the Enclosure Movement in 14th and 15th centuries, most rural people were employed as wage earners in their cottages.

Rural Industries besides Agriculture

Woolens

Copper, iron, lead and tin

Leather

Paper, glass, porcelain and silk

2. The World Economy: The Dutch, British, and French

The Dutch:

On the international economic scene a great part was played by the Dutch. They played a leading role in commerce, shipping and finance.

B. East India companies

East India companies refer to those doing business in America as well as the East, for the “Indies” at the beginning of the 18th century was still a general term for the vast regions overseas. A great many East India companies were established by the British and the French. Among them the most famous one was The Honorable East India Company (HEIC). It is also called British East India Company (BEIC), trading mainly in cotton, silk, salt, tea and opium.

Flag of BEIC

The Company was granted a Royal Charter by Queen Elizabeth in 1600, making it the oldest among several similarly formed European East India Companies.

3. Asia, America, and Africa in the Global Economy In the expanding global economy of the

eighteenth century, Asia was almost useless as a market for European manufactures. There was much that Europeans wanted from Asia but almost nothing that Asians wanted from Europe.

A. Spices and Eastern manufactures

What Europeans sought from Asia was still in part spices—pepper and ginger, cinnamon and cloves—now brought in mainly by the Dutch from their East India islands. But they wanted manufactured goods also, such as chinaware. After about 1770 most of the imports of the British East India Company consisted of tea, which was brought from China.

China in the 18th Century 康熙，雍正，乾隆，嘉庆 1662———————1821 道光————（ 1821——1851 ） 第一次鸦片战争（ 1840-1842 ）

The Conflicts between China and the West in Contemporary History

Direct Causes of the Conflicts:

The Imbalance of Trade

Deep Roots of the Imbalance: Self-sufficient economy Self-seclusion

B. Sugar and the plantation system

The American trade was based mainly on one commodity-sugar. Sugar, mostly extracted from sugar cane, had long been grown in the East, but it was not introduced to Europe until the Middle Ages. About 1650 sugar cane was brought in quantities from the East and planted in the west. A whole new economic system of sugar arose in a few decades. It was based on the “plantation.”

A plantation

A plantation was an economic unit consisting of a considerable tract of land, a sizable investment of capital, often owned by investors from France or England, and a force of impressed labor, supplied by black workers brought from Africa as slaves.

C. Slave trade

The plantation economy, first established in sugar and later in cotton, brought Africa into the foreground. The transatlantic slave trade in the eighteenth century was conducted mainly by English-speaking countries. The rapid growth of trade within the British Empire and the rise of British capitalism in the 18th century were based to a considerable extent on the enslavement of Africans.

The Slave Trade

D. Thomas Pitt

Thomas Pitt

(1653 – 1726)

a successful British merchant involved in trade with India.

Thomas Pitt

Thomas Pitt at first came into conflict with the British East India Company, however this was settled and the company appointed him governor of Fort St. George, Madras. He is known as "Diamond Pitt" for his purchase of and profit from an extraordinary diamond. He was the grandfather and great-grandfather of the Prime Ministers William Pitt the Elder and William Pitt the Younger.

The Regent Diamond - 140.64 metric carats

William Pitt the Elder (1708-1778)

William Pitt the Younger (1759-1806)