New World

2 Pages 555 Words

Commercialization involved changing structures of regional and national economies as well as the growing globalization of commercial networks and their increasing domination by western European organizations and states. The growth of global trade in the 16th century was part of a transformation involving increasing importance of markets and specialized production of agricultural and manufactured goods. This commercialization of economic life had significant effects on all of society. 2
EUROPEAN TRANSFORMATION. Western Europe experienced a Commercial Revolution that had a major impact during the 16th century. Growing global contacts increased demand for a variety of goods in Europe. The development of new overseas colonies in the 16th and 17th centuries provided both new products and new markets. The influx of gold and silver from the Spanish possessions in the Western Hemisphere increased the monetarization of European national economies and provided the basis for growing demand and price inflation. The development of more effective methods of managing trade and investment heightened the impact and extent of commercialization. Emerging institutions like national banks and chartered companies provided the means for expanding commercial activities. What was in effect an AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION took place by the 17th and 18th centuries. New products like potatoes and maize from the Western Hemisphere and new farming techniques and technologies transformed old peasant agriculture, providing more food for expanding cities and growing numbers of workers who were peasants displaced by new farming methods. Processed products like refined sugar and manufactured textiles became important for the general population. Agricultural developments in this way further strengthened the commercialization of societies. The INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION, especially in Great Britain and France, transformed the means, methods, and concepts of production and gave i...