Check your understanding of the chapter by answering the following questions.
How did the open-field system work? Why was much of the land left uncultivated while the people sometimes starved?
What changes brought the open-field system to an end?
Where did the modern agricultural revolution originate? Why?
What is meant by enclosure? Was this movement a great swindle of the poor by the rich, as some have claimed?
Was the dramatic growth of population in the eighteenth century due to a decreasing death rate or an increasing birthrate? Explain.
How was the grip of the deadly bubonic plague finally broken?
What improvements in the eighteenth century contributed to the decline of disease and famine?
How did the putting-out system work and why did it grow?
What were the advantages and disadvantages of the putting-out system for the merchant-capitalist? For the worker?
What was mercantilism? How could it have been a cause of war? Of economic growth?
The eighteenth century witnessed a large number of expensive and drawn-out wars. Who was attempting to alter the balance of power? Were the causes of these wars economic or political?
Did the American colonists and the American colonial economy benefit or suffer from the British mercantilistic colonial system?
What role did the Creoles play in colonial Latin America? The mestizos? TheIndians?
What was the general message set forth in Professor Adam Smith's book, The Wealth of Nations? How would his ideas impact on government?
Study-Review Exercises
Define the following key concepts and terms. mercantilism open-field system enclosure potatoes agrarian economy famine foods common land
cottage industry putting-out system fallow fields agricultural revolution crop rotation asiento mestizos primogeniture
Creole elite Cornelius Vermuyden bubonic plague
Identify and explain the significance of each of the following people and