Early modern Europe: an introduction

# 6.3 Work and trade

Both the social order and religious beliefs went through fundamental change in the early modern period, but when we turn to work and trade, historians have described elements of both continuity and change. On the one hand, there were no major technological developments or wholesale changes in methods of production. Many eighteenth-century workers followed the same occupations and used the same techniques as their late medieval counterparts. On the other hand, the European economy grew considerably: to put it simply, more things were made, traded, bought and sold in 1780 than in 1500, largely as a result of a growth in population. This does not mean that everyone became wealthier, however. During periods of rapid population growth in the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, the increasing number of people produced a greater demand for food, clothing and so forth, and prices rose. But there were also more people looking for work, and, at the same time, wages declined. This left many of the poor struggling for survival, but created opportunities for new business enterprises too. Historians have also described a change in attitudes to work – an ‘industrious revolution’ – with people willing to work longer hours and more intensely in order to buy more goods.

## Early modern agriculture

How did these broad changes affect production? In early modern Europe, as in medieval times, the economy was dominated by agriculture. Between 80 and 90 per cent of the population lived in rural areas, and most (though not all) worked on the land. Men, women and children all laboured to produce foodstuffs (mainly grain, but also fruits and vegetables), fuel in the form of timber, and raw materials such as wool, flax (the fibre used to make linen) and leather. Although agriculture was the main form of work across Europe, rural life was not the same for everyone. Different types of agriculture were practised in different areas, and many people worked in rural industries rather than on the land. Rural life was difficult – factors such as the weather could determine whether people lived well or starved.

While techniques of agricultural work did not change much in the early modern period, there were developments in farming. Farmers successfully responded to the increasing demand for food by introducing new agricultural practices (such as mixing pasturing and raising crops), by bringing more land into cultivation and by seeking out the cheapest sources of labour. Interestingly, farmers continued to innovate when population growth slowed and demand declined, by moving into more specialist forms of agriculture and by farming larger fields, which allowed more efficient use of labour. Clearly, farming was changing over time, through many small improvements in farming practices rather than any one fundamental innovation.

## Early modern manufacturing

Processes of growth, specialisation and diversification also occurred in manufacturing – although change was slow and, for many people, work changed little over generations. The dominant feature of manufacturing in the early modern period was the small scale of production. Many of the goods used every day were made within households. Food was processed: grain was made into bread and beer, and milk into butter, while fish and meat were preserved for later use, either by the family or for sale. Simple items such as brooms, platters and baskets were made at home. Textile production had traditionally been carried out in the home, but in the early modern period, while women continued to process fibre into yarn at home (Figure 6), the more skilled aspects of clothing production – weaving cloth and making up cloth into garments – were passed to specialist weavers and tailors.

Textiles were an important part of the early modern economy, with demand for clothing growing steadily as more people expected to have clothes reflecting the latest fashions. Cloth was traded over large distances. Silk fabrics from Italy and woollen cloths made in England and the Netherlands were exported across Europe. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, household textile production was coordinated into larger-scale manufacture through the ‘putting-out system’ or proto-industrialisation. This system exploited the slack periods in the farming year, when workers had spare time that they could use in making cloth. Merchants bought raw wool or flax and sent out parcels of the material to a succession of workers who would in turn prepare the fibre, spin it, weave it into cloth and then dye the cloth. Merchants paid each worker for their contribution, according to the amount of yarn spun or cloth woven, and sold the finished cloth to recover their costs and make a profit. In some areas, proto-industries began to take over from agriculture, with families abandoning farming work and devoting all their time to manufacturing.

Figure 6 Pieter Nijs, Woman Spinning, 1652, oil on canvas, 59 x 61 cm. Dulwich Picture Gallery, London. Photo: © Dulwich Picture Gallery/Bridgeman Images. Paintings of peasant women often showed them spinning at home, combining the work with other tasks such as looking after children, or simply chatting to neighbours and friends.
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The manufacture of luxury goods, such as furniture, jewellery, elaborate ceramics and mirrors, required higher levels of skill. These goods were produced in towns, in the workshops of specialist craftsmen. The production of these goods was closely regulated by guilds, associations of workers engaged in the same trade, such as goldsmiths or furriers, who banded together to protect their collective interests. Guilds oversaw the training of apprentices, and regulated the number of new businesses that were set up in any location and the quality of goods offered for sale.

## Activity 8 A servant’s indenture

This should take around 20 minutes

Read Monica Chojnacka and Merry Wiesner-Hanks, ‘Young woman places herself into service, France 1542’. Then answer the following questions:

- What will be Catherine’s main work in her new position?
- Where will she live while she works for her employer?

> Large numbers of young people in early modern Europe were employed as servants in urban or rural households. A young person might place himself or herself into a household as a servant or apprentice, especially if her or his parents were dead or lived elsewhere. Although it was certainly more common for young men to place themselves, in the following document a young woman affirms her right to make such arrangements for herself. She signs up for two years of live-in employment as a servant and assistant to a merchant.

> (Paris, Archives Nationales, Minutier central, Êtude VIII/474, October 11, 1542. Translated by Carol Loats.)

> Catherine Denis, daughter of the late Jehan Denis, who while living was a carpenter, living in Troussurt near Beauvais, the said Catherine aged more than 18 years, as she says, affirms that for her own benefit she places herself in service and employment.

> [She places herself] from today for the next two years with and in the service of Nicollas Querin, merchant mercier [seller of fashion merchandise such as trims and accessories], living in Paris, rue St. Denis, near the culvert. [Querin], present here, has retained the said Catherine as his servant during the said time.

> And the said Catherine, in making [this arrangement], has promised and promises to serve the said Nicollas Guerin well and loyally in his said occupation of mercerie, to sell and retail his merchandise, and she has promised and promises and guarantees to give a good account and balance of that which will be given to her by her said master to sell and retail, and of the profit which comes from it; and so promises to serve him in all his lawful and honorable business, work to his benefit, avoid losses to him; without serving elsewhere during the said time. For this service the said Nicollas Guerin has promised, will be obliged, and promises and guarantees to supply to the said Catherine what she needs in terms of drink, food, fire, bed, lodging, light, along with the sum of 10 livres tournois for the said time of two years, and which he has promised to pay to the said Catherine to the extent that she earns it, to the said value of 10 livres tournois for the said two years.

> Because thus, etc., promising, etc., obligating, etc., each renouncing to the other, etc., Done the year 1542, Wednesday, the 11th day of October.

> (Chojnacka and Wiesner-Hanks (eds), 2002, p. 171)

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