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Expanding Horizons

1400-1750. Expanding Horizons. The Commercial Revolution By the 1600s the nation had replaced the city as the basic economic unit in Europe; this change is known as the Commercial Revolution Governments and rich merchants alone had enough money to finance trading voyages.

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Expanding Horizons

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  1. 1400-1750 Expanding Horizons

  2. The Commercial Revolution • By the 1600s the nation had replaced the city as the basic economic unit in Europe; this change is known as the Commercial Revolution • Governments and rich merchants alone had enough money to finance trading voyages Changing Ways of Life

  3. The Commercial Revolution • By the 1600s banking families like the Medicis were being replaced by government chartered banks which provided a variety of services • Individual merchants who wanted to invest in exploration often raised money by combining their resources in joint-stock companies Changing Ways of Life

  4. The Commercial Revolution • As money became more widely available, a system based on the belief that the goal of business was to make profits took shape • In the 1600s the greatest increase in trade took place in the countries bordering the Atlantic Ocean: Portugal, Spain, England and the Netherlands Changing Ways of Life

  5. Mercantilism • Mercantilism held that because a state’s power depended on its wealth, the goal of every nation was to become as wealthy as possible • Europeans believed that the measure of a nation’s wealth was the amount of bullion, or gold and silver, it owned Changing Ways of Life

  6. Mercantilism • Nations could gain wealth by mining gold and silver at home or overseas and through trade • To increase national wealth, governments often aided businesses producing goods for export Changing Ways of Life

  7. Mercantilism • Colonies, or overseas territories ruled by a parent country, were highly valued in the mercantilist system as sources of raw materials and as vital markets for finished goods provided by the parent country Changing Ways of Life

  8. European Daily Life • Merchants prospered most from the expansion of trade and empire and began to surpass the nobility in both wealth and power • In the countryside, however, peasants lived as meagerly as they ever had Changing Ways of Life

  9. A Global Exchange • During the Commercial Revolution, Europe’s population grew rapidly and became more mobile • As Europe’s trade expanded; it contributed to a worldwide exchange of people, goods, technology, ideas and diseases Changing ways of life

  10. A Global Exchange • European influences profoundly affected local cultures, sometimes negatively; in turn local cultures, particularly those in Asia, influenced European arts, styles and foods Changing ways of life

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