Chapter Summary

After two centuries of slavishly parroting the findings of classical scientists, the new science called the Aristotelian and Ptolemaic systems of antiquity into question. The new science of the seventeenth century depended on hypotheses different from those of the ancients—that the universe consisted of matter and that all relationships in the universe could be measured and recorded through the use of mathematics. The new science raged through educational institutions throughout Europe. It was not limited to one corner of the continent. Nor was the new science confined to the educational systems. The printing press carried the startling conclusions to the public.

Aristotle had defined a timeless and perfect cosmology. It conformed well to the notions of the Great Chain of Being and the Body Politic. Unfortunately, Aristotle’s system, even as expanded upon by Ptolemy, failed to coincide with astronomical observation of movement of the planets. The new science proposed radical departures from the Aristotelian cosmology. Nicolaus Copernicus of Poland suggested that placing the sun rather than the earth at the center of the planetary system better explained observable phenomena. In Denmark, Tycho Brahe made more exact observations of the heavens that demonstrated the insubstantiality of the paths along which the planets moved. One of Brahe’s students, Johannes Kepler, used mathematics to describe the elliptical paths that marked the planets’ voyages around the sun. With use of a telescope, the Italian astronomer Galileo made visual observations of the heavens previously impossible. More importantly, he publicized Copernicus’ theory of a heliocentric universe. In 1633 the Catholic Church tried Galileo for heresy and forced him to recant his belief in a sun-centered cosmology.

The new science was determined to develop systems of thought that more accurately reflected observations in the natural world. During the Renaissance, Platonic idealism—the belief that ideas or forms best expressed reality—was resuscitated in Italy. Because numbers were themselves incorporeal (how can one show the number “two” in the natural world?), mathematics became the chief means of explaining natural phenomena. Numbers were the language of astronomers, alchemists, astrologers, and mystic numerologists who sought the secrets of the universe in combinations of numbers. Most influential of numerologists was Paracelsus, an alchemist who believed that all matter consisted of combinations of salt, sulfur, and mercury. While bizarre, Paracelsus’ “science” challenged Aristotelian teachings on the composition of matter and medicine. Paracelsus’ rejection of Aristotelian knowledge led others to more rational discoveries. Robert Boyle of England proposed the atomic structure of all matter and described accurately the relationship between volume and pressure of a gas. Medical knowledge was also advanced through a more precise study of anatomy. William Harvey, also of England, discovered the function of the heart as a pump to distribute blood throughout the body. Sir Isaac Newton of England best summarized the advances of the new science. Newton described the composition of light, developed the mathematical calculus, and constructed a reflecting telescope. Using earlier studies of Galileo, Newton expanded the physical theories of motion and inertia. Related to the laws of motion was the principle of attraction and repulsion that governed the movement of the planets—gravity.

The new science attracted royal patronage that financed the construction of centers of research. Royal societies were formed in England and France to bring together scientific minds. New schools, the mechanical colleges, arose to educate according to the dictates of the new science. In England, Sir Francis Bacon supported the scientific movement and advocated careful recording of scientific experimentation. Not everyone embraced the new science so enthusiastically. The Roman Catholic Church viewed the new trends in scientific discovery as simple heresy. Indeed, the rejection of the ancients led to widespread skepticism that anything could be known—either through revelation or science. Faith and reason seemed to be at odds. Rene Descartes attempted to bridge the gulf between the mystic and the knowable. Trained in the new science, Descartes was dismayed at the Church’s condemnation of the teachings of Galileo—especially because Descartes’ own mathematical discoveries agreed with those of the Italian. Descartes then produced a philosophical system, Cartesianism, devoted to explaining the relationship between the material and spiritual worlds. His explanation appeared in 1637 in Discourse on Method.

The discovery of the New World and the establishment of colonial ventures there revolutionized the commercial world of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The development of long-distance trade, whether to the New World, the Orient, or eastern Europe, caused changes in the technology of doing business and created new international trade rivalries.

The long-distance trade of the seventeenth century produced a unified intercontinental marketplace. Slaves from Africa mined South American silver, which was exported to Europe and used to purchase spices and other luxuries from Asia. There were no new trade routes opened or new technologies invented to account for the increase in trade. Instead, better organization and more efficient management of resources led to the commercial revolution. Triangular trade, in which goods passed from one market to a second in exchange for yet other commodities that were in demand in a third, expanded the range of trade items. Even more important were innovations in the creation of investment capital. The Bank of Amsterdam became the center of European finance through the development of giro, or transfer, banking. New financial notes, such as bills of exchange, made commercial transactions easier. The notes themselves became negotiable, thus a form of currency. The Bank of England, funded on taxes devoted to supporting the issue of bank notes, bought up other commercial paper in exchange for their own. Despite commercial advances, much of trade was still managed and capitalized within families. Trade offered the promise of high profits, but only at the risk of total loss.

Long-distance trade changed the shape of European consumption from luxury goods such as spices and silks to a broader range of exotic products. From the East, European bullion purchased spices exchanged in a triangular trade with Japan and the Indian subcontinent for silks, coffee, jewels, jade, porcelain, and other goods. The Dutch were the first to appreciate the potential of trade in Indian cotton cloth, called calicoes. By the middle of the eighteenth century, the English surpassed the Dutch in the calico trade. The Dutch and English both figured prominently in the coffee trade as well. Even more popular in Europe than coffee as a new beverage was tea. The English imported almost all tea from China in exchange for bullion. They later uncovered a market in China for opium that relieved the negative balance of trade. Tea drinking created a demand for sugar. In Brazil and the Caribbean, New World colonies raised sugar cane with African slave labor. The demand for sugar that could only be produced with slave labor created an enormous triangular trade system linking the New World, Africa, and Europe. Over six million black slaves were exported to the Americas in the eighteenth century. Over time, the British came to monopolize the trade in human labor. Along with sugar, the New World provided the markets of Europe with fish, furs, rice, and tobacco—the only native American plant product to find a market in Europe. The new products revolutionized the patterns of consumption in Europe.

The Dutch, alone among European countries, appeared to profit from the long years of war between 1565 and the Peace of Westphalia. Sea warfare proved less expensive than land campaigns. In addition, Holland attracted many skilled Protestants driven from neighboring Catholic countries. At the heart of Dutch prosperity was commerce. The Dutch Republic contained seventeen provinces, but the province of Holland was the most prosperous. The capital city of Amsterdam was a banking and commercial center that drew men and money to Holland. Dutch commercial success rested on naval superiority and the dominance Dutch shipping enjoyed in carrying goods of all nations. Dutch masters controlled the trade of the Baltic and of the East Indies throughout the seventeenth century. Only in the New World, where their colonial possessions were limited to the Hudson River, were the Dutch behind their European trade rivals. Dutch businessmen pioneered triangular trade and exchange banking. They were first to utilize marine insurance and joint stock markets to distribute the risks of investment. There were many factors that account for Dutch leadership in commercial innovation. The Dutch territories were small and produced insufficient supplies of food, thus necessitating trade. Dutch society was generally tolerant and attracted those who required a freer environment for inquiry and experimentation. Thus many of the intellectual elite found their way to the Dutch Republic, where they fostered an atmosphere of creativity.

Outside the Dutch Republic, monarchs directed economic development for their own benefit. Trade was one of the least objectionable tax bases. Also, monarchs came to regard competition in trade as a means of weakening rivals without resorting to the expense of war. Trade competition resulted in the formulation of an economic doctrine called mercantilism. There were two fundamental assumptions in mercantilism: a nation’s wealth was measured in its supplies of bullion, and what one nation gained from successful trade another nation inevitably lost. Mercantilism led to various stratagems to regulate trade. Bullion exportation was commonly forbidden. Monarchs granted monopolies over trading regions or items of trade in exchange for fees or as payoffs for political support. Two examples of trade monopolies were the English and Dutch East India companies. Both were joint-stock companies—that is, capital was raised for investment by selling shares of stock entitling investors to a share of the profits proportional to the amount of stock they owned. Both of the East India companies were financial successes, but most joint-stock operations failed to produce profits. Governments also passed laws to protect markets from foreign competition. In the 1660s the English passed the Navigation Acts which required colonial goods to be carried in English ships. The legislation was extremely successful, resulting in increased trade and a boom for English shipbuilding. The French also protected domestic markets by passage of legislation similar to the English Navigation Acts. In addition, French ministers raised tariffs on imported goods to stimulate French industries. The English shortly followed the French example. Both French and English protective legislation was aimed at the Dutch and their naval superiority.

Protective legislation led to another round of international warfare. Mercantilism implied a form of economic warfare that pitted one state against another. Commercial superiority posed a national threat to less successful states.

The initial confrontation occurred between Holland and England, competitors for trade in the Orient and in the Atlantic. In the middle of the seventeenth century, while the British were engaged in their civil war, the Dutch expelled them from some of the most lucrative Asian markets. A series of three naval wars followed. The preponderance of Dutch ships were outfitted strictly for commerce. Despite the numerical superiority of their navy, the Dutch had fewer military ships than did the English. In the course of warfare, Dutch commercial superiority was lost. Their last New World colony, New Amsterdam, fell to the English. Only the Glorious Revolution and the succession in England of the Dutch Prince William of Orange brought the conflict to a close. The French struck at Dutch commercial superiority through a system of protective tariffs. Dependent on free trade, the Dutch suffered more than the French in the contest to erect tariff walls. Louis XIV’s plans to gain the Spanish Netherlands were more militant than Colbert’s economic warfare. Louis invaded the Netherlands until forced to withdraw by a coalition of European states.

Louis XIV pursued an aggressive foreign policy that brought him into conflict with virtually every other European state. Much of the warfare renewed the old antipathies between France and the territories of the Habsburgs—Spain, the Spanish Netherlands, and the Holy Roman Empire. Against the French designs, ambassadors of other nations constructed a balance of power—a coalition of forces that together matched the power of France. In 1688 French aggression on the borders of the Holy Roman Empire precipitated war, pitting France against the empire, England, and Holland. The Nine Years’ War that followed failed to resolve the diplomatic problems of French expansion. The war, ended by the Peace of Ryswick in 1697, did provide evidence that concerted action on the part of the Grand Alliance could restrain French aggression if it could not end it. The second outbreak of warfare occurred as a result of dynastic failure in the kingdom of Spain. As it became widely recognized that Charles II of Spain would have no heir, both Louis XIV and Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor, claimed the throne. Each had married sisters of Charles II. William III of England attempted to negotiate a diplomatic settlement for the Spanish succession that would bar the king of France and his family from the throne of Spain. Charles II himself offered the crown of Spain to the younger grandson of Louis XIV in return for promises that the Bourbon would abandon any claims to the throne of France. The succession of Philip V, grandson of Louis XIV of France, brought on the War of the Spanish Succession in 1702. The Grand Alliance was renewed to confront the unified forces of Spain and France. The addition of Prussia to the Grand Alliance balanced the addition of Spain to the French royal house. Land battles generally favored the Grand Alliance, but no final military conclusion to the war was reached. The Peace of Utrecht ended the conflict by diplomatic compromise. The house of Bourbon remained in Spain and was recognized as the rightful ruling family. The emperor received the Spanish territories in Italy and the Spanish Netherlands.

The Treaty of Utrecht, followed shortly thereafter by the death of Louis XIV, provided a temporary respite to the constant warfare. Emerging as the commercial leader in the aftermath of the wars was England. Key to England’s commercial superiority was the development of North American colonies. The colonies provided ships, tobacco and sugar as exports. Equally important, the colonists were consumers of English manufactured goods. The English secured a monopoly of the slave trade with the Spanish colonies by the terms of the Treaty of Utrecht. England received small territories in the New World from France as well as Gibraltar in the Mediterranean. The major rival to England’s dominance as the major commercial power in the world was France. Although France held the most profitable colony in the West Indies, its other colonies were not heavily settled by European immigrants. In contrast, the English colonies had, from the outset, attracted large numbers of settlers to the New World. In order to offset the population advantage held by the English, France sent armies to defend its North American colonies. When the English responded by sending military detachments to the western frontiers of the colonies, warfare ensued. The English turned the Seven Years’ War into a contest for imperial domination. British navies extended the conflict from North America to the Caribbean sugar plantations and the merchant settlements of the Indian subcontinent. In all three theaters, the English were triumphant. In the Peace of Paris of 1763, France ceded its territories in North America in return for regaining the sugar islands of the Caribbean. British control of Indian trade was recognized.