StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...

Economics from a Historical Perspective - Essay Example

Cite this document
Summary
The author of the paper "Economics from a Historical Perspective" tells that for the convenience of historians and the general people, the entire history of the European civilization has been classified into primarily three periods: the ancient times, the medieval times, and the modern times…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER97.9% of users find it useful
Economics from a Historical Perspective
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Economics from a Historical Perspective"

Download file to see previous pages

The powerful class of people acquired the ownership of some people from the lower sections of society, who would perform duties as directed by their masters. These people were called slaves. However, medieval Europe developed a somewhat similar culture of interdependency between two classes of people which was known as “serfdom”. The medieval serfs were the dependent peasants. Serfdom first developed in France, where slavery had not been practiced significantly. The European countryside during the Middle Ages was the seat of large houses called “manors” which were different from the Roman “villas” of the earlier times. These manors were built according to a typical design and were usually accompanied by large expanses of land meant for farming activities. The manors were the home of the medieval lords, who possessed considerable power and authority and were next to only the king in terms of their position. These lords used to engage peasants to carry out farming in the manor lands belonging to the lords themselves. These poor peasants usually had no land of their own and earned their living by working on the lands of their masters. In return for their services, they were allowed to live in the outhouses of the manors. They were also provided adequate protection by the lords and their armies in case of an unforeseen attack by the barbaric tribes which was common during medieval times. However, serfdom was quite different from slavery. Here, the lords and serfs were bounded by an informal contract outlining their mutual authorities, obligations, and financial relation (Phillips, 57). This marked an improvement in the conditions of the working class where they had been completely subservient to their masters during the prevalence of slavery.

The population of Europe (including modern Russia) was estimated to be around 42 million in 1000 grew to about 73 million by 1300, which is recorded as the highest population during the medieval times. During these three centuries, the number of European people increased by 31 million compared to an increase of only 15 million recorded during the three centuries prior to 1000. There were several reasons for this significant growth in population. During the period 1000-1300, medieval Europe was characterized by the cultivation of new lands which increased the overall food supply. The agricultural sector flourished and buoyed by the positivity in the economy, the population started increasing. The human settlement began to expand to new territories, especially to the fertile valleys of the rivers Elba and Oder. The European people moved eastwards to acquire new lands and build their livelihoods over there. They build up their new settlements in mainly three directions: to the south towards the Hungarian plain following the natural course of the river Danube, to the central lowlands of “Thuringia, Saxony, and Silesia” and towards the north bordering the coast of the Baltic sea which finally led to the formation of new cities such as Rostock and Konigsberg. The boundaries of the major existing cities were expanded to include more people within the cities while in the countryside, new castles were constructed and new villages were formed by the increasing population. In addition to this, there was lesser migration of the European people to other countries like Scandinavia in the north, Russia to the east, etc. 

...Download file to see next pages Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“Economics from a Historical Perspective Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 7000 words”, n.d.)
Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/macro-microeconomics/1393533-economics-in-a-historical-perspective
(Economics from a Historical Perspective Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 7000 Words)
https://studentshare.org/macro-microeconomics/1393533-economics-in-a-historical-perspective.
“Economics from a Historical Perspective Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 7000 Words”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/macro-microeconomics/1393533-economics-in-a-historical-perspective.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Economics from a Historical Perspective

History and Imagination in Daniel's Richter's Facing East from Italian Country

Name Title Instructor Date History and Imagination in Daniel Richter's Facing East from Indian Country Part I In an award winning historical study of Native early America, Daniel Richter takes the reader through the most important stages of the early social developments in the New World, and their re-construction through the perspective of the Native people.... The book surpasses the narrow confinements of the academic study and depicts the Eastern and Western perspective of historical developments in early Native America from an instrumentalist point of view....
4 Pages (1000 words) Essay

What is money and why do we need it Historic evolvement of money: economic perspective

Instead money could enable farmer to purchase salt directly from the producer without involving fisherman.... Welfare Impacts of Developing Market Mechanism Example: in early societies the role of mother or women was explicitly different from the current scenarios.... Kent define money as “a commodity which is generally acceptable as a medium of exchange and at the same time acts as a measure and a store of value" (economics Concepts, 2012)....
5 Pages (1250 words) Essay

Whiteness in Historical Research

Yet, since the multicultural perspective is predominantly concerned with fostering authentic understanding of minor cultures, they usually do not focus on the issue of how the dominant white culture in such countries as the U.... From this perspective, European discourse of whiteness differs from, for example, Asian discourse which has never been 'racialised' (Dyer, 1997).... The recent rapid proliferation of publication dedicated to the theme is also impressive with hundreds of British, Australian, and especially American historians and scholars specialized in a variety of disciplines from law and sociology to pedagogic and cultural studies producing numerous article and books with such titles as Forever White, The Wages of Whiteness, The White Scourge, How the Irish Became White, How the British Working Class Became White, Making Whiteness, The Invention of the White Race, and Whiteness in Crisis (Bonnett, 1993, 1998 and 2000; Roediger, 1993; Allen, 1994)....
6 Pages (1500 words) Essay

International Economics: European Historical Perspective

Colonialism, which was a phenomenon that was almost synchronous with the revolution, ensured that European production facilities had access not only to a much larger variety and volume of raw materials but also to a much larger market comprised of not only the participating European states but also their colonies in the New World, Africa and Asia. The question posited asks how much the destinations of emigrants from Europe during the period 1870-1914 reflected the export of capital during that same period from Europe....
3 Pages (750 words) Essay

Marxist Perspective

The paper “Marxist perspective” focuses on the theory and practice related to the liberation and self-emancipation of the working class.... The conflict has been the main subject of Marxism, and all the perspective revolves around this concept.... Marxist perspective has been named after and is based upon Marx's political and economic theories.... It is also thought to be synonymous to Socialism, though these two vary from one another....
11 Pages (2750 words) Assignment

How Historical Perspectives Influence the International Relations

hellip; It is accepted that scholars analyzing today's international relations need to gain a historical perspective on contemporary events and behaviors.... This case study "How historical Perspectives Influence the International Relations" discusses the nature of each of these milestones and comments on how taking them into account affects and influences modern thinking on international relations.... The dates 1492, 1648 and 1815 can be seen as accepted starting points for the historical development of the political system....
10 Pages (2500 words) Case Study

Economic Perspectives On Cultural Heritage

The paper "Economic Perspectives On Cultural Heritage" discusses the public funding for the arts in the UK from various perspectives, while examining the necessity of incorporating arts in modern day lives and society, and whether arts would not survive without this subsidy from the government.... Yet this topic never fails to create a large controversy, as to why money from the public purses should go towards maintaining something that does not have much applicability (as regards getting public/civic utility services from the government through the public funds)....
37 Pages (9250 words) Research Paper

Robinson View Against Sassen View and Highlights the Importance of the Contrasting Perspectives

She of the view that the pre-historical roles played by some cities that are considered ordinary; are too important to be categorized as insignificant.... Saskia's global city approach seems to trigger a contrasting view from Jennifer Robinson and she details her ordinary city theory in his book 'Ordinary Cities: Between Modernity and Development'....
16 Pages (4000 words) Term Paper
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us