The Beginning of the Population Explosion & the Growth of Cottage Industry

Were Their Lives Better Now?

Disease:

• Now, the black plague had passed as the common black rat that carried the diseased fleas became taken over by the Asiatic brown rat on which the diseased fleas did not survive as well. Due to this fact, the black plague came to an end, therefore allowing the population to start to climb back up.
• In addition, the inoculation for small pox was created, saving many lives throughout the European world.
• Improvements in sewage and general sanitation reduced diseases such as typhoid and typhus in many urban areas.

Putting-Out System:

• Definition: The putting-out system is composed of two main participants, the merchant capitalist and the rural worker. The merchant loaned, or “put out,” raw materials to several cottage workers, who processed the raw materials in their own homes and returned the finished product to the merchant.
• For example, a merchant might provide raw wool and a proletariat would process the wool and weave it into fabric. 
• Proletarian society structure, when compared to peasantry, gave the poor more freedom but at times considered worse than being a peasant. At this time, with these developments, more land was available and more trade control was placed in the hands of the peasants. In addition, with the increase of food production (science/crop rotation) and freedom allowed people to have more control over their lives and futures.
• A proletariat, someone who still completes mindless activities for their living, has a better life now because they are getting paid individually and are not as bound to the land as they had previously been when they were peasants.
• Nothing had improved significantly with the proletarian system, as they were still completing mindless work under the supervision of someone else. This societal revolution allowed the poor to manage their work and income better.
• The proletariats could now relax on the weekends, with Monday distinguished as a rest day, a welcomed difference. Although the relaxing weekends caused intense labor later in the week, the proletariats did their best to complete what was asked of them, and if they hadn’t, the merchant had a relatively small amount of control over them anyway.

• The Putting-Out System Compared to Mercantilism:
• There are aspects that are comparable, but they do not match or are not analogical/analogous.
• The mother country is comparable to the merchant because they were in control or above the proletariats who took the place of a colony.
• On the other hand, the mother country processed the goods and did the bulk of the work like the proletariats while the colony provided the raw goods like the merchant.
• Because these do not line up, they are comparable, but they are not the same.

“Explain the slope of that line”

• With the proletariat structure, an increase in the number of family members, meant that there were more hands to complete the work.
• “Russia was killing it”: Russia had the highest slope or rate of increase of population because they were taking over new areas.
• France: France was steadily growing because of its reliable leadership and social status. 

Thank you so much!! Always a pleasure! 

Franny <3