HIST363 Study Guide


Unit 2: Ancient and Early Modern Industry

2a. Identify and describe important industries in China, India, and the Roman Empire

  • What were some of the negative byproducts of Roman deep vein mining?
  • What were some Roman glass making methods? How did the Romans use the glass it manufactured?
  • What materials did the Romans use for building construction?
  • How did Rome obtain the grain it needed?
  • What role did water play in Roman society and how did the Romans engineer its use?
  • Name four great industrial inventions of ancient China.
  • In what ways did ancient China's workshop system of production foreshadow the modern assembly line?
  • In what ways was copper and bronze metallurgy in China different from metallurgy in the West?
  • Describe the economy of Germania Inferior and how it related to Roman governance of the area.
  • India has a long history of cotton manufacturing that predates that in Europe and was the impetus to England's Industrial Revolution. Discuss cotton production and processing before British colonization in India.

While modern industrial production methods and practices may not have been fully developed in pre-Modern China, India, and the Roman Empire, this does not mean that some form of industrial production did not exist. Roman mining and glassware were highly-developed industries that required technological applications to be successful. Roman glass making was highly developed, highly prized, and has been found as far away as China and Japan.

China perfected bronze metallurgy and bronze production for domestic and military use, and had a highly-advanced industrial process with an early version of the assembly line. In India, cotton production was in existence long before the British arrived and exploited Indian cotton for their own purposes and textile production. Cotton fabric provided an impetus to the Industrial Revolution in Britain.

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2b. Describe different forms of industry in Early Modern Europe

  • What role did the spice trade play in the development of the early modern European economy?
  • What role did the Dutch East India Company play in global trade from its founding in 1602 until its bankruptcy in 1799?

During the Renaissance (1300–1600), Florence and several Italian cities benefited from their extensive wool processing industry. Business leaders encouraged the creation of a growing banking industry to finance it. For example, wealthy families, such as the Medici, provided major financial support which promoted new industrial operations.

Early forms of capitalism developed in Europe as trade, commerce, and urbanization revived. Beginning in the 12th century, European cities and towns grew as merchants began opening trade routes with the Middle East and East to meet the ever-increasing demand for foreign goods, such as silk, porcelain, and spices, in addition to the industries we detail in Unit 3.

Middle Eastern merchants and traders dominated these lucrative trade routes and marked up the cost to buy these products significantly. European merchants eventually learned how to bypass these middlemen: they created their own trade routes to sail directly to the source and buy the valuable commodities sold in the East Indies. Their efforts stimulated improvements in naval technology, cartography, and created new forms of business organizations, banking arrangements, and insurance providers.

For example, the British East India and Dutch East India companies, which we explore in the next section, became two of the largest and most successful joint stock companies in the international marketplace. Their global reach made them the most profitable trading companies in the world prior to the modern period.

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2c. Explain how early forms of capitalism developed in Europe

  • Define merchant capitalism.
  • How was religious tolerance key to trade in late medieval and early modern Europe?
  • Describe how usury and the Calvinist idea of predestination impacted the rise of early capitalism in the Netherlands?
  • What role did the Hanseatic League play in the development of European capitalism?
  • What role did chartered and joint stock companies play in the development of early modern capitalism?

Trade and commerce resumed during the latter Middle Ages (476 AD–1492), after the collapse of Rome, the revival of European towns and cities, and a return of stability. However, the Roman Catholic Church was an omnipresent force and became an impediment to industrial growth. For example, the church limited excessive profit-making by forbidding usury (money lending at high interest rates) and demanded businesses charge their customers a just and fair price.

During the Reformation (1517–1648) a decline in the power of the Catholic Church and rise of Calvinism eroded the religious dominance that had slowed the rise of the merchant class. Businesses gained the ability to lend money at a market-based interest rate, and would charge prices based on supply and demand with less interference from the church. Calvinism supported the idea of predestination – that monetary and business success indicated God's favor – a belief that would encourage entrepreneurism, investment, and personal wealth.

Capitalism and national forms of industry we discuss in more detail in Unit 3 became widespread in Europe. Merchants found new business and trade routes in addition to their local partners. For example, merchant traders from cities along the Baltic coast – northern Germany, Scandinavia, Russia – created the Hanseatic League (1157–1600), a trans-national commercial network, to facilitate trade and common interests.

Merchants in Amsterdam, Antwerp, London, and Venice also created new business organizations comprised of wealthy investors, called joint stock companies (similar to today's publicly-traded corporations) to finance more expensive trading ventures, such as the long, perilous voyages to India, Indonesia, and the New World which would prove extremely profitable when successful.

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Unit 2 Vocabulary

  • Assembly line
  • British East India Company
  • Calvinism
  • Chartered company
  • Copper and bronze metallurgy
  • Cotton manufacturing
  • Deep vein mining
  • Domus 
  • Dutch East India Company
  • Germania inferior
  • Glassmaking
  • Grain
  • Hanseatic League
  • Joint Stock Company
  • Merchant capitalism
  • Predestination
  • Spice trade
  • Tolerance/toleration
  • Usury
  • Water