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The economy and society - Coggle Diagram
The economy and society
Economy
Characteristics
Traditional agriculture
Low productivity
Not commercial (people farmed to meet their own needs)
Guilds
Associations of craftsmen regulated
Working hours
Prices
Wages
Tools
Domestic trade
Grew very little
Internal customs duties
Poor quality of the roads
Foreign trade was expanding
Discovery of America
Establishment of new sea routes to Asian markets
New economic system: Mercantilism
Country's wealth depended on how much gold and silver it possessed
To accumulate more metals
Protectionist policies
Crisis
Spain and most part of Europe
Prices in general increased
As a result of these problems
Farmlands were abandoned
Craft production fell
Problems
American markets had stopped buying Spanish products
Agriculture becoming more self-sufficient.
Spanish craftsmen could not compete
Monarch didn't protect
Society
The estates of the realm continued
Privileged
1st Estate
2nd State
Non privileged
3rd Estate
The nobility and the clergy did not pay tax
Economic power by collecting tithes from the peasants
Through the income they received from their lands
The Third Estate had to pay tax
The upper middle class or bourgeoisie
Merchants and business owners
Became richer and more powerful
The lower middle class or petite bourgeoisie
Small merchants and craftsmen
Could not compete with new forms of production
The peasantry
Peasantry and day labourers
Poor harvests
Rising prices
Higher taxes