Urbanisation and the growth of the professional and merchant classes

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  • Created on: 22-04-20 12:51
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  • Urbanisation and the growth of the professional and merchant class
    • Urbanisation
      • Between 1625-88 there was increasing levels of urban development.
        • Some towns became centres of distribution of a wider range of goods than what was stocked in the local market economies.
          • A growing number of shops were established in towns which sold a wide range of goods.
            • Eg tobacco, books, textiles, tea, ect.
      • Urban developement therefore became more concentrated in some larger existing market towns.
        • Eg Norwhich grew from 10,000 people in 1550 to over 30,000 in 1650.
          • This was mainly because of its importance as a centre of the cloth trade.
        • New urban areas such as Manchester, Sheffield, Derby and Newcastle began to emerge through the combination of industrialied parishes.
        • However, in 1688 the most populous 20 towns were the same as in 1625.
          • Most of these towns were close to the sead or to navigatable rivers, which allowed for the easy movement of goods.
    • The growth of the professional and merchant class
      • Urban growth and the emergance of shops also brought the developement of the professional and merchant class.
        • Service and leisure activities developed as part of this urban developement
          • Catered to and exploit the urban market.
        • Lawyers, doctors and estate agents had a larger client base in urban centres.
      • In Stuart England, a high proportion of sons of the gentry studied at the Inns of Court in London.
        • Had at least some legal training in order to meet the demands of landowning.
        • Such widespread legal knowledge meant that early modern England was an extreemly litigious society.
          • Means that there were lots of law suits.
      • Other structural changes to the economy also brought about the greater emergance of the professions,
        • As England increasingly competed with the Dutch and French after 1660, there was a necessary developement of administration
          • War and trade demanded more servoces from doctors, lawyeers, financiers, teachers and architects.
      • The years 1625-88 saw the growth of a merchant class involed in overseas trade.
        • The East India Company was a very profitable enterprise.
          • Traded in cotton, silk, tea and spices.
          • It grew in importance under Charles II, who allowed the company to aquire territory in India in order to protect its trading interests.
          • A growing number of London merchants became very rich on the proceeds of Indian trade.
            • Other merchants were involved in the profitable sugar and tobacco trade with America.

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