Commercial revolution
In European history, the commercial revolution saw the development of a European economy – based on trade – which began in the 11th century AD and operated until the advent of the Industrial Revolution in the mid-18th century. Beginning c. 1100 with the Crusades, Europeans rediscovered spices, silks, and other commodities then rare in Europe. Consumer demand fostered more trade, and trade expanded in the second half of the Middle Ages (roughly 1000 to 1500 AD). Newly forming European states, through voyages of discovery, investigated alternative trade routes in the 15th and 16th centuries, which allowed European powers to build vast, new international trade networks. Nations also sought new sources of wealth and practiced mercantilism and colonialism. The Commercial Revolution is marked by an increase in general commerce, and in the growth of financial services such as banking, insurance, and investing.
Law[edit]
Laws began to change to deal with commerce, both internationally, and locally within individual countries.
In France, for example, the Ordinance of Marine of Louis XIV was published under the auspices of Colbert in 1691, and was the first complete code of maritime and commercial law; and "when we consider the originality and extent of the design and the ability with which it is executed, we shall not hesitate to admit that it deserves to be ranked among the noblest works that legislative genius and learning have ever accomplished."
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In England, the Navigation Acts were among the British effort to regulate trade.
Effects[edit]
The commercial revolution, coupled with other changes in the early modern period, had dramatic effects on the globe.
For more than 2000 years the Mediterranean Sea had been the focus of European trade with other parts of the world. This focus shifted to the Atlantic Ocean by routes south around the Cape of Good Hope after 1488, and by trans-Atlantic trade after 1492. Older overland trade routes such as the Silk Road suffered economic decline due to the new maritime competition.
Christopher Columbus and the conquistadors, through their travels, were indirectly responsible for the massive depopulation of South America. They conquered the Inca, Aztec, and Maya peoples and incorporated their territories into the Spanish Empire. Other Europeans similarly affected the peoples of North America as well.
An equally important consequence of the commercial revolution was the Columbian Exchange. Plants and animals moved throughout the world due to human movements. For example, Yellow fever, previously unknown in North and South America, was imported through water that ships took on in Africa.[50] Cocoa (chocolate), coffee, maize, cassava, and potatoes moved from one hemisphere to the other. Better food and more wealth allowed for larger families. The migration of peoples from Europe to the Americas allowed for European populations to increase. Higher caloric yields of the New World staple crops reduced the percentage of the workforce engaged in agricultural labor and accelerated Urbanization.
Europe's commercial revolution also created a foundation of wealth needed for the industrial revolution.[51] The expanding labor force was also redirected into nascent industrialization. Economic prosperity financed new forms of cultural expression during this period.