What Is The Rise Of Economics Essay

When we think of the economy, we usually envision money, images of graphs, and old white men in suits. In reality, economics simply refers to how we manage our resources.

Economics has, therefore, always been a part of every day life (College Economics Topics 1).

Throughout history, humans have used economics to facilitate their well being. Economies evolved to suit the needs of the societies they served. Until very recently, the evolution of economics was slow; little changed for tens of thousands of years. The economic system we use today is just a blip on the chart of human history. It has served humanity well in the sense that it has brought us comforts unthinkable to our fore bearers. But, its price in terms of the long term quality of

In France specifically, but also in much of continental western Europe, the rise of capitalism was caused by an influx of gold arriving from the new world. As this gold arrived from the new world, the prices of goods and services shot up. But, the payments peasants, merchants, and artisans made to their lords stayed the same as it had for centuries. These events led to a rapid expansion of the middle class. The rise of the merchant class was made evident when in 1530, in the Gevaudan region of France, the local lord had an income of five thousand livres. At the same time, it was not uncommon for a wealthy merchant to have an income of sixty-five thousand livres, a full 1300% of the lords income.

Merchants used their new found power to buy land from the impoverished lords. This transfer of wealth would become the driving force in the fall of monarchies across Europe, not least of which was the French monarchy (16).

Similar forces were under way across the channel in England. The rapidity of Britain’s transformation to capitalism was compounded by sheep farming. At the same time as