INTRODUCTION

1. The period of geographical and economical expansion that began in the second
half of the 16th century slowly came to an end by the 1600 and 1620 for many
regions in Europe. Some areas experienced decelerated growth; some stagnated,
while some others witnessed a steady decline.
2. During this period the long-distance trade with Asia, Africa and the New World
resulted in the shift of the economic centre of Europe from the Mediterranean
cities to the Atlantic coast of north-west Europe. The 16th century was also
marked by the price and commercial revolution. The economy grew at a steady
rate, trade activities were at a peak. It was a period which also saw the growth of
certain social groups like the gentry, bourgeoisie etc.
3. An attempt was made, in this century, to break free from the barriers of medieval
structures and enter into an age of modern economy. However, this was also a
period when the divide between the rich and the poor grew bigger as the rise in
prices did not match with the pace at which wages grew, with absolutist states at
helm the taxes rose even higher.
4. The 17th century, in contrast, was a period that witnessed the reversal of some of
the 16th century trends. According to some scholars the century was marked by
economic, intellectual, cultural as well as socio-political breakdown.
5. It was a period that witnessed an overall contraction of the European economy, the
commercial and industrial sectors began to lose their drive because of the lack of
support for agriculture.
6. Many parts of Europe experienced uprisings, major conflicts, wars and breakdown
of political structures. Demographically also many parts of Europe showed decline
or stagnation. All this has led many scholars to conclude that the seventeenth
century was a period of crisis in Europe.

IDEA OF GENERAL CRISIS

Many historians developed their own theoretical explanations that resulted in a broad
agreement on the idea of ‘general crisis of the seventeenth century’. The major works on
this theme included the names of Roland Mousnier, Eric Hobsbawm, H.R. Trevor-Roper,
Theodore K. Rabb, R.B. Merriman, Niels Steensgaard, J.V. Polisensky, etc.

FIRST VIEW
The intense debate on the subject of the general crisis can be seen in the three broad
approaches: The first view argues that the crisis was economic in origin. We may divide
the economic interpretation into:
a) those arguments based on theoretical classical Marxist interpretation
b) arguments based on economic data, issues like money and prices (TBEL)
c) those arguments which focus on demographic factors (TBEL)
1. The Marxist writings (on the general crisis) present this period as a critical phase
in the transition from feudalism to capitalism The debate was initiated by Eric
Hobsbawm in 1954 and was followed by Boris Porchnev. The crisis was seen as a
class conflict that took place at two levels. Hobsbawm observed that the
seventeenth century was not only an era of economic crisis but also a period of
social revolt. Ruggiero Romano also presents it as an economic and political crisis.
2. Marxist writers saw the 17th century Crisis as a crisis of production. The crisis of
production was general in Europe, but it was only in England where the feudal
monarchical absolutism was overthrown by the rising landed gentry and urban
bourgeoisie paving the way for the triumph of capitalism.

SECOND VIEW
1. The second approach concentrates on political issues, particularly the mid-century
revolts and rebellions. H.R. Trevor-Roper was one of the earliest writers to suggest
the thesis of ‘The General Crisis of the Seventeenth Century.’
2. He picked up the theme that it was not the crisis of the European economy but a
crisis in relations between society and the state. He sees the major events of this
period as political revolution.

THIRD VIEW
1. The third major interpretation of the crisis takes a sceptical view towards the very
concept of general crisis. There are historians who oppose the theory of general
crisis of the seventeenth century. J.H. Elliott had doubts whether the instability
caused by widespread revolts was in any way exceptional and drew the attention
of historians to a series of tensions within early modern political structures that
caused frequent revolts and rebellions. Elliott was rather sceptical of
Trevor-Roper’s focus and explanation of the mid-seventeenth century revolts.
2. In 1975, Theodore K. Rabb published his famous work on this subject titled The
Struggle for Stability in Early Modern Europe. It sought to rescue the idea of crisis
with a more precise definition of the term. Rabb made historians employ the word
 ‘crisis’ with greater precision and brought cultural dimension of change into the
discussion on general crisis.

OTHERS

1. The 1960s and 70s witnessed the coming together of many historians to support or
reject the idea of the ‘general crisis’. An interesting explanation was provided by J.V.
Polisensky, who tried to establish connection between the Thirty Years’ War and the
seventeenth century crisis and saw them both as the conflict of opposite political and
cultural societies.

2. Another important contributor to the debate on the seventeenth century crisis came
from Niels Steensgaard. He provided an alternative thesis that connected the economy
and politics by highlighting the impact of increasing taxation and expanding state
structure.

3. In recent years, the thesis of the seventeenth century crisis is generally accepted by the
scholars of early modern Europe but its scope has been broadened.

DEMOGRAPHIC CRISIS

1. The population of Europe had an impressive growth by the end of the 16th C. While
some regions experienced stagnation, in others places, the growth rate slowed down. The
Thirty Years’ War had a disastrous impact on the German population. On the other hand,
the situation was different in some other parts of Europe where the population increased
swiftly in northern Europe like England. Even here, the rate of growth slowed down
during the second half of the seventeenth century.

2. The declining demographic trends during this period can be attributed to famines,
epidemics, plagues and wars. These were especially devastating to the urban areas as
compared to towns. The decline in population of these cities caused de-urbanisation and
severely restricted their economic opportunities. According to Hollen Lees and
Hohenberg the rural population grew and the town’s population shrunk as a consequence
of inter-regional changes and de-urbanisation.
3. For Peter Kriedte the demographic decline showed both a Malthusian as well as a
social crisis. The growing population during the 16th century had put heavy pressure on
the fixed ceiling of agricultural output.

4. According to Thomas Malthus, in a natural economy, the population has a natural

growth rate and increases geometrically while the natural resources necessary to support
the population grows arithmetically. This results in a crisis till it is resolved with a
drop-in population.

AGRARIAN CRISIS

1. Agricultural conditions depended to a large extent on population and technological

factors. It is difficult to present an accurate picture of European agriculture in the absence
of reliable data. However, data is available on France as seen in the Annales writings.

2. Fernand Braudel’s classical work brings out the agrarian weaknesses of the
Mediterranean region. Poor land, soil deficiency, and hilly tracts prevented cultivation of
food crops.

3. During the seventeenth century, European agriculture at many places showed signs of
exhaustion. In central, eastern and southern Europe feudal systems dominated. In the case
of France, agrarian decline was not pronounced but there was growing pressure on
agriculture imposed by state authorities. To ensure its economic interests, the French
monarchs protected the small peasants against feudal landlords but this policy resulted in
long-term agrarian stagnation.

4. State exploited the peasants by raising taxes like taille to meet the vast administrative
structure and bear the financial burden of continental wars. The nobility too compelled
the peasants to pay heavy taxes that impoverished peasantry and checked agriculture
investment or improved technology.

5. Wars resulted in further destruction of agriculture (like the Swedish-Polish).

MONETARY CRISIS
1. Some scholars concentrate on the data of price trends to explain the 17th C Crisis. Earl
J. Hamilton and Pierre Channu bring out the role of Seville (the famous Spanish port) and
the Atlantic trade leading to financial crisis.

2. According to this view, declining supply of money and the failure to finance Atlantic
trade caused the crisis. The frequent debasement of coinage throughout the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries indicate an acute scarcity of currency. It was temporarily solved by
the bullion imports from the ‘New World’.

3. The economic growth of the 16th C began to slow down once the quantity of silver
imports to Europe was reduced. Hamilton considers monetary factors related to the
bullion imports the main reason for the crisis. He worked out a detailed table of silver
imports that reached their peak in 1620 and then declined sharply. This caused a decline
in the money in circulation.

4. Ruggiero Romano suggested that the first half of the century showed clear signs of
concentration or decline in the minting of money which resulted in a shortage of
monetary stock. For Romano, money, prices, exchange or banking were essentially facts
of production and distribution and the prices should not be seen in isolation

5. Jan De Vries questioned the role of money in the long run- he does not believe in the
view that the European economy rose and fell with the inflow of silver from the new
world but he does consider the role played by monetary instability and several short runs.
Many historians don’t agree with Hamilton’s idea. Their main argument is that silver
coming from America did not stay in Europe for long and it was taken away to the east
via the Levant to India and China. Thus, the impact of the silver influx was not so great.

CLIMATIC CRISIS

1. Some Annales historians placed an emphasis on the Little Ice Age as a determining
factor in the fall of the fertility rate by around 80-90% across Northern and Central
Europe.

2. WK Jordan suggests that the Little Ice Age also caused an increase in the rate of
mortality due to an increase in the spread of illnesses and a drop in productivity in
agriculture
3. Geoffrey Parker, however, draws attention away from the climatic conditions
arguments and places the crisis in the neo-scientific study of external processes that
impact the geological conditions on Earth itself.

4. A study of dendrochronological evidence found that the tree lines were deeper and
thick during these years- phenomena associated with wet weather conditions in summer
and acute winter. Another significant change was the lowering of snow lines that resulted
in the decrease of cultivable area.

ECONOMIC CRISIS

1. Europe had a wide range of economies that was uneven and functioned at different
levels during the 16th C- a period of growth and expansion in agriculture, manufacturing
and trade.

2. Fernand Braudel, J.I. Israel, Domeico Sella, etc. support the view of Hobsbawm who
argues that the crisis was basically a complete economic regression but its outcome
varied according to regional variations. There are scholars who suggest that the economic
setbacks were not of uniform pattern. During the crisis, a few industrial centres witnessed
fundamental transformation.

3. While some centres lost their earlier dominance like Venice, Florence, Antwerp, some
others rapidly progressed towards capitalist organisation. Most of the regions in
Germany, Mediterranean state and southern France experienced sharp decline.

4. Cloth manufacturing in Europe underwent significant changes, Textile industry

functioned within the artisan form of production.The destruction of the traditional textile
centres caused socio-economic dislocation and unemployment of artisans.

5. The Spanish shipbuilding industry had started declining from the last decade of the
16th C. During this period, the Dutch (Holland) shipping industry developed very fast
and became the carrier of international cargo.

6. During the 16th C, the European economy tried to break the medieval traditional
structure to reach the capitalist mode of production. In most parts of Europe, the feudal
social framework resisted that change. According to Hobsbawm, the crisis demonstrated
Europe’s failure to overcome the obstacles created by the feudal structure to reach the
stage of capitalism. As mentioned earlier, it was only in England where the forces of
capitalism could triumph and the old structure was destroyed and a new economic order
was created

SOCIAL CRISIS

1. Soviet Historian AD Lublinsky asserts that the relative heterogeneity of the economic
structure across Europe along with what Merriman terms the multiplicity of crises,cannot
be said that the crisis of the 17th century swept across Europe.

2. According to H.R. Trevor Roper, the 17th-century crisis was not only constitutional
rather it was a crisis in relation between the state and the society.

3. Historians such as Steensgaard and I. Schoffer talk about the marked increase in the
amount of military expenditure done by the state and the rising cost of maintaining an
army.

4. According to Roper, the Renaissance monarchies continued to expand, putting a

burden on society and the government. The post-1620 depression coincided with a
widespread reaction against the royal courts of the European rulers.

5. H.R. Trevor-Roper attributes all these rebellions to the same crisis that developed
through the tension between the court and the country but the solutions to these crises
were different in different places. Steensgaard rejected Roper’s court-country concept and
considered the crisis as an outcome of dynamic absolutism.

6. According to Elliot, he rejects the theory of a political crisis, calling the incident of
Spain a struggle between the periphery provinces and the royal authority at the centre.

POLITICAL CRISIS
1. Major political upheavals in the 17th century were at Portugal, Ireland, England,
Catalonia and later at Scotland, Holland, Sweden, Italy, Muscovy and the Ottoman
Empire within Europe along with upheavals in Brazil, Morocco, India and China.

2. Revolutions and civil wars ravaged the continent of Europe throughout the first half of
the 17th century. The three crucial conflicts were: The struggle of Habsburg Spain with
France and the Dutch republic, the rivalry of Sweden and Poland and confrontation
between the Austrian Hapsburg and the estates of their hereditary provinces which
escalated into the thirty years wars.

3. Josef Polisensky considered the thirty-year war (1618-1648) as an integral part of the
crisis. This one is considered as the last religious war in world history, started with the
German kingdom of Bohemiapart of the Holy Roman empire. The religious conflict
turned into a political one. Many historians see it as a war between the two biggest
empires (Spain and France) to control Europe. Some consider it as a revolt against the
German Regime and so on. According to Polisensky the revolt was political and was
caused by the deep-rooted economic crisis. The most important result of the war was the
disintegration of the Holy Roman Empire. Historians have divided opinions about the
socio-economic impact of the war.

4. The widespread of their rebellions that tore through the heart of France were political
and anti physical rebellions however an equally severe revolt in Normandy exposed the
socio-political impact of the economic slump in economic context to the point where
there was a French equivalent to the English Bourgeois revolution.

5. It also saw the rise of influential leaders and the confluence of various revolts and
revolutions, the stamp paper uprisings, the English Civil War and the glorious revolution.

IMPACT OF 17TH CENTURY CRISIS

1. The 17th-century crisis brought with it a number of challenges and changes that
impacted the nature of the balance of power that was restored to an earlier form of
northern Europe. In Demographic terms, the crisis resulted in a high rate of mortality in
different parts of the continent.
2. The long span of wars including the 30 years of war spread and influenced the regions
of Scandinavia, Italy, Denmark, and Poland due to the plague that impeded the mortality
rate.

3. It also led to the feudalization of various parts of Europe. Demographically speaking,

the burden of taxation impacted the quality of life and the reliance on agriculture in
Europe.

4. Further, the development of the landed gentry gave rise to the state of
proto-industrialization. Colonial powers also led to the consolidation and diversification
of demographic variables in Europe. In Elbe Germany, the gap between the labour
demand and the number of people who were available for physical labour led to the
shortage that was instrumental in the rise of serfdom practices.

5. TK Rabb asserts that 1662 to 1789 was a period of the rise of the landowning
bourgeois class; they were the sole beneficiaries of this recent development of the 17th
century. Agriculture, demography, and climate along with the development of the armies,
Phillip II in Spain quintupled and developed in the post-crisis phase.

6. Robert Brenner goes on to point out the role of the feudal state. It was seen as an
exaction and exploitation of feudal monarchies, where the highest echelons of society
played a major role This led to the technological stagnation, in western Europe, which
was the impetus towards capitalist development. While in Eastern Europe, it led to a
chronic shortage of labour and serfdom.

7. Brenner further points to these conditions as the cause of colonialism and

empire-building outside Europe, which was the guiding force behind mercantilism

Conclusion: - The same crisis resulted in the triumph of capitalism in north-western

region but in Eastern Europe the feudal structure defeated the capitalist forces. It led to
re-feudalization of the social relations of production in central and Eastern Europe. The
crisis widened the economic contrast between the western and eastern as well as north
and south Europe