In the preceding pages we have attempted to study particular effects of the Commercial Revolution (in the broad sense including the expansion of commerce as well as the change of trade-routes), such as the decline of Venice and of the Hanse, the formation of colonial empires, the rise of commercial companies, the expansion of banking, the introduction of new articles of commerce, and the development of agriculture and industry. In each particular the change was noticeable and important.
But the Commercial Revolution possesses a more general significance.
[Sidenote: Europeanization of the World]
(1) It was the Commercial Revolution that started Europe on her career of world conquest. The petty, quarrelsome feudal states of the smallest of five continents have become the Powers of to-day, dividing up Africa, Asia, and America, founding empires greater and more lasting than that of Alexander. The colonists of Europe imparted their language to South America and made of North America a second Europe with a common cultural heritage. The explorers, missionaries, and merchants of Europe have penetrated all lands, bringing in their train European manners, dress, and institutions. They are still at work Europeanizing the world.
[Sidenote: 2. Increase of Wealth, Knowledge, and Comfort]
(2) The expansion of commerce meant the increase of wealth, knowledge, and comfort. All the continents heaped their treasures in the lap of Europe. Knowledge of the New World, with its many peoples, products, and peculiarities, tended to dispel the silly notions of medieval ignorance; and the goods of every land were brought for the comfort of the European—American timber for his house, Persian rugs for his floors, Indian ebony for his table, Irish linen to cover it, Peruvian silver for his fork, Chinese tea, sweetened with sugar from Cuba.
[Sidenote: 3. The Rise of the Bourgeoisie]
(3) This new comfort, knowledge, and wealth went not merely to nobles and prelates; it was noticeable most of all in a new class, the "bourgeoisie." In the towns of Europe lived bankers, merchants, and shop-keepers,—intelligent, able, and wealthy enough to live like kings or princes. These bourgeois or townspeople (bourg = town) were to grow in intelligence, in wealth, and in political influence; they were destined to precipitate revolutions in industry and politics, thereby establishing their individual rule over factories, and their collective rule over legislatures.
ADDITIONAL READING
GENERAL. A. F. Pollard, Factors in Modern History (1907), ch. ii, vi, x, three illuminating essays; E. P. Cheyney, An Introduction to the Industrial and Social History of England (1901), ch. ii-vi, a good outline; F. W. Tickner, A Social and Industrial History of England (1915), an interesting and valuable elementary manual, ch. i-vii, x-xii, xvi, xvii, xix-xxi, xxiv-xxvii; W. J. Ashley, The Economic Organization of England (1914), ch. i-v; G. T. Warner, Landmarks in English Industrial History, 11th ed. (1912), ch. vii-xiii; H. D. Traill and J. S. Mann (editors), Social England (1909), Vols. II, III; H. de B. Gibbins, Industry in England, 6th ed. (1910), compact general survey; William Cunningham, The Growth of English Industry and Commerce in Modern Times, 5th ed., 3 vols. (1910-1912), a standard work; H. D. Bax, German Society at the Close of the Middle Ages (1894), brief but clear, especially ch. i, v, vii on towns and country-life in the Germanies. Very detailed works: Maxime Kovalevsky, Die ökonomische Entwicklung Europas bis zum Beginn der kapitalistischen Wirtschaftsform, trans. into German from Russian, 7 vols. (1901-1914), especially vols. III, IV, VI; Émile Levasseur, Histoire des classes ouvrières et de l'industrie en France avant 1789, Vol. II (1901), Book V; Georges d'Avenel, Histoire économique de la propriété, des salaires, etc., 1200- 1800, 6 vols. (1894-1912).