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An essay on western civilization in its economic aspects
An essay on western civilization in its economic aspects Author:William Cunningham Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: regarded as a general movement by which each has been affected in turn. The precise form of policy that suited one was not adapted to another; but there was in a... more »ll cases a similar attempt to pursue the same end, and to utilise the resources of the country in such a fashion as to increase its power. The movement was noticeable at the Reformation period, when the disruption of Christendom gave the different nations a keener sense of independence, and fresh motives for rivalry ; the policy of governments became favourable to the race for wealth which is such a marked feature of modern society, as contrasted with that of the early Middle Ages, and distinguishes the western world to-day from the stationary peoples of the East. It is, however, in the seventeenth century that the working and effects of this phase of economic regulation come into clear light; they are plainly portrayed in the country which was at that time the undoubted leader in European politics. The French monarchy of Louis XIV was able to overawe surrounding nations by its splendour, and demonstrated the wisdom of the policy which had recreated agriculture and industry after the devastation caused by the wars of religion. 75. The intellectual progress of the eighteenth century was very remarkable, and it gave rise to the The age of startling economic changes which have come invention, and about during the last hundred and fifty years, application of We may speak of this epoch as the age of in- caPital- vention; for though human ingenuity has not been confined to any one period, the eighteenth century made a great advance in the physical and chemical sciences, and also afforded economic and social conditions in which this new knowledge of physical forces could be practically applied. The blast furnace and the steam ...« less