2º A BILINGÜE: CLASE DEL 14 DE MAYO DE 2020

Good morning everybody!

Last Tuesday we studied the main feautures of the modern state. Today, we are going to focus on the economy. You can find it in page 167 of your textbook. 

First of all, we are going to learn the vocabulary linked to this part. Listen and copy it on your notebook: LISTENING

LEASE: rent. (Alquiler). 

BILL OF EXCHANGE: document in which a person promised to pay another person a sum of money on a specific date. (Letra de cambio). 

1.2. ECONOMY

During the 16th century, the European economy developed and changed a lot. Although the main economical activity continued  being agriculture, there was also an important development of trade. Let's see each economic activity: 

AGRICULTURE:

It was still the main economic activity, despite the fact that the harvest were not very abundant due to the traditional methods and techniques. However, there was a vital change: the increase in demand for food and raw materials made it necessary to look for new land to be cultivated. 

Cereals continued being the main crop, but people also started to grew vines. 

Although feudalism still existed, it became more common to pay free peasants wages for their work and there was also an increasement of the leasing of land. 

CRAFTWORK:

Guilds continued having the control of craftwork. The most important crafts were in textiles. At this moment appeared a new method: the domestic system, which consisted of a merchant who supplied the raw materials to the workers, so they could make the products in their homes. Then, merchants then sold the products. 

TRADE:

This economic activity grew considerably, specially thanks to the discover of America. Ships sailing to America formed fleets, which were accompanied by war ships to protect them from attacks. The development of trade required the movement of large amounts of money, so that at this moment appeared new methods of payment, such as the bill of exchange. 

Joint-stock companies (Sociedades Anónimas) were set up: these were companies owned by several people called shareholders. Each of them owned shares in the company and received profits proportional to the number of shares they possessed. 

Thanks to all these facts, banks gradually became more important. 

Here you can copy this scheme which contains the ideas that we have just studied: