AP European History

## Learning Outcomes

- Explain how European economies shifted from heavy regulation toward more market-oriented practices in the period **c. 1648–1815**
- Identify how the decline of guild control, spread of wage labor, and enclosure made labor more mobile in parts of Europe
- Compare western Europe’s freer labor systems with the persistence of serfdom in eastern Europe
- Recall key thinkers and terms including **mercantilism**, **Physiocrats**, **Adam Smith**, and **laissez-faire**
- Analyse why freer labor and freer trade developed unevenly rather than uniformly across Europe
- Apply this topic to AP European History skills such as change over time, comparison, and causation

## AP European History Syllabus

For the AP European History, you are expected to understand how labor systems and trade practices changed during **Unit 3: Absolutism and Constitutionalism**, with a focus on the following syllabus points:

- Know that Europe moved partly away from older feudal and corporate restrictions, especially in western Europe
- Identify the difference between **mercantilism** and **laissez-faire** economic ideas
- Explain how weakening guild control and the spread of the **putting-out system** increased market activity
- Understand how **enclosure** in Britain encouraged commercial agriculture and increased wage labor
- Compare the decline of serfdom in much of western Europe with the stronger **second serfdom** in eastern Europe
- Recognise key figures such as **Adam Smith**, **François Quesnay**, and **Joseph II**
- Understand that freer labor and trade did not mean fairer conditions, and that old restrictions often survived

## Test Your Knowledge

_Attempt these questions before reading this article. If you find some difficult or cannot remember the answers, look more closely at that area during your revision._

1. What was the main difference between mercantilism and laissez-faire economics?
2. How did the decline of guild power make trade and production freer?
3. Why did labor become freer in western Europe but less free in parts of eastern Europe?
4. How did enclosure in Britain increase both agricultural efficiency and wage labor?
5. Name two thinkers associated with freer economic ideas in the eighteenth century.

## Introduction

In AP European History Unit 3, the phrase “labor and trade became freer” does not mean Europe suddenly became a free-market continent. It means that, between the mid-seventeenth and early nineteenth centuries, parts of Europe moved away from older controls on work and exchange. Guild rules weakened, some peasants gained more mobility, market agriculture expanded, and new thinkers attacked state regulation of trade.

This was a real change, but it was uneven. Britain and parts of western Europe show the strongest movement toward freer labor and freer trade. France shows mixed evidence: new economic ideas appeared there, but Old Regime restrictions stayed powerful. Eastern Europe often moved in the opposite direction, with nobles tightening control over peasants. That contrast is exactly the kind of distinction AP examiners want you to make.

> **Key Term: mercantilism**
> An early modern economic system in which states sought wealth and power through regulation of trade, tariffs, monopolies, and accumulation of bullion.

### From mercantilism to freer-market ideas

In the seventeenth century, many European rulers treated economic life as something the state should direct closely. Under **mercantilism**, governments wanted exports to exceed imports, because that was thought to increase national wealth and state power. Economic policy was tied to warfare, empire, and monarchy. Jean-Baptiste Colbert in France is a classic example: he supported tariffs, encouraged domestic manufacturing, promoted colonial trade, and tried to strengthen the French state by managing commerce.

Mercantilism mattered because rulers believed wealth was limited. If one state gained, another must lose. That assumption pushed governments to control trade routes, grant monopolies, and protect home industries. So when AP Euro says trade became freer, it is pointing to a shift away from that model, at least in theory and sometimes in practice.

> **Key Term: laissez-faire**
> The idea that economic activity works best with minimal government interference.

By the eighteenth century, Enlightenment-style criticism reached economics. Thinkers began asking whether state controls actually harmed prosperity. The **Physiocrats** in France argued that economies followed natural laws and that too much regulation reduced wealth instead of increasing it.

> **Key Term: Physiocrats**
> Eighteenth-century French economic thinkers who argued for fewer economic restrictions and saw land and agriculture as the main source of wealth.

**François Quesnay**, the leading Physiocrat, is useful named evidence because he shows that criticism of mercantilism did not begin only with Adam Smith. The Physiocrats especially wanted freer trade in grain and fewer restrictions on agriculture. Their argument was limited, because they overvalued land compared with manufacturing, but they still represent a move toward freer economic thought.

Then came **Adam Smith** and _The Wealth of Nations_ in **1776**. Smith challenged mercantilism more broadly. He argued that a nation’s wealth came from the productive labor of its people, not simply from gold reserves. He also argued that specialization and exchange could enrich both sides in trade. This was a major intellectual shift. Under Smith’s logic, trade was not always a zero-sum struggle.

> **Key Term: Adam Smith**
> Scottish Enlightenment thinker whose 1776 work attacked mercantilism and argued for freer markets, competition, and trade.

Smith’s “invisible hand” idea is important because it helps explain why freer trade gained appeal. If producers and consumers respond to prices and demand, then governments do not need to fix prices or tightly direct production. For AP essays, though, remember the distinction between ideas and reality: Smith’s ideas spread faster than governments abandoned mercantilist policies.

> **Test Tip:** In a multiple-choice or SAQ response, do not treat **mercantilism** and **laissez-faire** as if they existed in separate ages with a clean break. Show overlap: freer-market ideas grew in the eighteenth century, but mercantilist policies remained strong.

### How labor became freer in western Europe

The labor side of this topic is often harder than the trade side because “freer labor” can sound positive. On the exam, it means labor became less bound by customary or legal restrictions, not that workers lived better lives.

One major change was the weakening of **guilds**.

> **Key Term: guilds**
> Urban associations that regulated entry into trades, training, production methods, and often prices or quality.

Guilds controlled who could make goods, how apprentices were trained, and how production was organised. This protected established masters, but it also limited entry and kept production tied to older local rules. As population and markets expanded, merchants increasingly wanted ways around guild control.

A major way around guild restrictions was the **putting-out system**, also called the domestic system. Merchants delivered raw materials to rural households, who spun or wove goods at home for wages or piece rates. This mattered because rural workers were often outside direct guild control. Production could therefore expand without depending on urban guild masters.

> **Key Term: putting-out system**
> A system in which merchants supplied raw materials to rural households, who made goods at home for wages or piece rates.

The putting-out system made labor “freer” in one sense: it shifted production away from rigid guild structures and tied more workers directly to commercial markets. But it also made labor more dependent on merchants. Rural families had more access to wage-earning work, yet less independence than older self-sufficient peasant households. This is a classic AP distinction: freer does not equal more secure.

Britain offers the strongest example of labor mobility growing. **Enclosure** changed the countryside by consolidating open fields and common lands into private holdings.

> **Key Term: enclosure**
> The consolidation of common or open land into private holdings, often increasing commercial farming and displacing small farmers.

Enclosure made agriculture more commercial and often more efficient. Landowners could improve drainage, rotate crops, and manage larger farms for profit. But enclosure also pushed many smaller farmers off land they had once used. Those displaced people became wage laborers or moved into cottage industry and later urban work. So enclosure increased labor mobility by breaking customary ties to common land.

This is why “labor became freer” connects to later industrialization. A freer labor market meant more people were available to sell their labor for wages. Britain’s later industrial lead depended partly on this earlier shift.

France shows a more mixed picture. Some production moved beyond guild control, and thinkers such as Quesnay and reformers such as Turgot supported freer economic practices. Yet Old Regime France still had internal tariffs, guild regulations, feudal dues, and **corvée** labor obligations. So France is one of the best examples of uneven change: freer ideas existed alongside old restrictions.

> **Test Tip:** If an essay asks about “labor became freer,” define freedom in terms of **mobility**, **wage labor**, and **reduced legal restrictions**. Do not claim that peasants and workers automatically became richer or safer.

### Why eastern Europe was different

A high-scoring AP answer must compare regions. Western Europe generally moved toward freer labor, but eastern Europe often did not. In places east of the Elbe, nobles strengthened their control over peasants in what historians often call the **second serfdom**.

> **Key Term: serfdom**
> A labor system in which peasants were legally bound to the land and owed labor or dues to landlords.

Why did this happen? Eastern European nobles benefited from exporting grain and raw materials to more commercial western markets. To increase output, they needed secure labor. Instead of creating freer labor markets, they tightened obligations on peasants. That meant more forced labor and less freedom to move.

This is why you should not make a blanket statement such as “serfdom declined in Europe.” It declined mainly in western Europe. In eastern Europe, especially in **Prussia**, **Poland**, and **Russia**, noble control remained strong or even intensified.

The Habsburg lands provide a partial exception through the reforms of **Joseph II** in the **1780s**. As an enlightened absolutist, Joseph tried to loosen some serf restrictions. In the Habsburg monarchy, serfs gained greater freedom to marry, move, and learn trades without as much lordly permission. But these reforms were incomplete and heavily resisted.

> **Key Term: Joseph II**
> Habsburg ruler who introduced reforms in the 1780s, including measures that loosened some serf obligations.

Joseph II matters because he shows both change and continuity. Change: rulers influenced by Enlightenment thought sometimes tried to reduce labor coercion. Continuity: noble resistance and the structure of the agrarian economy meant serfdom was not simply swept away.

This east-west comparison is one of the best ways to earn analysis points in an LEQ. Western Europe saw growing tenant farming, wage labor, and rural manufacturing. Eastern Europe kept stronger manorial control. Same period, different direction.

### Why this change was uneven and why it matters

The safest overall argument is that Europe became more market-oriented, but not uniformly free. Trade became freer in some ways because economic thought shifted, internal barriers were reduced in some regions, and long-distance commerce expanded through banking, joint-stock enterprise, and merchant networks. Labor became freer in some regions because guild power weakened, wage labor spread, and peasants were less tied to feudal obligations.

But major continuities remained. Mercantilist policy still mattered. Chartered companies and monopolies still shaped overseas commerce. Internal tariffs stayed in many places. In France, peasant burdens and guild rules remained strong before 1789. In eastern Europe, serfdom remained powerful. And across Europe, freer labor often meant vulnerability, because people had to survive by selling labor in markets they did not control.

This topic matters because it links directly to larger AP themes. It helps explain the growth of capitalism, the Agricultural Revolution, Enlightenment criticism of old institutions, and later industrialization. It also connects economic change to state power: even when trade became freer, governments still cared deeply about national strength.

For AP reasoning, this is a strong **change over time** topic. A simple but strong thesis would be: Europe moved away from mercantilist regulation and inherited labor restrictions, but the process was incomplete, regionally uneven, and often harsher for workers than the word “freer” suggests.

## Key Point Checklist

_This article has covered the following key knowledge points:_

- In **c. 1648–1815**, parts of Europe moved away from older restrictions on labor and trade
- **Mercantilism** relied on tariffs, monopolies, regulation, and bullion accumulation
- **Physiocrats** such as **François Quesnay** criticised excessive regulation and supported freer agricultural trade
- **Adam Smith** attacked mercantilism in **1776** and argued for freer trade and competition
- The decline of **guilds** reduced restrictions on entry into trades and production
- The **putting-out system** expanded rural manufacturing outside many guild controls
- **Enclosure** in Britain increased commercial farming and created more wage laborers
- Freer labor meant greater mobility and market dependence, not necessarily better living conditions
- Western Europe generally saw weaker serfdom and more wage labor
- Eastern Europe often retained or strengthened **serfdom**, especially east of the Elbe
- **Joseph II** loosened some serf restrictions in the Habsburg lands, but only partially
- Old Regime France remained a mixed case, with freer economic ideas but many surviving restrictions

## Key Terms and Concepts

- mercantilism
- laissez-faire
- Physiocrats
- Adam Smith
- guilds
- putting-out system
- enclosure
- serfdom
- Joseph II


Continuities and Changes to Economic Practice and Development - Labor and trade became freer