Why did merchants moved to the countryside Europe

• Age of Industrialisation (C10)

Why did merchants moved to the countryside Europe during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries? Explain.

Answer

Merchants moved to the countryside Europe:

1. Expansion of world trade and the acquisition of colonies.

2. Powerful urban craft and trade guilds did not allow expansion of production in towns.

3. Producers regulated production, competition, prices.

4. Rulers also granted different guilds the monopoly right to produce and trade in specific products.

5. It was therefore difficult for new merchants to set up business in towns. So they turned to the countryside.