(updated Nov. 2021)
 
READING QUESTIONS

Leonardo to the Internet:
Technology and Culture from the Renaissance to the Present
Thomas J. Misa
Johns Hopkins University Press, 2022; 3rd edition

L2i cover 2nd

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Chapter 2. Techniques of Commerce (1588-1740)

How was the "age of commerce" different from the (earlier) court era?
 
 

Discuss military technologies/practices that helped "the Netherlands" win independence from Spain.
 
 

EXPLAIN how the Dutch herring buss and fluit ship [=>] expressed the imperatives of commerce.
 

Visit the National Gallery's Dutch paintings: identify and discuss 2-3 technological activities can you see in Dutch art (c.1600).
 

Dutch institutions created a globe-spanning economy in the 17th century.  IDENTIFY each and explain its historical SIGNIFICANCE: 

  • Amsterdam Exchange 
  • Wisselbank 
  • futures contracts 
  • VOC [Dutch East India Co.] 
  • WIC [West India Co.] 


DISCUSS where and why tulips cost more than houses during the "tulip mania" of the 1630s.
 
 

DISCUSS the "traffic system": what products and processes typified the Dutch 'traffic' sector?
 
 

"Why didn't the Dutch Republic have an industrial revolution?"
 
 

Visit UMN's archived "Trade Products" in early modern history -- identify 3 or more of the 25 products (beaver ... wool) -- without a Dutch connection.
 

 


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