ed to stem inflation, but their inappropriate efforts often made economic conditions worse. Perry et al. argue that it was probably the flow of silver from the new world which eventually "exceeded the necessary expansion of the money supply and . . . began contributing to the inflation" (Perry, Vol. I, 335).
These economic changes in turn led to changes in agricultural policies. The raise in prices, especially food prices, "spurred ambitious farmers to take advantage of the situation and to produce for the expanding market" (Perry, Vol. I, 335) which was in turn caused by a rapidly expanding population in Europe. Perry et al. argue, then, that the discoveries and exploits in the new world were an important factor in the overall socioeconomic transformation in Europe which created capitalism itself. Even in the sixteenth century, we see that imperialism and capitalism are connected:
In an unprecedented development that may never be repeated, one small part of the world, western Europe, had become the lord of the sea-lanes, the master of many lands throughout the globe, and the banker and profit-taker in an emerging world economy. Western Europe's global hegemony was to last well into this century (Perry, Vol. I, 350).
2. Whether industrialism was good or bad depended on whether one was an industrialist or a worker. Industrialism, in other words, was good for those who controlled and profited from industry, and bad for the workers whose efforts resulted in economic growth and expansion. Overall, it might be argued on a developmental level that societies benefitted from industrialism, but on a human level it can be just as fairly argued that industrialism was a general blow to life.
Rapid industrialization caused hardships fo
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