Labor Systems

Question 1

Mercantilism

Answer 1

• an economic system in which raw materials are used to produce manufacture goods in the mother country and sold back to the colony for a favorable balance of trade
• governments wanted to control imports to create favorable trade balance
• used by English and Dutch not so much the Spanish

Question 2

Indentured Servants

Answer 2

• 5-7 years of labor (usually in the agricultural field) and eventually set free
• brought a lot of English to the colonies

Question 3

Encomienda system

Answer 3

• the Crown allowed the use of Natives as slave labor to work the land for the European conquerors

Question 4

the Mita system

Answer 4

• a system already put in place by the Incas and continued by the Spanish
• a certain percent of the population was put to work in the silver mines
• forced labor

Question 5

slave trade

Answer 5

• 16 million taken from West Africa… 12 million making it
• 90% of the slaves went to Latin America (majority were males)
• average life of a slave working in the sugar plantations was 3 years
• demand for more slaves

Question 6

Russian slaves

Answer 6

• mostly peasant labor
• serfdom remained till 1861
• in Indian and China, work was in textile and silk

Question 7

what were slaves used for in the middle east?

Answer 7

• house work

Question 8

which countries took western Africans as slaves?

Answer 8

• Spanish and Americas

Question 9

What were slaves used for in the land that would become the United States

Answer 9

• agriculture, especially cotton

Question 10

Which raw resources were the slaves responsible for harvesting in Central and South America?

Answer 10

• sugar

Question 11

Who benefited the most from the mercantilism during colonial days?

Answer 11

• the mother country

Question 12

How did labor systems affect production during colonial days?

Answer 12

• it increased production

Question 13

what raw material were servants working with in China?

Answer 13

• silk

Question 14

which best describes mercantilism, a system from the colonial days

Answer 14

• producing raw goods form colonies & selling made items in return

Question 15

aside form the harsh work conditions, what else contributed to the short life expectancy of a slave in the americas?

Answer 15

• disease