Question

Why did the merchants from the towns of Europe began to move to the countryside in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries?

Answer 1

Merchants from towns in Europe began to move countryside in seventeenth and eighteenth centuries because of trade guilds, associations of producers, trained craftsmen and artisans who restricted the entry of new people into the trade. These were associations of producers that trained craftspeople, maintained control over production, regulated competition and prices, and restricted the entry of new people into the trade. Rulers granted different guilds the monopoly right to produce and trade in specific products. It was therefore difficult for new merchants to set up business in towns. So they turned to the countryside.