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7 - War

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 June 2023

Catriona Macleod
Affiliation:
University of Glasgow
Alexandra Shepard
Affiliation:
University of Glasgow
Maria Ågren
Affiliation:
Uppsala Universitet, Sweden
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Summary

This chapter maps the effects of war on economies and on women’s work. First, it surveys the role of women both as an official and unofficial part of armies and other military support operations. Second, it looks at the way that military conscription of young men affected the work of women who stayed home, especially given that many of these men would never return or would return unfit for work. Third, it examines the strain that armies, whether engaged in hostilities or simply passing through a region, placed on the local resource base and the way this affected the structure of work, including, at times, amplifying its coercive character. Fourth, war encouraged women in garrison and port towns to engage in new forms of commercialized service work, while giving rise to a large body of people, including many women, to which the state owed wages or pensions. Finally, war generally went along with rising taxes, most often upon commodities and often on staples, such as salt. One result was a sharp increase in smuggling, which, in turn, altered both women’s and men’s relationship to consumption and to the State.

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Chapter
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The Whole Economy
Work and Gender in Early Modern Europe
, pp. 200 - 220
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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