- Merchants supplied money to peasants and artisans, persuading them to produce for an international market.
- Demand for goods increased since the European powers had acquired colonies and sold their goods in these colonies.
- But merchants could not expand production within towns because the urban crafts and trade guilds were very powerful.
- Rulers granted different guilds the monopoly rights to produce and trade in specific products.
- It was therefore difficult for new merchants to set up business in towns. So they turned to
- countryside.