History /
Poland during the Renaissance [146]
P!ssing away your Gold on 375 court painters does not qualify one for the term "Economic Powerhouse"
In 1748 the total revenue of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth amounted to 8,000,000 zloties. In that same year the Zamoyski family owned 1,000,000 zloties, Count F.S. Potocki possessed 3,000,000 and Michael Radziwill had amassed 5,000,000 zloties. It has been estimated that Michael Radziwill's 5,000,000 zloties was equal to 139,000 pounds sterling. This would make the income of even the richest British aristocrats (Bedfords, Devonshires etc) pale in comparison. In 1767
James Harris (later the Earl of Malmesbury) calculated Radziwill's income
at 18,000,000 zloties or 500,000 pnds sterling.
and being stupendously richer than the dirt poor serfs around you does not translate to the thriving middle and trade classes arising in the rest of europe at the time.
That was the typical propaganda that the Unholy alliance used when they so called "freed" the poor serfs from the bad boys called the Szlachta, and it still lives on today. Most of the common people around europe were just as poor as the common people in Poland. The diffrence in the first half of the 18'th century were that the poles slaved in the Agricultur sector while the lets say british folks slaved in the industrial sector. But in the end of the 18'th century the poles swifted towards Industri just like the rest of europe.
Italy was the engine and driving force of the renaissance - the built environment and almost all of the art was and still is, in Italy.
Indeed it was but still the poles had plenty of projects in the P-L Commonwealth that had its share in the renaissance.
You know, some things can be attributed to Poland. The renaissance is not one of them.
Indeed Poland didn't invent the renaissance. But they did build plenty of extraordinary examples and contributed alot to the renaissance.
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