In the seventeenth century, the trade and commerce guild controlled the market, raw materials, employees, and also production of goods in the towns. World trade expanded at very fast rate during this time. The acquisition of colonies was also responsible for increase in demand. The producers in towns failed to produce the required quantity of products. So, the merchants from towns in Europe started moving to the countryside because they could not expand production within towns. This was because urban crafts and trade guilds were powerful there. There were associations of producers that trained crafts people, 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. This created problems for merchants who wanted to increase production by employing more men. Therefore, they turned to peasants and artisans who lived in villages.