Henry VIII Economy

• • Volume of English trade increased during the first half of the sixteenth century
  • Continued rise in cloth exports, raw wool declined.
• • HENRY VIII uninterested in exploration
  • Didn't build on early achievements such as Cabot.
• What boosted the economy?

  • Substantial population growth, decline in mortality rates
  • Rise in agricultural prices
  • Increasing farming incomes, enhanced by engrossing (two farms joining)
  • Debasement of the coinage, short-term artificial economic boom in 1544
• What hindered the economy?

  • Bad harvests of 1520 and 1527, rise in food prices (doubled during reign).
  • Food prices caused problems for urban workers
  • Real wages declined, effects of debasement
  • Urban poverty, assessment of subsidies.
  • Growing unemployment amongst rural labourers
• POPULATION

  • Core underlying cause of economic distress, increasing population.
  • Strain on food supply, high demands.
  • Wages were stagnating, too much cheap labour.
• Field enclosed, used for sheep due to rise in wool, farmers unneeded, unemployment, division, disliked by humanists (breaks bond with God).
• 1523 = Tudor Subsidy = parliament grant, focused around taxes of the wealthy (Taxed people who could pay more, assessed through survey)
• 1525 = Amicable grant (MAJOR FAILURE!) - people refused to pay it (Suffolk and Essex)
• 1526 - Eltham ordinances - privy chamber finances reformed - REDUCED GENTLEMAN OF PRIVY CHAMBER...