the poor

• what type of people were poor?

  • widows or abandoned women - survey in Norwich showed 2/3 were women
  • the sick and elderly who were incapable of work
  • orphaned children - survey in Norwich showed 40% of poor were under 16 years old
  • poeple on low wages
  • itinerants, vagrants, vagabonds
  • homeless moving from parishes looking for work
  • committed crimes
• reasons for poverty were:

  • population growth
  • increasing demand for land
  • sheep farming
  • rising prices
  • enclosure
  • economic recessions
• population growth:

  • population grew by 35%
  • from 3 million in 1551, to 4.2 million in 1601
  • growth of big towns like London and Norwich caused rising prices of rent
  • food prices rose as it had to be brought in from rural areas
• increasing demand for land:

  • increase in population meant more people needed land
  • this increased rent and caused entry fees
  • entry fees are deposits at start of land rental
  • people could not afford to pay entry fees
• rising prices:

  • wages did not increase as fast as prices
  • many people could not afford food due to cheap labour
• sheep farming:

  • price of wool increased with demand
  • farming sheep was profitable and needed large farms
  • took land away from growing crops, therefore, less food
  • sheep farming did not require much labour, so rural unemployment increased
  • feeding sheep in winter meant crops grown only for animals to eat
  • many people going hungry in cities
• enclosure:

  • replacing large open fields that were farmed by villagers with individual fields belonging to one person
  • led to small farms being merged and tentant farmers being evicted
  • caused unemployment and rural depopulation
  • those who could not afford increase in rent suffered
  • command land in villages were enclosed, causing hunger
• economic recessions:

  • caused by trade embargos
  • created unempoyment and poverty
• bad harvests:

  • those who ate what they grew became hungry
  • reduced food supply
  • drove up food prices
• vagabonds/vagrants:

  • homeless people without jobs
  • roamed countryside
  • begged for money
  • stole and committed crimes to survive
  • feared by Elizabethan society