Poverty

• What were causes of poverty and unemployment?

  • Population growth
  • Inflation
  • Enclosing farms
• What year was the Statue of Artificers created?

  1563
• What was the Statue of Artificers?

  • All people should contribute to poor relief
  • Made officials and society accountable for poor relief
  • People who did not pay were imprisoned or fined
  • Justices of the Peace (JPs) were fined £20 if they did not collect poor relief
• When was the Vagabonds Act created?

  1572
• What was part of the Vagabonds Act?

  • A national system was created to help the poor
  • Monitoring of vagrants' behaviour

  Offences and punishments:

  • 1st offence - Fine
  • 2nd offence - Holes were drilled in the ears
  • 3rd offence - Death penalty
• What was the purpose of the Vagabonds Act?

  To regulate and reduce the movement of vagrants
• What is vagrancy?

  Moving from town to town due to homelessness
• When was the Poor Relief Act created?


  1576
• What were positives of the poor laws?


  • People's attitudes towards vagabonds slowly changed
  • Only 10% of vagrants received the punishment of whipping
  • It showed Elizabeth acknowledged unemployment as a genuine problem
• What were negatives of the poor laws?

  • Vagrants still scared people in society
  • Poor laws could not control external factors that caused poverty (e.g conflict with Spain)
• What was part of the Poor Relief Act?

  • It determined the genuine poor who needed help
  • Gave the poor materials to create goods that they could sell