tudors

• Elizabethan Era


  1558 to 1603
• Socio-economic changes in the early Tudor period


  • Enclosure and the decline of the traditional medieval village community
  • Increase in overseas trade. Rise in the power of the merchant class. Collapse of the Antwerp cloth market
  • Inflation and debasement
  • Rebellion
  • Dissolution of the monasteries – therefore the loss of important local services
  • Rise of the gentry (monastic land sale) and decline in nobility
  • Increase in centralised power and loss of local custom
  • Effects of the reformation - English Bible, national church, humanism, education
• There were undoubtedly social changes and pressures facing the Tudor people between 1485 and 1553. But it is important not to get carried away. Maybe we can identify the origins of certain developments, but was life that different in 1553 compared to 1485?
• Continuity


  • Most people continued to accept the right of the King to rule and the established social order (eg religion)
  • It was only when there was a poor harvest that the commons ever rose
  • Wool trade remained as the dominant form of international trade. 81%
  • Overseas exploration was the exception rather than the rule
  • Much of the rebellion was over religious not social and economic change
  • Only 2-3% of England was enclosed in the first half of the Tudor century
  • HVII limited the power of the nobility for political reasons, but he couldn't remove their authority altogether; and HVIII largely restored the old sense of medieval chivalry
  • Centralisation of power was a marginal development – the increase in the role of JPs, and Cromwell's attempts to bring Cornwall, Wales and the North under central control had only a limited effect
• The 1550s had seen a series of poor harvests, inflation and widespread disease
• The loss of Calais and the serious influenza epidemic left a genuine sense of gloom at the end of Mary's reign; things could only get better?
• A process of re-coinage had been started to deal with inflation
• The first signs of Poor Relief can be found in the creation of 5 'hospitals' in London, including Bedlam, a 'mad-house'
• Liz also benefitted from the Marian Book of Rates, 1558
• No Tudor government had any effective means of addressing socio-economic issues. There's no Bank of England to adjust interest rates! It's basically instructions to JPs; or Royal Proclamation
• It is possible to make a link between the growth of Protestantism and developing economy


  In 1485 the main economies were in Italy and the Mediterranean, but eventually the leading powers would be England, the Netherlands and France – a northern shift in influence
• Protestantism


  Associated with values of thrift, hard work, and enterprise
• Catholicism


  Can be associated with an opposition to capital/ money-making/ competition
• London had a population of 200,000 by 1600; other cities had grown little since 1520 (Norwich 15,000, Bristol 10,000)
• Average life expectancy was 35
• Infant mortality was high … 134 out of 1000
• 23% of the population had 55% of the taxable wealth
• 23 of the 25 richest towns were in the south
• Around 20% lived in absolute poverty
• Composition of urban population

  • 5% were merchants
  • 5 to 10% 'professionals' (lawyers, apothecaries, teachers, surgeons, clergy)
  • 40% were skilled workers
  • About the same number unskilled workers
• The Tudors were witnessing the slow decline of the traditional medieval village life
• Increasing education allowed more social mobility, and there was an increase in house building
• An increasing onus on international as well as domestic trade meant increasing wealth for the merchant classes (exploration of the New World and an attempt to spread trade to wider markets)
• However, while the 'middle' got richer, the poor were getting poorer. Population rose once again from c.2.5m in the 1550s to 4m by 1600.
• Some regions aimed to limit wages …
• The Council of the North tried to limit wages to 1514 levels
• 113 labourers were charged with unlawfully high wages
• Bucks. and Worcs. also tried to enforce limits on workers' wages
• Statute of Artificers, 1563


  Compulsory labour at harvest time; minimum work contract of 1 year; craftsmen required to complete 7 year apprenticeship; maximum wages set by JPs in every county
• However there was no power to enforce these instructions
• Causes of Poverty


  • Long term decline in real wages as wages failed to keep pace with prices. Government policy like the S of A made this worse
  • Debasement
  • Increase in population pushed rents and prices up, and kept wages relatively low
  • Dissolution of the monasteries had removed the medieval safety net, as well as many jobs
  • As Catholicism died, with it went a focus on alms and compassion for the poor
  • Enclosure added to the decline of the traditional way of life
  • Poor harvests in the 1590s made food even more scarce
• The government had no coherent 'policy'; they tended to react to situations
• Elizabethan view of the poor

  Clear division between the deserving and undeserving poor. Undeserving were those able-bodied, capable of work; deserving were orphans, widows, the sick or disabled.
• The Elizabethan attitude seems to have focused more on the individual pauper and less on 'the commons' as a whole.
• Poor Law, 1563


  Deserving poor to be offered food, clothes etc. Undeserving poor (sometimes called 'Idle Beggars') to be punished, the traditional punishment being 'beating until they reached the parish boundary'
• Local provisions developed in some areas ahead of the national picture, eg Ipswich and Norwich
• Further withdrawal of debased coins and replacement with coins of 'proper' value
• Mildmay and Winchester maintained sensible financial policies established under Mary
• Prices still went up during Liz's reign, but not made worse by government policy
• Poor Relief Act, 1572


  Now there was a distinction between the lazy and undeserving, and those genuinely looking for work. The deserving unemployed were offered 'Indoor Relief' – that is, accommodation in alms houses, hospitals, orphanages etc. The Act called for compulsory donations to local authorities to help the genuinely unemployed