Tudors - Economy

• Henry VII: Agrarian economy


  - Land income declined post-Black Death but saw a recovery in the 1480s-1490s with pop. growth

  
  

  - Shift towards sheep farming due to depressed profitability of arable farming and increased demand for wool

  
  

  - Open-field husbandry system prevalent in grain-growing areas of southeast and east Midlands
• Henry VII: Trade and industry - Cloth

  - Cloth trade accounted for 90% of English exports

  - Weaving, fulling, and dyeing developed, offering rural employment opportunities

  - London became a major exporter through the Merchant Adventurers, establishing a commercial axis with Antwerp
• Henry VII: Trade and industry - Other industries

  - Dependent on the cloth industry as others failed to compete with continental competitors

  - Mining found moderate success in various parts of the country
• Henry VIII: Trade

  - Rise in cloth exports, though the raw wool market declined

  - Increase in tin and hides export

  - London - Antwerp the leading route for exports

  - East Anglia, West Riding and parts of West Country saw the greatest growth in the cloth industry
• Henry VIII: Exploration

  - No interest in it

  - Merchants who showed interest were unable to win royal support for venture

  → Robert Thorne was allowed to continue his fishery ventures in Iceland and Newfoundland
• Henry VIII: Prosperity

  - Pop. grew significantly from 1525, also a decline in mortality rate

  - Rising agricultural prices led to increase in farming incomes

  - Coinage debasement created an artificial boom in 1544 and 1546, with a long-term cost to living standards
• Henry VIII: Depression

  - Bad harvests led to temporary but significant food price increases

  - Real wages began to decline, leading to urban poverty

  - Growing unemployment amongst rural workers (5000+ migrants to London a year)
• Henry VIII: Impact of enclosure

  - Seen as a moral problem as the poor were forced to leave their homes

  
  

  - Wolsey launched an enclosure commission after Thomas More's 'Utopia' which highlighted its problems

  → 188 charged for illegal enclosure

  
  

  - 1534 legislation attempted to limit sheep ownership and engrossing, with limited results
• Edward VI: Somerset - War taxation

  - Continued Henry's coinage debasement to fund war against Scotland and raised £537,000 but advanced inflationary pressures

  - The Scottish war was mostly financed by land sales and borrowing, adding to the finance problems of the Crown
• Edward VI: Somerset - Enclosure

  - Issued a proclamation against enclosures, however commissioners seemingly only succeeded in annoying owners

  → However rates of enclosure did slow down

  
  

  - Somerset introduced a sheep tax in order to deter enclosure, as people were converting arable land into pasture to graze for wool and cloth
• Edward VI: Northumberland

  - The Crown received £133,333 for returning Boulogne

  - Increased revenue from the Church through weird ways, including melting down church plate for bullion
• Mary I: Revenue administration

  - Developed from initial plans by Northumberland

  
  

  - Court of Exchequer took over First Fruits and Tenths and Augmentations, adopting superior methods

  
  

  - Crown finance security boosted by recoinage plans drawn between 1556 and 1558 (later implemented by Elizabeth)
• Mary I: Poor relief

  Laws against grain hoarders enforced after a long period of bad harvests and high taxation in order to fund the war against France
• Elizabeth I: Trade

  - Main markets for English wool moved the northern Netherlands, and trade with the Ottoman Empire increased

  → Nonetheless, England was still behind in trade opportunities

  
  

  - Trading companies, such as Muscovy (with Russia) and East India (with Asia), were set up, but failed to compete with the Dutch

  
  

  - Foreign trade led to an influx of luxury goods
• Elizabeth I: Prosperity - Land

  - Landed incomes rose and many landowners acquired possessions that their predecessors never got

  - A building boom of country houses emerged

  - Overall increase in agricultural production
• Elizabeth I: Prosperity - Urban


  - Urban decay associated with boroughs heavily dependent on the cloth industry, which had declined

  
  

  - New urban settlements such as Manchester and Plymouth developed due to the growing manufacturing industry

  
  

  - Despite London's growth seemingly having a detrimental effect on other places, Newcastle benefited from supplying its economic needs
• Elizabeth I: Depression

  - Real wages fell during a time of harvest failure, collapsing to half the levels of 1585

  
  

  - Four successive bad harvests from 1594 to 1597, inc. a subsistence crisis in 1596 to 1597

  
  

  - Conditions were worse in the far north, with around 25 homeless people being buried after starvation in Newcastle
• Elizabeth I: Regional economic conditions

  - Wealthiest parts were in the south-east, as well as Norfolk, Suffolk and the inner West Country

  → Hertfordshire labourers left behind inventories of goods worth 3x of their counterparts in the north

  
  

  - Poorest places were in the north and in the west Midlands