Economic development in Elizabethan England

• Value of internal trade


  Exceeded that of foreign trade
• How internal trade increased

  • Growth in the shipping of coal from Tyne to Thames
  • Help meet the growing demands of the of the London market
• Foreign trade within England

  • Some coal exported from across the north sea
  • Rapidly developing trade with France
• Range of luxury goods in England


  • A wider range of luxury good imported
  • Suggesting that goods were becoming more affordable to a wider range of the population
• Significance of the cloth trade in the Netherlands


  • It remained important but declined
  • Because Antwerp cloth market had declined compared to what it once was in the early 1550s
  • William Cecil was anxious for political reasons to not depend only on a singular market
• Where alternative trade had been developed


  • North German port of Emden
  • Major move to Amsterdam - had negative effects on Antwerp (Netherlands)
• What did John Hawkins do in Guinea?


  Established the English slave trade
• Beginning of Hawkins's three expeditions


  1562
• Hawkins's first two expeditions


  • Proved very financially successful
  • But irritated Spanish authorties
• Hawkins's third expedition


  • Attracted royal support but went fully wrong
  • His fleet was blocked in the Mexican port of San Juan de Ulua
  • Only two ships got back to England with some gold
• Hawkins's activates

  Antagonised a already strained relationship between England and Spain in the 1560s
• Hawkins's first expedition

  1562
• Hawkins's second expedition

  1564
• Hawkins's third expedition

  1568
• Main changes to the English trading patterns in the 1580s


  • Main markets for English wool moved from southern to northern Netherlands
  • An increase in trade with the Ottoman empire
• Why were there trading companies set up?


  To widen England's trading interests
• Success of trading companies


  Varying degrees of success among them
• The Muscovy company

  • Incorporated in 1555
  • Involved trade with Russia and northern Europe
  • Failed in the long term due to an inability to complete with the Dutch
• The Levan company

  • Set up in 1581
  • Limited effect
• The east Indian company


  • Set up in 1600
  • Involved trade with Asia
  • Had less investments compared to the Dutch east Indian company so the company found it hard to compete in the short term
• Successes of these trading companies at the end of Elizabeth's reign


  • Remained modest organisations
  • Although they were joint-stock companies owned by shareholders
  • They provided a model of clear organisation for the future of capitalist developments
• The greatest product of exploration was silver from South America
• What did trading markets in the far east allow?


  • For the importation of luxury goods
  • Contributing to the cycle of prosperity
• Elizabethan England hoped to explore North America
• By explorer Humphrey Gilbert


  Suggestion of exploring North America first introduced
• Who encouraged ideas of exploration?

  • Richard Hakluyt
  • in his book A discorse of western planting
  • Published in 1585
  • He was clergyman
  • Had close links to Humphrey Gilbert's half brother Walter Raleigh
  • Though him he was able to present his book tot he Queen
• Support for Raleigh

  • Came from investors like Sir Francis Walsingham
  • 1585 received the queens patent to colonise what is now Virginia
• Attempts at colonisation

  • Proved disastrous
  • From poor organisation
  • Ill luck
  • Reluctance by the Queen to prioritise these expeditions when she was facing war with Spain
• Landed income in Elizabethan England


  • Rose
  • As many landowners acquired a whole range of material possessions
  • Possessions which would be unknown to their grandparents generation
• Other benefits landowners received


  • Henry VIII and Edward VI had been generous trying to sell the dissolution of church property
  • They were sold for knock-down prices
• Building boom


  • Due to land owners buying more church property
  • There was a huge proliferation in building
  • Not only houses which were great but also those which were more modest country houses
• How did modest levels society farmers benefit?

  • From a rise in agricultural prices
  • Essex clergymen William Harrison noted in his book - description of England (1577)
  • The improvement in living standards enjoyed by farmers
• Farmers who benefited the most

  • Those in the south-east England
  • Inventories taken from peoples deaths prove these positive trends for farmers
• Agricultural production trends

  • Overall increase
  • Bad harvests interrupted good trends
• Relationship between trade and prosperity viewed by Historians


  • Debated
  • Due to the absence of really hard evidence
  • This makes it difficult to come to a definitive conclusion
• Historians in the first half of the century and their views on prosperity and trade


  • Trade was lively and cheerful
  • Seen in the evidence of of shipbuilding
• Historians in the second half of the century and their views on prosperity and trade


  • Have a more pessimistic view
  • This is due to long time decline in cloth trade
• Comparison of English financial institutions to their counterparts


  • Compared to their counterparts in the Netherlands, Germany and Italy
  • English financial institutions were much less successful
• Impossible to generalise about Urban prosperity
• Areas which declined in prosperity under Elizabeth's reign

  • Stamford
  • Winchester