Society

• Economic Problems


  Inflation.

  Rising price of raw wool in England.

  Rising grain prices.

  Problems with trade.

  Competition in England between wool merchants and those who brought wool at home.

  Purchasing power of workers decreased.
• What factors led to inflation?


  Impact of debasement.

  Harvest failures in 1555-6, rise in price

  Sweating sickness.

  Pressure on demand because of the large population size.
• What was the rate of inflation?

  Approx 350% 1507-58.
• What was the population size?

  3 million.
• Vagrancy.

  Unemployment.

  Threat of starvation/famine.

  Threat of illness.

  Decreased purchasing power of workers.

  Vagrancy.

  Unemployment.

  Threat of starvation/famine.

  Threat of illness.

  Decreased purchasing power of workers.
• What factor led to famine?

  Harvest failures meant there was a lack of food.
• Typhus epidemic 1556-6.

  Influenza 1557-8.

  Plague.

  Typhus epidemic 1556-6.

  Influenza 1557-8.

  Plague.
• Purchasing Power of Agricultural Workers

  By 1559, power of wages dropped to 59% of what it had been 50 years earlier.
• Population Decrease - When? %? Why?


  5% between 1556-61.

  Due to famine and illness.
• What were the effects of the bad harvests 1555-6?


  Brought severe food shortages, widespread famine.

  Brought strain on real wages for the poor.

  Brought rises in the price of grain.
• Laws against grain hoarders were enforced.

  Strong encouragement to convert pasture land to tillage.

  Laws against grain hoarders were enforced.

  Strong encouragement to convert pasture land to tillage.
• What were the impacts of epidemics?


  Influenza outbreak killed 1 in 10 people.

  Death rate twice as high as normal.

  Population fell.
• What were Mary's actions towards Hanse?


  Lifted ban on Hanseatic purchases of cloth in England. This angered the Merchant Adventurers and ban was reimposed in 1557.
• Commercial relations - Mary's Actions


  Gov saw potential to move towards Russian and the Baltic, and pressed for a commercial foothold in Africa.

  Encouraged commercial expansion into Russia; voyages of Stephen Borough and Anthony Jenkinson.

  Chartering of the Muscovy company in 1555 - sold Russians herbs, woolens, metalworks.

  Established a foothold in Guinea; voyages of William Winter, John Lok, William Towerson source for gold/ivory/pepper.

  Higher customs duties imposed by 1558 Book of Rates.
• Where did overseas expansion occur?


  Russia, the Baltic, Africa, Guinea.
• Who took voyages to Russia?


  Stephen Borough, Anthony Jenkinson.
• Muscovy Company 1555


  Sold Russians herbs, woolens, and metalworks.
• Who took voyages to Guinea?

  William Winter, John Lok, William Towerson.
• What was Guinea a source for?

  Gold, ivory, pepper.
• Change in Wool Industry


  Rising price of raw wool in England.

  Sale of raw wool ceased to be a viable trading venture.

  Competition in England between wool merchants who made a living from exporting wool and those who brought wool to supply cloth manufacturers at home.
• Domestic Commerce and Industry


  Retail Trades Act 1554.

  The Weavers' Act 1552.

  The Woollen Cloth Act 1557.
• Retail Trades Act 1554


  Protected retail monopoly of merchants operating within corporate limits from unregulated competition.
• The Weavers' Act 1552


  Made it more difficult to weave cloth outside existing corporate regulations of towns or guilds.
• The Woollen Cloth Act 1557


  Most sweeping legislation of the century on the manufacture of England's chief industrial product, similarly placed heavy fines on manufactures of cloth outside traditional jurisdictions.