Prosperity and Depression

• The population began to grow significantly from about 1525


  Decline in the rate of mortality
• From the 1520s, agricultural prices rose significantly


  Increase in farming incomes, enhanced in some cases by the practice of engrossing
• Debasement of the coinage


  Short-term artificial boom in 1544 to 1546, but at a long-term cost to living standards
• Bad harvests (for example 1520-21 and 1527-29)


  Temporary but significant increases in food prices
• Food prices


  Almost doubled across Henry VIII's reign
• Real wages, after a period of stability


  Began to decline for many, at its worst at the end of Henry VIII's reign when the effects of debasement were particularly evident
• Assessment for subsidies indicated considerable urban poverty. For example, over half the population of Coventry were recorded as having no personal Wealth. The same was true for a third of the population of Yarmouth.
• There is evidence of growing unemployment amongst rural labourers, some of whom found work in rural industries such as weaving and mining or moved to towns and cities.