Lecture notes
Notes for 1C The Tudors
- Module
- 1C The Tudors 1485-1603
- Institution
- AQA
This document covers Elizabeth I's economic and social policies throughout her reign including her Poor laws.
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Economy:- Act of Exchange 1559. Taxes paid to Rome were given to Elizabeth and she could
take over property belonging to bishops and to force them only to rent land to her (a
threat to keep in line bishops critical of the settlement to gain more land/property)
- Prices had doubled from 1500 and 1550
- Elizabeth stabilised the currency by withdrawing debased coins and replacing the
with minted coins = however households hoarded the good coinage and payed their
debts with the old debased coinage
- Agricultural production increased overall and cloth making in rural areas increased
but in old established cloth towns like Winchester, it declined.
- Cloth trade was essential to Elizabethan economy and lightweight fabrics using
worsted yarns needed to be replaced often and needed large amounts of labour
important at a time of high poverty and unemployment.
- New draperies encouraged the English cloth trade to diversify its products to new
textiles - by 1600 they were bringing in £250,000 per year
- Shipbuilding and its ports grew and prospered with more trade
- Legislation to regulate trade and industry proliferated:
Acts to regulate trade in cloth, leather, coal, iron, grain and timber
2 Navigation Acts to promote the use of English ships
The Statute of Artificers made JPS set maximum rates for wages in counties.
Apprenticeships were regulated so only qualified people could enter skilled jobs as
they were trained.
- By 1596 real wages had collapsed to less than half then 9 years before
- England’s most important trading partner was Antwerp, whose market collapsed four
times and deprived England of needed revenue from exports markets.
- Land income rose and landowners had a range of material possessions - benefited
from Henry and Edward selling Church land at lower prices. Farmers benefited from
the rise in agricultural prices.
- Spanish exploration meant more silver in the economy reducing the value of
currencies and increasing prices
- Exports averaged 100,000 cloths and brought in £750,000 per year and 90% of trade
was done by the Merchant Adventurers
Social issues:
- Population had reached 4 million by the end of E’s reign with most living in the
countryside. London had a population around 150,000 and was the largest city
- Enclosure drove many people off their lands. They became vagrants/vagabonds.
Economic recession cause by trade embargos (e.g. imposed by Spain) caused
unemployment
- Harvest failures caused food shortages especially in 1550s and 1590s which then
raised food prices = in her reign the price went up by 75%
- Cecil was worried of the large number of homeless and unemployed as they could
threaten the law/order
- Fall in real wages and MPs concerned about the number of apprenticed men and
reports of increasing vagabondage and escalating crime
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