How Inflation Changed Tudor England
Talking About How Inflation Changed Life in Tudor England
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Sunday 1 July 2012
Talking About How Inflation Changed Life in Tudor England
How Inflation Changed Tudor EnglandTalking About How Inflation Changed Life in Tudor England
Wednesday 27 June 2012
Images: How Inflation Changed Tudor England
Inflation and Tudor England: Music During Podcast
Music During Podcast
Palestrina, G. (1525-1594). Credo. Played
by The Tallis Scolars and directed by Peter Phillips. Gimell Recordings.
Pictures
Elizabethan Pub. Retrieved from
Elizabethan Festival. Retrieved from
Accused of being
scroungers and suspected of being criminals. Retrieved from
Elizabethan
Pauper. Retrieved
from
http://8th-grade-english-shakespeare-09.wikispaces.com/8-1ClassDistinctions.
Elizabethan
Agriculture. Retrieved
from
London.
Retrieved
from
Gentry and Yeoman Farmer. Retrieved from
Elizabethan
Keeper of the Hounds with Enclosed Land in Background. Retrieved
from
http://www.elizabethan.org/compendium/89.html.
Alms to the Poor. Retrieved from
Inflation and Life in Tudor England
Henry VIII’s growing waistline wasn’t the
only change that caught the attention of commentators in 16th
Century England. The rise in
prices, or inflation, raised a lot of comments and concern. In 1534, ‘An Act Concerning Farm and
Sheep’ was published and the authors complained about the doubling in the price
of goods within recent memory (Cited in Heard, 1992, p.41). These commentators had reason to worry
since inflation was to have a profound effect on most aspects of English
economy and society. Inflation
throughout the century helped change the physical and social landscape of
England, and many historians believe that inflation, together with the rapid rise
in population over the century, are the keys to understanding many of the major
transformations that took place over the next centuries (Clarkson, 1986, p. 10;
Russell 1971, p. 5).
The rise in prices in the sixteenth
century was a real shock to the English as it came after nearly a hundred and
twenty years of falling or stable prices.
Prices fell in the 14th and 15th centuries when
the English population collapsed by almost 60% due to wars and plagues (Clay,
1984, p. 3). In the 16th
century the population began to increase again once the birth rate overtook the
death rate. England’s population
increased from about 2.3 million in the 1520’s, to nearly 3 million by 1551,
and to almost 4 million in 1601 (Clay, 1984, p. 4).
Unfortunately, prices rose as well, sometimes
gently, but often very sharply, usually following poor harvests, as in the
1520’s, 1540’s, 1550’s and the 1590’s.
Over the century prices rose some 400% (Heard, 1992, p. 25). Why did prices increase? The most obvious explanation is because
there was a shortage in the supply of goods in demand, like foodstuffs. As the population grew, the demand for
food grew, and English agriculture just wasn’t able to keep up (Clarkson, 1986,
p. 12; Gray, 2003, p. 13).
Historians
like F.J. Fisher (1965) and R.B. Outhwaite (1969) argue this wasn’t the only
reason for the rise in prices. England’s wars with France and Scotland were being
paid for by currency debasements, where the crown would increase the money
supply by issuing coins containing less gold or silver and filled with cheaper base
metals. This is how Henry VIII and
Edward VI could afford to pay for their war supplies. At the same time the Spanish were introducing silver mined
in their new colonies into the European market, and all this helped increase
the total supply of money available to buy goods (Ramsay, 1971, pp. 5-6). In the end, price rises
throughout the century may be explained by too much money chasing too few
goods.
The result of this inflation was a mixed
bag. Some farmers, often yeomen or
husbandmen, were able to take advantage of the situation and moved from being
small scale producers into being more efficient commercial farmers. This was
especially true in the south-east of England around London (Heard, 1992, p.
41). The rise in prices gave them
the profits or capital they needed to buy or ‘engross’ more land and have
bigger farms. Rent increases soon
followed as more land was demanded.
Many small landholders lost their land when their leases were up. As well as engrossing more land, many
landlords or farmers also enclosed, or fenced off their land, including land
that had once been shared as commons.
Enclosed land got higher rents and so many landlords found it profitable
to do this (Clay, 1984, pp. 69-70).
Farms not only got bigger, but more farmers also
moved away from producing food. This added to the problems with the food
supply. Instead some farmers
converted their land into pasture in order to raise sheep and cattle to supply
the wool and leather industries.
High wool prices in the first half of the sixteenth century encouraged
many farmers to turn away from grain production which employed far more farm
labourers. Sheep and cattle farming, especially on enclosed farms, required far
fewer labourers and so many commentators felt this was causing the
‘depopulation’ of the countryside (Clay, 1984, pp. 75-76).
Enclosures raised a lot of concern in the
sixteenth century. Many acts were passed to control the practice throughout the
century. In 1516, Thomas
More complained about them in his book Utopia.
As early as 1517 the government set up a commission to study the problem. They were concerned about that the
hardship and social unrest enclosures were causing. It turns out they were right to be worried as Kett’s
Rebellion in 1549 proved just how explosive the anger over enclosures could be
(Clay, 1984, pp. 76-77).
By the
middle of the century it seems clear that the number of people suffering from
the rise in prices was far greater then those who benefited. We can’t know how many displaced small
holders and rural labourers lost their patches of land as well as their
employment. Before in times of
need they could always count on their small plots to provide them with enough
food to keep them from starving. But now they found themselves without even that
safety net and more dependent on earning money.
While some labourers found work in towns
and cities, most didn’t. It wasn’t
easy for them to find work in urban centers. Even though urban centers were growing, England was still
overwhelmingly a rural society.
(Clark and Slack, 1976, p.1)
As well, the cloth industry in towns and cities was in decline, as most
cloth production was taking place in the countryside where labour was cheaper.
The income that one got from the cloth industry in the countryside didn’t
provide a living since most cloth workers were farm labourers who worked at it
part-time. Then after 1550, even
rural cloth workers suffered when the cloth industry was hurt by the collapse
of the Antwerp market where almost all English woolen cloth was sent to be
finished (Russell, 1971, p. 22 ).
The increasing population together with more
people being thrown off the land, especially when the country’s biggest
manufacturing industry began to decline, was a recipe for disaster. There were too many people looking for
work. With so much supply of
labour, wages fell. It has been
said that between 1540 and 1560 alone wages fell by as much as 60% when at a
time when food prices kept rising (Clarkson, 1986, p. 13). Legislation to slow inflation
also helped to keep wages down even though it didn’t stop food prices from
climbing. For most people in the
sixteenth century their standard of living fell (Heard, 1992, p. 28 ).
People who lost their place on the land
were often forced to move to towns and cities. The growth of some market towns,
but especially the growth of London as a metropolis in the century, was fed by
the population moving in from the countryside. Between 1500 and 1603 London’s population grew from 40,000
to over 200,000 and many worried that London would ‘soon devour all of England’
(Clay, 1984, p. 197). Some people
were able to take advantage of the new opportunities urban centers provided
with their bigger range of occupations and these, like ‘the butcher, the baker,
the candlestick maker,’ together with prospering yeoman farmers, added to the
growing ranks of the ‘middling sort’ in English society (Heard, 1992, p. 118).
Far more people however suffered then
benefited as a result of the rise in prices in the sixteenth century. The number of poor continued to
grow as the century progressed.
Soon poverty came to be seen as a serious problem in Tudor England and
local governments and the crown stepped in to provide some relief. Dealing with poverty became more and
more the responsibility of governments and was no longer left in the hands of
private charities like it had been before the English Reformation when
monasteries had overseen care. New
distinctions between different types of poor emerged, the deserving and the
undeserving poor, or the respectable and the dangerous poor. Towns were forced to deal with the
increasing number of vagrants, people moving from town to town searching for
work or poor relief. As the numbers grew, more severe laws were introduced to
control the problem. It 1536 the
whipping of vagrants was allowed for the first time but by the end of the
century the laws made it possible to hang vagrants (Slack, 1988, p. 94).
Interestingly, it just wasn’t landless peasants
and labourers, and the traditional poor, widows, children, the sick, and the
elderly, who suffered from the ‘ravages’ of inflation. All types of people fell victim to its
power. A popular children’s
rhyme from the time reminds us of that fact.
Hark!
Hark! The dogs do bark!
The
beggars are coming to town:
Some
in rags, some in tags
And
one in a velvet gown.
To conclude, there were many victims of
the rise in prices in sixteenth century England. But they were overwhelmingly the poor, those evicted from
their small plots of land, and the landless labourer in town and country, as
well as the traditional poor.
William Forrest (Quoted in Gray,
2003, p. 8)wrote at the time:
The
Worlde is changeth from that it hath beene, not to the better but to the warsse
farre…Unto the riche it maketh a great deale, but muche it takketh to the
Commune weale.
Many historians would agree. The
gap between the rich and poor widened significantly throughout the
century. But they also believe
that many of the changes, especially the rise of more efficient farms, the rise
of market towns and the growing middle class, as well as the rise of London as
a metropolis during this century, served England well in the following
century.
Glossary
commons: common
land on a manor or in a village that was shared where people were entitled to
graze their sheep or cow and have
a small garden
currency debasement: when
the amount of gold or silver in a currency was reduced by the addition of base
or cheaper metals but still held the same face value however when the currency
was melted down the gold or silver value was less then the face value
deserving poor: after 1563 the poor were categorized
into different groups and this group was usually made up of the old, the very
young, the disabled, and widows with small children
dangerous poor: rogues and vagrants who were
accused of roaming the roads and begging and stealing and were seen as a
dangerous threat
enclosures: the act of fencing off a piece of
land either by building a wall or planting a hedge to limit access
engrossing: absorbing and consolidating other
pieces of land to make a bigger farm
English
Reformation: referring to the establishment of the Church of England
under Henry VIII and the dissolution of the monasteries
husbandman: a free tenant or small landholder
inflation: the rise in prices
metropolis: the capital city of a region or country
that serves as a hub
middling sort: a
fourth category of social hierarchy that really evolved in early modern England
that included the smaller traders in urban centers and more substantial yeoman
and husbandmen who were above the lower order but not in the gentry
respectable poor: another name for deserving poor
undeserving poor: another name for dangerous poor and
people who were able to work but were seen as refusing to work
urban centers: includes towns, i.e.e market towns,
corporate towns, provincial towns and cities but not villages
yeoman: free man owning his own farm but it is
above a husbandman and below gentry
Bibliography
Clark, P. & , Slack, P. (1976). English
Towns in Transition, 1500-1700. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Clarkson, L. (1986). Inflation and the Moral Order. In History
Today, 46 (2), 10-14.
Clay, C. (1984).
Economic expansion and social
change: England, 1500-1700.
Volume One. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Fisher, F. (1965).
Influenza and Inflation in Tudor England. In The Economic
History Review, New Series, 18
(1), 120-129.
Graves, M. & Silcock, R. (1985). Revolution,
Reaction and the Triumph of Conservatism. Auckland: Longman Paul.
Gray, R. (2003).
Inflation and Dearth in the Sixteenth Century-The Modern Economic
Perspective: Valid or Misleading.
In Student Economic Review, 17, 7-15.
Heard, N. (1992).
Tudor Economy and Society. Great Britian: Hodder & Stoughton.
Outhwaite, R. (1969).
Inflation in Tudor and Early Stuart England. London: MacMillan.
Ramsay, P. (1971).
Introduction. In P. Ramsay,
(Ed.), The Price Revolution in Sixteenth
Century England (pp. 1-17). London:Methuen.
Russell, C. (1971).
The Crisis of Parliaments, English
History, 1509-1660.
Oxford: Oxord University Press.
Slack, P. (1988).
Poverty and Policy in Tudor Stuart England. London and New York: Longman.
How Inflation Changed
Tudor England
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Key Ideas
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Supporting Evidence or details
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Source
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Inflation, rapid movement of prices over the 16th century
England helped transform Tudor economy and society
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-gentle inflation after 1510, rose more rapidly in 1520’s, then slower
rises, but more than past 120 years until 1540-50s, when rise more rapid, then
gentle rise, until rapid again in 1590s
-over entire 16th century inflation 400%
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-Outhwaite, p.p. 9-22
- Lockyer, p. 110-111
-Clay, pp. 29-30
-Russell, p. 5
-Slack, pp.43- 44
-Clarkson, p.10
-Heard, p. 41
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population increases in the sixteenth century coupled with bad
harvests were major cause for increase in food prices and rents, other causes
increase supply of money from debasement, silver from Americas
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-population in 1520’s-2.3million; 1551, 3 million; 1601, 4 million because of birthrate exceeding
deathrate
-bad harvests, 1520’s, 1540’s,-1550’s, 1590’s
-shortage of food with increased demand, rising rents on land, food
prices and rents double between 1540-1560
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-Clay, pp. 1-5
-Heard, p. 25
-Clay, pp. 3-4, 40-41
-Outhwaite, p. 17
-Fisher, pp. 121-124
-Clarkson, pp. 11-12
-Gray, p. 13
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increasing rents and food prices helped transform agriculture and
industry making some of the rich richer with bigger profits and some of the
poor poorer, with their wages falling and/or losing their jobs or land
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-more farmers with bigger farms move to commercial farms with sheep
for wool industry and cows for leather industry, bigger farms, less grain,
fewer labourers, more supply so lower wages
-growing size of gentry, and some wealthier yeoman, husbandmen farmers,
but some yeoman get poorer
- wages between 1540-1560 fall 60%
-crisis in cloth industry with Antwerp crisis so craftsmen and
labourers lose jobs in towns and in rural industries
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-Slack, pp. 43-47, 91-92, 122-126
-Russell, pp. 13-22
-Clay, pp. 75-76, 144-147
-Ramsay, pp. 5-6, 16-17
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changes in agriculture and industry pushed some people off the land
and to towns and cities, especially London, so pushing urban growth of some
centers, especially market centers and London
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- commercial farmers want more land, with profits engross more land
or enclose open fields and common land, keeping small peasant farmers and
labourers off so these people migrate to towns and cities
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- Thomas More, Utopia
-Clarkson, p. 14
-Russell, p. 13-22
-Clay, pp. 76-77, 144-147
-Clark and Slack, p.1
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urban growth of sorts and new larger commercial farms helped expand
‘middling sort’ and increase
poor and destitute
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-growth of London, 60,000 in 1520, 200,000 in 1603 acting as stronger
metropolis
-rise of some new towns where more occupations like more small merchants,
more ‘middling sorts’
-poor labourers coming to town, have no money and can’t get jobs,
can’t support themselves, results in increase in real poor and more vagrants
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-Clay, pp. 179-186, pp. 197-198, 215-216
-Clark and Slack, p. 83
-
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increase in poverty and social dislocation, vagrants and the concern
this caused forced the crown to become more active in dealing with poor
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-Lord Burghley worried vagrants could threaten law and order,
especially ‘undeserving poor, people who begged for a living, work, so
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-Briscoe, p. 2
-Gray, p. 10
-Slack, pp. 94, 130
-Clarkson, p. 14
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Conclusion: Inflation made a small section richer and a much larger
section poorer
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