Inflation and Life in Tudor England

    

     Henry VIII’s growing waistline wasn’t the only change that caught the attention of commentators in 16^th 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 14^th and 15^th centuries when the English population collapsed by almost 60% due to wars and plagues (Clay, 1984, p. 3).  In the 16^th 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
Key Ideas	Supporting Evidence or details	Source
Inflation, rapid movement of prices over the 16th century England helped transform Tudor economy and society	-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%	-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
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	-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	-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
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	-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	-Slack, pp. 43-47, 91-92, 122-126 -Russell, pp. 13-22 -Clay, pp. 75-76, 144-147 -Ramsay, pp. 5-6, 16-17
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	- 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	- Thomas More, Utopia -Clarkson, p. 14 -Russell, p. 13-22 -Clay, pp. 76-77, 144-147 -Clark and Slack, p.1
urban growth of sorts and new larger commercial farms helped expand ‘middling sort’ and  increase poor and destitute	-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	-Clay, pp. 179-186, pp. 197-198, 215-216 -Clark and Slack, p. 83 -
increase in poverty and social dislocation, vagrants and the concern this caused forced the crown to become more active in dealing with poor	-Lord Burghley worried vagrants could threaten law and order, especially ‘undeserving poor, people who begged for a living, work, so	-Briscoe, p. 2 -Gray, p. 10 -Slack, pp. 94,  130 -Clarkson, p. 14
Conclusion: Inflation made a small section richer and a much larger section poorer