Chapter 11: Economic Development in the reign of Henry VII Flashcards
1
Q
What were positive developments of trade? (7 things)
A
- Cloth exports nearly doubled
- Increase in exports of hides and tin
- Increase in cheaper fabrics like keresy
- From 1550s - 70% transported on English ships
- Cloth industry growth greatest in East Anglia, West Country, West Riding Yorkshire
- Growth in mining industries - high value Cornish tin, lead in Pennines, coal in North-East
- By 1550s - iron ore smelters in Sussex and Kent
2
Q
What were negative factors of trade? (4 things)
A
- Raw wool market declined
- More trade ran through London - bad for other ports such as Bristol and Hull
- Profits often went abroad - used foreign ships
- Cloth work wasn’t always secure - could cause poverty
3
Q
What was Henry’s view on exploration?
A
- Uninterested
- Didn’t build on earlier achievements
4
Q
How did exploration devlop?
A
- It didn’t
- Robert Thorne - Bristol based - continued involvement in Iceland and Newfoundland fishery
- Other merchants couldn’t get royal favour
- Sebastian Croft stayed in Spain
5
Q
What prosperity was achived? (3 things)
A
- Population grew from 1525 - as well as declining mortality rate
- 1520 onwards - inc agricultural prices, inc farming income, helped by engrossing
- Debasement caused short artificial boom 1544-6
6
Q
What depression occured? (5 things)
A
- Bad harvests (1520-1, 1527-9) - temporary significant increase in food prices - prices nearly doubled over reign
- Real wages declined - worsened by debasement
- Assessment for subsidies - showed urban poverty - over 1/2 of Coventry had no personal wealth - same for 1/3 Yarmouth
- Growing unemployment - rural labourers - movement to towns and cities
- Increased homelessness due to engrossing
7
Q
How was enclosure a problem?
A
- Forced people to leave their homes
- No real knowledge of the extent or scale of the problem
- Most common in East Midlands villages
8
Q
How did people try to solve enclosure?
A
- Muddled legislation 1489 & 1515
- Thomas More - Utopia - 1516 - showed the harmful social effects
- Following year - Wolsey launched a commission to find the scale of the problem
- 1534 - legislation to try to limit sheep ownership and engrossing - limited results
9
Q
How was increasing population a problem?
A
- Strain on food supply - hard to meet the rising demand
- Wages were stagnant as there was a large supply of cheap labour
10
Q
Who benefitted from the population rise?
A
- Wealthier farmers and landowners - prices and incomes from farming increased
- Substantial farmers- could respond to changes
11
Q
What was the impact of these chnages?
A
- Polarised society
- Rich became richer, poor became poorer
- Rich thought the poor were poor due to idleness
- Less help given to poor
- Stricter on vagrancy and begging
