Chapter 22

Question 1

Why is it hard to be certain about value of trade?

Answer 1

The absence of reliable statistical evidence makes it difficult to be absolutelv certain about the value to the economy of trading activities during the reign of Elizabeth.

Question 2

What happened to internal trade?

Answer 2

The value of internal trade considerably exceeded that of foreign trade. The biggest single development in internal trade was the growth in the shipping of coal from the Tyne to the Thames to meet the growing demands of the London market, though some coal was exported across the North Sea, including a rapidly developing trade with France.

Question 3

What happened with foreign goods?

Answer 3

A wider range of foreign luxury goods came to be imported during
Elizabeth’s reign. This suggests that such goods were becoming affordable for a wider range of the population.

Question 4

What happened with the cloth trade?

Answer 4

The cloth trade with the Netherlands, while remaining important, declined relatively as part of the economy. The Antwerp cloth market had declined from the early 1550s. In any case Sir William Cecil was anxious for political reasons to end the dependence on a single market. An alternative trade was developed, based on the north German port of Emden, but the major move was to Amsterdam, whose commercial growth came at the expense of Antwerp which remained under Spanish control.

Question 5

What overall happened with overseas markets?

Answer 5

Though attempts to establish new overseas markets did take place, for example in Russia, these remained economically marginal.

Question 6

Four overall points relating to trade

Answer 6

1. The value of internal trade considerably exceeded that of foreign trade. The biggest single development in internal trade was the growth in the shipping of coal from the Tyne to the Thames to meet the growing demands of the London market, though some coal was exported across the North Sea, including a rapidly developing trade with France.
2. A wider range of foreign luxury goods came to be imported during
   Elizabeth’s reign. This suggests that such goods were becoming affordable for a wider range of the population.
3. The cloth trade with the Netherlands, while remaining important, declined relatively as part of the economy. The Antwerp cloth market had declined from the early 1550s. In any case Sir William Cecil was anxious for political reasons to end the dependence on a single market. An alternative trade was developed, based on the north German port of Emden, but the major move was to Amsterdam, whose commercial growth came at the expense of Antwerp which remained under Spanish control.
4. Though attempts to establish new overseas markets did take place, for example in Russia, these remained economically marginal.

Question 7

Lonsdale shop inventory

Answer 7

The inventory of a shopkeeper from remote Kirkby Lonsdale in
Westmorland included Spanish silk, French garters and Turkish purses.

Question 8

Attempts to expand trade in 1560s

Answer 8

The main centre of African trade was Guinea, and it was Guinea that became used as the starting point for John Hawkins’s move into the Americas. In the process, he invented the English slave trade. He made three expeditions from 1562, acquiring slaves in Africa that he then transported and sold in font, America. His first two expeditions proved to be financially successful, although he succeeded in irritating the Spanish authorities. By the time of the second expedition in 1564, Hawkins had secured investment from prominent courtiers including the Earl of Leicester, as well as support from the queen who supplied ships - for a price. The third expedition also attracted royal support but went disastrously wrong when Hawkins’s fleet was blockaded in the Mexican port of San Juan de Ula, although some of the gold did get back to England. Hawkins’s activities antagonised further the already strained relations between England and Spain. The fact that the queen was prepared to become involved suggests that she was willing, in return for profit, to run the risk of antagonising Philip I.

Question 9

Main changes in English trading patterns in 1580s

Answer 9

The main changes in English trading patterns in the 1580s were twofold.
First, the main markets for English wool moved from the southern to the northern Netherlands and there was an increase in trade with the Ottoman (Turkish) Empire. England, however, remained, according to David Palliser, relatively backward in its exploitation of trading opportunities in Elizabeth’s reign.

Question 10

Trading companies and success

Answer 10

A number of trading companies were set up, with varying degrees of success, to widen England’s trading interests.
•The Muscovy Company had been incorporated in 1555 to trade with Russia and northern Europe, though it failed in the long term to compete effectively with the Dutch.
• The Eastland Company was set up in 1579 to trade in the Baltic but had a similarly limited effect.
• The Levant Company, founded in 1581 as the Turkish Company, enjoyed success in its attempts to develop trade with the Ottoman Empire.
• The East India Company was set up in 1600 to trade with Asia, but it had less investment compared with the Dutch East India Company, and therefore found it very difficult to compete in the short term.

By the end of Elizabeth’s reign these were still relatively modest organisations. However, there was a significant change in that, the Eastland Company apart, they were all joint-stock companies owned by their shareholders in a model of organisation which would prove essential to future capitalist development.

Question 11

Attempts to expand trade under Mary

Answer 11

There were several attempts to widen English trade, which began in Mary I’s reign but continued under Elizabeth. For example, Mary had encouraged the foundation of the Muscovy Company in 1555, which had sponsored a trading expedition to Russia under the leadership of Richard Chancellor.

Question 12

What were joint-stock companies?

Answer 12

businesses which are owned by their shareholders, who profit in proportion to the relative size of their shareholding

Question 13

Who was Walter Raleigh?

Answer 13

Walter Raleigh (1552-1618) was an ambitious though unpopular and ineffective courtier, His attempt to establish a colony on the North American mainland failed, as did his attempts to find treasure in South America. He was reputed to have introduced both the potato and tobacco to Europe. He completely lost favour under James and was imprisoned and executed.

Question 14

Enthusiasm and encouragement of exploration

Answer 14

What was of little importance at the time, but assumed greater significance in the light of subsequent developments, was the extension of trade to the mainland of North America and the attempt to form a colony in Virginia. The suggestion that England should start colonising North America originated with the entrepreneur and explorer Humphrey Gilbert. The process was encouraged by Richard Hakluyt in A Discourse of Western Planting, published in 1584.
Hakluyt, a clergyman and geographer, was closely linked to Gilberts half-brother, Walter Raleigh, and, through Raleigh, presented the Discourse to the
queen.

Question 15

Colonisation attempts and success

Answer 15

Raleigh gained the support of a number of prominent investors, including Sir Francis Walsingham, and in 1585 he received from the queen a patent to colonise what would become known as Virginia. Two expeditions eventually made land on Roanoke Island in what was to become North Carolina.
Unfortunately for Raleigh’s investors, and even more unfortunately for those settlers who died in the attempt, the attempts at colonisation proved to be disastrous, from a combination of poor organisation, ill luck and reluctance by the queen to give the matter priority when she was faced by war with Spain.
Permanent English colonisation of Virginia had to wait until the reign of James I

Question 16

How did landowners fare?

Answer 16

Certain broad trends can be detected. In general, landowners benefited from the economic trends present in Elizabethan England. Landed incomes rose and many landowners acquired a range of material possessions which would have been unknown to their grandparents generation. As well as benefiting from increased income from land, in many cases large landowners had been able to profit from the generosity of Henry VIII and Edward VI when disposing for a quick profit often at knock-down prices much of the land which they had acquired through the dissolution of church property.

One of the consequences of this was the huge proliferation of building, not just of great houses, but of more modest though nevertheless imposing country houses. It seems clear that a building boom of unprecedented scale took place in Elizabeth’s reign.

Question 17

How did farmers fare?

Answer 17

At more modest levels of society farmers were able to benefit from the rise in agricultural prices. The Essex clergyman William Harrison in his Description of England, published in 1577, noted the improvement in living standards enjoyed by farmers (or at least those based in the south-east of England). Inventories taken after an individual’s death often confirmed this same pattern of improvement. There does seem to have been overall an increase in all aspects of agricultural production, though bad harvests provided interruptions to this trend.

Question 18

Relationship between prosperity and trade

Answer 18

The relationship between trade and prosperity has been much debated by historians. One problem relating to this debate is the absence of really hard evidence, which makes it very difficult to come to a definitive conclusion.
Broadly speaking, economic historians in the first half of the twentieth century tended to argue that trade was buoyant in Elizabethan England, a point reinforced by the evidence of shipbuilding which took place at the time; in the second half of the century a more pessimistic view tended to predominate, with historians emphasising what was seen as a desperate search for new markets to offset the long-term decline in the cloth trade. This pessimistic view has been reinforced by the argument that English financial institutions were much less sophisticated than their counterparts in the Netherlands, Germany and Italy.

Question 19

How was there a lack prosperity for some in urban areas?

Answer 19

It is impossible to generalise about this. It is clear that some old-established towns, for example Stamford and Winchester, did decline during Elizabeths reign. Urban decay was particularly associated with corporate boroughs that had been heavily dependent on the cloth industry, as this had migrated to more rural areas.

Question 20

Where was there urban prosperity?

Answer 20

On the other hand, the condition of some other old-established towns, such as York and Norwich, continued to improve. Relatively new urban settlements, such as Manchester and Plymouth, also developed. Those towns which did well tended either to have a broad range of manufacturing industry or were unincorporated towns in which industry was able to develop without hindrance from regulation.

Question 21

How was there depression?

Answer 21

Not all shared in this prosperity. For many, real wages fell, and this was a particular problem at times of harvest failure. According to statistical evidence collated by David Palliser, 9 of the 44 harvests of the reign could be described as poor. The impact was particularly bad when there were successive bad harvests. This made the experience of 1594 to 1597, when there were four successive poor harvests, catastrophic for some people. By 1596 real wages had collapsed to less than half the level which they had been a mere nine years earlier. This provided the context for the one real subsistence crisis of Elizabeth’s reign, in 1596 to 1597. While distress was common throughout the kingdom, conditions seem to have been worst in the far north with starvation the outcome both in the more remote rural areas and in the urban centre of Newcastle, which doubtless had attracted the poor and the indigent from across the region. The corporation of Newcastle reported burying 25 homeless people who were presumed to have starved.

Question 22

The economic condition of different regions

Answer 22

It is possible to make some tentative comments on the relative levels of prosperity. It is clear from taxation records and similar sources that the wealthiest part of the country was the south-east, followed closely by Norfolk and Suffolk and the inner West Country counties of Somerset, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire. The poorest counties were those to be found in the north and in the west Midlands. This tended to be reflected in income levels amongst different social groups. The evidence of inventories of goods left by labourers in Hertfordshire, for example, suggests they left goods worth almost three times as much as their counterparts in northern England. In this context, therefore, it is perhaps little wonder that the depression of the mid-1590s had such a devastating effect in the north.

Question 23

Summary

Answer 23

The economic record of Elizabethan government was very mixed, though it should be remembered that the concept of economic policy as such did not exist at the time. Ministers tended to react in an ad hoc manner to the situation as they found it at a particular time. Sometimes their response was to seek the passing of legislation, such as the Statute of Artificers, which quickly became redundant. Their main priority was in the maintenance of public order, which many of the political elite considered threatened by the subsistence crisis of the 1590s. It is evident, however, that relations between the Crown and landed elites, on the one hand, and the commercial elites of the City of London, on the other hand, became closer during the reign, especially through participation in joint-stock companies, and this helped to lay the foundation for future commercial expansion.