Chapter 5: Economic Development Flashcards
What was the population of England at this time?
- 2.2 million
What percentage of the population lived in rural areas?
- 90%
What were some big towns and their populations?
- London –> 50,000
- Norwich, Bristol, York, Coventry ~ 10,000
What was mixed farming and where was it most popular?
- Crops and animals
- South and East
What is pastoral farming and where did it occur?
- Animals only
- North and West
What product was agriculture moving to and why?
- Moving to sheep farming
- Unreliable harvests, wool trade was more profitable
- Increased wool demand for export
What farming method was used by the peasants?
- Open field husbandry
- Peasants farmed open strips of land
- Had common rights -> rights of tenants to use common land for farming
What new programme threatened peasant farming?
- Enclosure
- Nobility / gentry fenced off sections of land for private farming
What positive outcomes did enclosure have?
- More efficient farming
- Increased exports and trade
- More products for an ever increasing population
- Increased profit for nobility and gentry
What negative outcomes were there of enclosure?
- Peasants lost access to land and income
- Lack of food - starvation
- Discontent
- Vagrancy increased
What did Henry VII do to combat enclosure?
- Anti-enclosure acts
- First in 1489
- Scared of rebellion and social instability
What percentage of English exports did cloth take up?
- 90% at the end of the 1400s
What did the booming cloth trade do?
- Provided new jobs - spinning, weaving etc
- Used east coast merchants - Boston, Lynn, Yarmouth
- Finished cloth had an increase in demand - helped trade exports towns
Who were the merchants of the Staple?
- Controlled wool exports in Calais
Who were the Merchant Adventurers?
- In London
- Often exported from London to Antwerp
What was the Hanseatic League?
- Dominated Northern European trade
- Protected trading interests of members
- Their ships were the main carriers of English goods
- Restricted merchant adventurers
What did Henry do with the Hanse and what did it mean?
- 1504 - made a deal with them that reaffirmed their trading rights –> in return they wouldn’t support Suffolk
- Stupid compared to the minimal threat
- Always prioritised dynastic security over all else
What did the Intercursus Magnus do for trade?
- 1496 and confirmed 1499
- Ended trade embargo of 1493
- English merchants could export to Burgundy other than Flanders
- Merchants would have fair justice
- Swift and fair resolution of disputes
What other industries were emerging and where?
- New fabrics - linen - Lancashire and Lake district
- Lead - Pennines, Wales
- Tin - Devon and Cornwall
- Coal - Durham and Northumberland
- Brass - Copper in Cumberland, Zinc in Mendip
What was the problem with these new industries?
- Many other European countries had these industries and were more proficient
- They had easier trade to other countries so Eng land lost out
What Navigation acts did Henry make and when?
- 1485 - merchants must put goods on English ships if available
- 1489 - only English ships can import goods if available
How was England doing on the naval front?
- Couldn’t afford one
- Encouraged merchants to build ships of 80+ tonnes to be easily converted to naval ships
What was English exploration like at this point?
- Small and unsuccessful scale
- Slower at discoveries than Spain or Portugal
Who was John Cabot and what did he do?
- Gained support from Henry for explorations
- 1497 - found Newfoundland - fishing grounds
- Sailed again but was lost at sea
What did Sebastian Cabot do?
- Son of John Cabot
- Also sponsored by Henry for exploration to find north-west passage –> didn’t find anything
