Chapter 5: Economic development

Question 1

Agrarian economy

Answer 1

• income from land declined after the black death
• a recovery was reported between 1480s - 1490s
• evidence for a greater move to sheep farming in the 1480s - 1490s
• reflection of the depressed profitability for crop farming and sheep farming
• wool and cloth trades made sheep farming more profitable

Question 2

The cloth trade

Answer 2

• was responsible for 90% of the value of English exports
• estimated that there was an increase of 60% in the volume of cloth exports
• bulk exports had comprised raw wool
• exported through calais by the Merchants of the Staple
• However finished cloth dominated the trade

Question 3

Other industries

Answer 3

• England was dependent on the cloth trade
• other industries remained small and failed to compete effectively with their continental competitors
• Germany and Bohemia were superior in mining and metallurgy
• Spain, Portugal and the Dutch were superior in shipbuilding
• small scale craft operations included brewing and weaving and often required little capital investment

Question 4

Trade laws and treaties

Answer 4

•Crowns approach to trade had little consistency
•Henry interested in maximising customs revenue
•

Question 5

Early english exploration

Answer 5

• Bristol merchants and seamen were interested in the possibilities of transatlantic discovery
• John Cabot received authorisation from Henry VII to ‘search out any isles,countries, regions or provinces of heathens or infidels whomsoever set in any part of the world so ever, which had been before these times unknown to all christians’

Question 6

Prosperity and Depression

Answer 6

• prices seemed to remain steady

* excluding a temporary rise in the 1480s