economic development

Question 1

Trade

Answer 1

-English trade increased.
-Rise in cloth exports.
-Woollen cloth exports=doubled
-Increase in exports of hides + tin
-70% of cloth exports done by English ships.
-Areas which benefitted most off the cloth industry= west riding of Yorkshire, east anglia + West Country: work not always secure—> poverty.

Question 2

Exploration

Answer 2

-HVIII made no attempt to build on the achievements of Cabot + Bristol merchants.
-Robert Thorne, Bristol trader continued his involvement in Iceland + Newfoundland fisheries, but no other merchants secured royal support

Question 3

Prosperity

Answer 3

-Population grew significantly from 1525= decline in rate of mortality.
-From 1520s agricultural prices= increased=increase farming incomes, enhanced by engrossing
-Debasement of coins created short-term artificial boom in 1544-1546 BUT at the cost of long-term living standards.

Question 4

Depression: harvests

Answer 4

-Bad harvests 1520-21, 1527-29 led to temporary increase of food princes: almost doubled during his reign.
-Some left homeless due to engrossing
-Assessment for subsidies considered urban poverty, 50% of the population in Coventry had no personal wealth.

Question 5

Depression: wages + employment

Answer 5

Wages began to decline, particularly towards the end of his reign when the effects of debasement were evident
-Growing unemployment among rural labourers, they found work in rural industries: 5000 migrated per year to London.

Question 6

Impact of enclosureq

Answer 6

-Had little impact.
-Created a moral problem which forced the poor to leave their homes.
-Thomas More’s ‘Utopia’ 1516, showed Wolsey the harmful social effects enclosures had.
-Wolsey 1517 launched an enclosure commission, 188 found to have enclosed illegally

Question 7

Population

Answer 7

-Main cause of economic distress was the increasing population: strained food supply etc.
-Farmers + landowners benefitted from the rising population most as agricultural prices rose=income rose.