Economic Developments Flashcards
Economy
Trade
Exploration
Eng sailors were slower at making new discoveries than 15th century Sp or Portuguese seamen, however Bristol merchants and seamen were interested in Transatlantic exp and voyages of exp were underway by the end of the 15th century, in 1497, John Cabot set sail from Bristol in search of new fishing grounds, with authorisation from H to search for any unknown parts of the world, Cabot found what became known as Newfoundland and reported the existence of extensive fishing grounds (but failed to return from a second voyage the following year; William Weston, a Bristol merchant, led an expedition to the New World, and may have landed there in 1499/50. John Cabots son, Sebastian Cabot, also received sponsorship from H and led an unsuccessful attempt to find the ‘North-West passage’ to Asia in 1508, however H had little interest in supp exp, and in his reign the new fishing grounds were left to seamen from Sp and Portugal; overseas exp – 1487 Portuguese reached Africa, 1492 – Columbus America (accounts of other civilisations were published), new foods, e.g. tea, coffee, potatoes, tomatoes
Prosperity and depression
Late 15th century time of relative economic stability with signs of growing prosperity, part in more develop areas, population growing, trade expanding with cloth trade leading way in stim econ. However, depressions could and did occur, whenever events disrupted normal econ develop, e.g. bad harvests, trade embargo in Neths, such dep usually quite localised but bet 1493-1496 the dep in the cloth industry had a quite wide effect
Summary
The reign of H was a period of relative economic instability, the econ remained firmly based on agricultural with some small-scale industrial enterprises, and H made some attempts to encourage Eng trade, partly from a desire to inc wealth and partly out of a concern for dynastic security
