Economy

Question 1

How many people worked in agriculture?

Answer 1

Approx. 90% of the 2.2 million population

Question 2

How many people lived in towns?

Answer 2

10%

Question 3

Why was there a move toward sheep farming?

Answer 3

Because of the increasing demand for wool trade developed

Question 4

Which areas were more affected by enclosure of land?

Answer 4

In lowland zone, to the south and east

Question 5

What percentage of English exports were cloth?

Answer 5

90%

Question 6

What jobs were available because of the cloth trade?

Answer 6

Spinning, weaving, fulling, and dyeing

Question 7

Which towns flourished because of the cloth trade?

Answer 7

Lavenham in Suffolk

Question 8

What other industries were available during this period?

Answer 8

• Mining: tin, lead, coal and iron (needed capital investment but was still fairly small scale)
• Metal working
• Leatherwork
• shipbuilding
• Paper making
• Brewing (small-scale craft operations

Question 9

What were the navigation acts?

Answer 9

Navigation acts of 1485 and 1489:
Only English troop could carry certain products to and fromEnglish ports. Designed to boost the English shipbuilding industry and challenge the Hanseatic league who had a monopoly over the trade in the Baltic

Question 10

Who were the Merchant Adventurers?

Answer 10

An English company that controlled the cloth trade

Question 11

Why were Henry VII’s attempts to boost trade largely unsuccessful?

Answer 11

• No major breakthrough in Mediterranean trade
• Hanseatic league was largely successful in limiting the development of English trading interests in the Baltic

Question 12

Who was John Cabot and what did he do?

Answer 12

In 1497 John Cabot set sail from Bristol in search of new fishing grounds. He found what became Newfoundland and reported the existence of extensive fishing grounds (failed to return from a second voyage the following year)

Question 13

Who was William Weston and what did he do?

Answer 13

William Weston, a Bristol merchant, led an expedition to the new world and may have landed there in 1499 or 1500

Question 14

Summery of economy?

Answer 14

• The reign of Henry VII was a period of relative economic stability
• The economy remained firmly based on agriculture, with some small scale industrial enterprise
• the king made some attempts to encourage English trade; this was partly from a desire to increase wealth and partly out of a concern for dynastic security