Poverty

Question 1

Poor

Answer 1

Those who spent 80% of their income on bread

Question 2

Itinerant

Answer 2

Someone who moved from their parishes looking for work

Question 3

Vagabonds

Answer 3

Homeless people without jobs who roamed the country side looking for money

Question 4

Economic recession

Answer 4

Fall in demand, falling prices, businesses lose money and unemloyment rises

Question 5

Rural depopulation

Answer 5

Population of countryside falls as more people move to cities in search for work

Question 6

Women

Answer 6

…were more vulnerable to poverty– widows had no support, women paid alot less than men

Question 7

Reason for poverty: population growth

Answer 7

Population grew by 35% during Elizabeth’s reign, food production didnt keep up with this

Question 8

Reasons for poverty–Rising prices

Answer 8

Bad harvest combined with population growth lead to food prices rising. Labour was cheaper so wages didn’t rise as fast. Also, demand for land meant that rents were also higher.

Question 9

Reasons for poverty–sheep farming

Answer 9

Wool prices increased so sheep farming became very profitable.
This meant landowners switched from using land to grow food to using it for sheep.
Less people needed to farm the land meaning unemployment grew.

Question 10

Reasons for poverty–enclosure

Answer 10

Farming techniques improved and many of these new techniques worked better if enclosed land was used. Enclosure involved merging smaller farms, evicting tenant farmers creating unemployment.

Question 11

Reasons for poverty– international problems

Answer 11

Poor relations between England and Spain led to trade embargos with the Netherlands, creating more unemployment

Question 12

Reasons for poverty–law and order problems

Answer 12

Many people who had left the countryside were forced to live in shacks outside the city walls and were forced into crime or begging

Question 13

Poor by impotency (deserving poor)

Answer 13

Such as fatherless children, the aged, the blind, lame, incurable disease. Were poor through no fault of their own, more sympathy

Question 14

Poor by misfourtune

Answer 14

Wounded soldiers, evicted householders and the sick

Question 15

Poor through their own fault (able poor)

Answer 15

The idle beggars, rioters, vagabonds, rouges, strumpets. Were not seen favourably

Question 16

1563 Statute of Artificers

Answer 16

Those refusing to pay poor rates could be put in prison. Officials who failed to organise poor relief could pay a penalty of up to £20

Question 17

1572 Vagabonds act

Answer 17

Vagrants to be:
Whipped and bored in ear
Imprisoned if caught again
Executed on third time
Established national poor rate and justices of peace to keep a register of the poor. Authorities tasked with finding work for able bodied poor

Question 18

1576 poor relief act

Answer 18

JPs required to provide poor with raw materials (wool for example) to enable them to make and sell things. The poor who refused to were sent to the house of correction

Question 19

Success of policies towards the poor

Answer 19

Law for the poor to be given ways to make things which tbey could sell.
Some were given money and sent on there way whixh was cheaper than sending them to their home towns
Some london parishes gave special help to abandoned babies, the old and the sick

Question 20

Failures of policies towards the poor

Answer 20

Poverty continued
Trade with Netherlands still a problem
Some towns didnt whip the poor

Question 21

Poor rate

Answer 21

Existed before Elizabeth’s reign but was unofficial. It was a local tax organised by justices of the peace, with the proceeds spent on improving the lives of the poor. The poor were given money or things to sell.