Social & Intellectual challenge Flashcards
Population England
Doubled 1520-1688
2.5 mill - 5+ mill
3/4 of entire pop in south east
Reasons? - MIGRATION WAR - Foreign Immigrants Commonwealth - Religious Toleration 1600 - 35% Norwich pop - migrants
Migration in Britain
Kentish towns - Cloth - attractive
Maidstone - Dutch weavers
Mortality & Fertility
Lower than preceding centuries
Decline in Plague - population adept to isolating & containing diseases - no medical improvements
Eyam & Derbyshire - children lost replaced within 10 yrs
Fertility low 1650 - late avg marriages
M 28 W 26
1600 M 26 W 24
Rates rose 1680 - massive growth of London
LONDON Growth
1650 London took over Paris & Naples for largest city Western Europe Comtemp est 500,000 Modern 400,000 9% population by 1700 2.25% -1520
Other towns Growth
1600 - only 8 w pop over 5,000 1700 - 30 Bristol - Ports - 20,000 Norwich- Cloth - 30,000 York & Newcastle - 12,000 - COAL
Growth in Manufacturing - Ipswich 1600 4,000 to 7,500 1680 Chester Leather 1560s 4,600 1660s 7,100
Impact of population growth
Increase in poverty !
Increase in Vagrants
Cloth industry moved countryside - avoid taxes
2/3 pop lived near poverty line
1650 inflation - small landowners unable to invest in farms and had to sell land
Growth of Poverty
Comp for work
Taxation records 1670 1/3 pop = poor
25,000 arrested for vagrancy 1630s
2/5 workforce in villages - jobs as servants - free housing, clothing, food - safeguard from inflation
Apprenticeships - 7 years - out of reach for poor
Migration abroad - last resort 200,000 followed Puritan founders to Am colonies
Tudor Poor Relief Act
Relief for disability & punishment healthy but choose not to work
Act provide poor relief throughout Charles I reign
1631- issued ‘BOOK OF ORDERS’ to JPs
Provisions of poor relief BUT no new principles
Motivated more by fear of riots
Poor Relief After Restoration
Coincided w economic depression
Cavalier P passed ‘POOR RELIEF ACT’ 1662
Powers to local admin to restrict movement of individuals claiming poor relief
“settlement certificates”
Only entitled relief if settled fro 40 days
Manipulated by parish officials - sent poor away
Easier for parish to expel newcomers
Vagrants arrest & sent to colonies for 7 years
Power of Nobility
Commanded highest status
Held land , prop & titles
Often HOL
Boundary between bob & gent - difficult to define & possible for gentlemen to be wealthier & more influential
Gentry
Number inc 300% Tudor - middle 17th Dominate politics 15,000 12,000 lower 3,000 higher No. small but controlled immense amount of land & wealth
Half of all wealth & prop - Gentry
15% nob
BEFORE Civil War - role enhanced - Most MPs - Charles turned to them to fight Scots
Power peaked - Interregnum - essential for running gov
Merchants
Growth in power & Influence
64,000 trading 1688
30,000 1580
Small but wealthy class - developed in context of increasing urbanisation
Not same respect as land elites - successful merchants aimed to retire & set up in countryside
Growth of London contributed to their importance
Some purchases Earldoms, Knighthoods to ensure fam future in aristocracy
Knighthoods for commercial success
Navigation Act 1651
Restricted use of foreign ships in trade out of England
Navigation Act 1660
No. of commodities only be shipped in English Vessels
Professionals
No rose direct result of rising living standards
Quality of life grew
demand for legal services, healthcare, buildings, education
Grays INN 120 Barristers 1574
200+ 1619
INNs of Court 90% of 1,700 students sons of nobility & gentry
rest profess / merchants
