CHAPTER 22: ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND

What were the issues with economy?

- Demand in urban areas (London) is growing.

- The cloth trade is declining, though still lucrative.

- Cecil keeps going on about over-reliance on the cloth trade in Antwerp being risky.

- Some coal is exported to France, though not much.

- The most lucrative trade seems to be with the East, but this has to date been relatively unexplored.

How did the value of internal trade exceed that of foreign trade?

The biggest single development in internal trade was the growth in the shipping of coal from the Tyne to the Thames to meet the growing demands of the London market, though some coal was exported across the North Sea, including rapidly developing trade with France.

Was there trade of luxury goods?

A wider range of foreign luxury goods came to be imported during E1s reign. This suggests that such goods were becoming affordable for a wider range of the population.

How did the Antwerp cloth trade decline?

- The cloth trade with the Netherlands, while remaining important, declined relatively as part of the economy.

- The Antwerp cloth market had declined from the early 1550s. In any case, Sir William Cecil was anxious for political reasons to end dependence on a single market.

- An alternative trade was developed, based on the north German port of Emden, but the major move was to Amsterdam, whose commercial growth came at the expense of Antwerp which remained under Spanish control.

What was international trade like?

- Guinea was the centre of African trade.

- Guinea was the starting point for John Hawkins to expand into the Americas, inventing the slave trade in the process.

- Made three major expeditions from 1562, acquring slaves in Africa that he transported and sold in South America.

What were Hawkins' first two expeditions like?

- Financially successful.

- Succeeded in irritating the Spanish authorities.

- By the time of the second expedition (1564) he had secured investment from prominent courtiers (eg. Earl of Leicester) as well as Liz, who supplied ships for a price.

What went wrong with Hawkin's third expedition?

- Atracted royal support but was a disaster.

- His fleet was blockaded in a Mexican port.

- Some gold got back to England.

- Antagonised the further the already strained relations between England and Spain.

- The fact that the queen was prepared to become involved suggests she was willing, in return for profit, to run the risk of antagonising Philip II.

What were the main chnages in English trading patterns?

- Markets for English wool moved from the Sourthern to the Northern Netherlands.

- There was an increase in trade with the Ottoman Empire.

- England remained relatively backward in its exploitation of trading opportunities.

Why was England lagging behind?

- Henry VIII's obsession with France and war was a barrier to funding and energy for an exploration programme.

- Spain and Portugal were geographically better positioned.

- They also had more technical developments in ship design and better investment (loans and charters etc.).

What tradibg opportunities were set up?

- Muscovy Company had been incorporated in 1555 to trade with Russia and Northern Europe (failed in the long term to compete effectively with the Dutch).

- Eastland Company was set up in 1579 to trade in the Baltic but had a similarly limited effect.

- Levant Company was founded in 1581 as the Turkish Company enjoyed success in its attempts to develop trade with the Ottoman Empire.

- East India Company was set up in 1600 to trade with Asia, failed; as it had less investment than the Dutch East India Company, and thus found it difficult to compete in the short term.

What was trading like at the end of Liz's reign?

Trading companies were still relatively modest organisations, although they were all joint stock companies, owned by shareholders, and so provided a model of organisation that would prove essential to future capitalist development.

What was exploration like under Liz?

- What was of little importance at the time, but assumed greater significance in the light of subsequent developments, was the extension of trade to the mainland of North America and the attempt to form a colony in Virginia.

- The suggestion that England should start colonising North America originated with the entrepreneur and explorer Humphrey Gilbert.

- The process was encouraged by Richard Hakluyt, who was a clergyman and a geographer, and was closely linked to Gilbert's half brother, Sir Walter Raleigh, and through Raleigh, presented his book on the topic to the queen.

What did Raleigh do in Virginia?

- Raleigh gained the support of a number of prominent investors, including Sir Franics Walsingham, and in 1558 he received from the queen a patent to colonise what would be known as Virginia.

- Two expeditions eventually made land on Roanoke Island, in what was to become North Carolina.

- Unfortunately for Raleigh's investors, and even more unfortunately for those settlers who died in the attempt, the attempts at colonisation proved to be disastrous from a combination of poor organisation, ill luck and reluctance by the queen to give the matter priority when she faced a war with Spain.

- Permanent English colonisation of Virginia had to wait until the reign of James I.

How did landowners benefit from economic trends?

- In general, landowners benefitted from the economic trends.

- Landed incomes rose and many landowners acquired a range of material possessions which would have been unknown to prior generations.

- Large landowners had also been able to profit from the generosity of Henry VIII and Edward VI when disposing for a quick profit, often at knockdown prices much of the land which they had acquired through the dissolution of Church property.

What was the consequences of the increase in land?

- One of the huge consequences of this was the huge proliferation of building, not just of great houses, but some that were more modest country houses.

- There was a building boom of unprecedented scale.

How did farmers benefit from economic trends?

- Farmers were able to benefit from the rise in agricultural prices.

- Improved living standards for farmers in the south.

Inventories taken after an individual's death often confirmed this same pattern of improvement.

- There does seem to have been overall an increase in all aspects of agricultural production, though bad harvests provided interruptions to this trend.

What is the difficulty of the relationship between prosperity and trade?

- Relationship between the two has been much debated by historians.

- One problem relating to this debate is the absence of really hard evidence, which makes it more difficult to come to a conclusion.

What was the relationship between prosperity and trade under Liz?

- Broadly speaking, economic historians in the first half of the twentieth century tended to argue that trade was buoyant in Elizabethan England, a point reinforced by the evidence of ship building which took place at the time.

- In the second half of the century a more pessimistic view tended to predominate, with historians emphasising what was seen as a desperate search for markets to off-set the long-term decline in the cloth trade.

- This pessimistic view has been reinforced by the argument that English financial institutions were much less sophisticated than their counterparts in the Netherlands.

How did urban prosperity improve under Liz?

- The condition of some other old-established towns, such as York and Norwich, continued to improve.

- Relatively new urban settlements, such as Manchester and Plymouth, also developed.

- These towns which did well tended either to have a broad range of manufacturing industry or were unincorporated towns in which industry was able to develop without hindrance from regulation.

How did urban prosperity decline under Liz?

- It is clear that some old-established towns, for example Stamford and Winchester, did decline during Elizabeth's reign.

- Urban decay was particularly associated with corporate boroughs that had been heavily dependent on the cloth industry, as this had migrated to more rural areas.

How did London impact other cities?

- One issue which is very difficult to resolve is the impact of the growth of London on other urban centres.

- It was often alleged at the time that the growth of London, both as a port and an industrial centre, had a detrimental effect in other towns and cities.

- On the other hand, some places, most importantly Newcastle, benefited from supplying London's economic needs.

What caused depression under Liz?

- Falling real wages.

- Harvest failures.

What was the impact of harvest failures?

- According to the statistical evidence, 9/44 harvests of the reign could be described as poor.

- The impact was particularly bad when there were successive bad harvests.

- This made the experience of 1594-1597, when there were four successive poor harvests, catastrophic for some people.

- By 1596, real wages had collapsed to less than half the level they had been nine years earlier.

- This provided the context for the one real subsistence crisis of Elizabeth's reign, in 1596-1597.

What was the impact of harvest failures in the North?

- Starvation was the outcome in the more remote rural areas and in the urban centre of Newcastle, which had attracted the poor and indignent from accross the region.

- Corporation of Newcastle reported burying 25 homeless people who were presumed to have straved.

What were the conditions in the South-East?

- Clear from taxation records that this was the wealthiest part of the country.

- This was followed closely by the 'inner West Country'; Somerset, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire.

What were the conditions in the north and the Midlands?

- Poorest counties.

- Reflected in income levels amongst different social groups.

- Evidence of inventories of goods left by labourers in Hertfordshire, suggests that they left goods worth almost three times as much as there counterparts in Northern England.