Poverty + vagrancy / bad harvests

What worried the authorities?

Large numbers of poor and freq conc of large numbers of homeless people, perceived them as a threat to law and order

What did many resort to?

Crime and others became beggars

What was the 1547 Vagrancy Act and what led to it?

It condemned ‘vagrants’ to slavery for 2 yrs for first offence and life for a second offence. There was no police force so the game had to impose harsh measures to prevent more unrest

What did harvests in this period fail to do?

Provide food for a subsistence economy and 1548/49 weren’t any better, drove price of food up too

What led to lessening employment and amount of arable land?

Dissolution of monasteries was removed as an institution that helped the poor and enclosure only added to the difficulties

What increased poverty levels?

Depression in cloth trade