Stuart Britain - Commerce Flashcards
Commerce - Overview
Early 17C - industry < 10% of economy - manufacturing dominated cltoh, substinence and selling locally - guilds in control in cities
1688 - Significant growth and diversification - centre of trade - underemployment decreased with growth of urban industry BUT no factories, a predominantly agrarian economy vulnerable to harvest failure, transport system still limited, small scale of production
40’s - 50’s Commerce - Cost of War on Economy
1643 Parl collecting Parl subsidy every fortnight for war, wheras 1603-29 15 subsidies in total
1645-6 Kent paying more each month in assessments than for the entire year of Ship Money - causing hostility protests 1648
Excise taxes on beer, meat and salt resented
40’s - 50’s Commerce - Seizure of Lands
Parl took land of 5000 Catholics and royalists - some regain lands by paying fines and Oaths of Loyalty
40’s - 50’s Commerce - Destruction of Property
150 towns, 50 villages suffer some destruction during wars - royalist garrison in York remove all homes outside wall so enemy couldn’t use them, 10000 house destroyed in towns, 1000 in vilages
55,000 so 1% made homeless
Cloth - Growth and Diversification of Cloth
Early domination of woollen cloth, and biggest industry in England in Middle Ages and Tudor Period - cloth generally unfinished
Greater diversification in 17th century - 1560s Textile exports £600,000, 1660s London alone = £1.5m
Cloth falling proportion of exports 92% 1640, 72% 1700 - but monetary value x15 1485-1714
Cloth - Early 17C Crises
Cockayne Project 1614 - attempt to finish goods in Eng - lacked expertise so Dutch looked elsewhere and project ended 1617
Unreliable Trade route to Europe given 30 Years’ War 1620s/40s particularly unstable with falls in demand
Unreliable market with changing fashions etc.
Cloth - Protestant Immigration
Dutch - 4000 Dutch craftsmen in Norwich and Colchester by early 17C - new worsted draperies, cloth given Dutch seal of approval and development of industry in these areas - Colchester 1619 26% in textiles, 1699 40%
French Huguenots include silversmitsh, watchmakers, artisans
Cloth - New Draperies and Related Goods
Woolen broadcloths decline so new draperies = ligher, cheaper, colourful
Specialist farming focused on producing linen and hemp, production of alum for dyes, pin making and ribbons and tapes to support this growing industry
Cloth - Domestic System
Continued domestic based system where work would be done in the home with diff specialised families and a central merchant
Flexible and could work seasonally, skills were familiar to peasant families, and work mainly don ein the home so was free from taxes and regulation of guild based industry in towns
Cloth - Early 17C Secondary Industries
Small, low level production of buttons, nails, axes, stockings etc - no internal trade but busy local markets
Cloth - Later 17th Secondary Industries
Coal - mainly used for domestic fires, and traded to London across the East Coast - new coalfields in NW and Wales
Iron - improved furnances from 1670s which enabled coal to smelt tin, copper and lead
Secondary Industries - brewing in London, pottery in Straffordshire, tobacco and sugar refining, glass manufacturing, paper, ship building
London - Overview
Geography - expansion across the river, and South into Southwark where 10% of the Lon pop lived
People - growing migration and gentry, Admiralty base in Lonon
Concerns - pop too large to control, centre of radical Puritanism etc.
Attempts to restrict growth failed - order preventing new buildings X
Focal point for transport and markets, centre of industry and world trade, growing wealth of merchant classes
London - Trade
1650s London setting prices for textiles, coal grain etc
Coal shipped from Newcastle to London 140,000 T 1590 to 400,000 30’s, 500,000 late 17C
New docks built along Thames to serve long distance trade
London - Industry
Guilds control production of goods - Grocers, Drapers, Haberdashers etc - 4/5 work in cloths
Economic power of guilds declines as London expands - economy larger/more diversified
Govt protects industries by banning foreign competition - ban on French goods 1678 to help fine paper industry
London - Lending and Borrowing
Development of banking system for trade
Legal limit for long term interest falls 1624 10%, 1651-1714 6%
1640, market rate match legal limit, 1688 4-6% so below limit
London - Brokers
Brokers match investors with borrowers - need wealthy contacts
Gresham sets up Royal Exchange 1571 - 1st commerial building in England - for brokers to make deals in
London - Money Scriveners
Not only invest money for clients but also risk holding money in own accounts
First firm Abbott 1636 - flourishes 1650s when royalists protect assests from confiscation - 1652-55 £1.1m passes through his accounts, successor Clayton recieves £3515 pa in interest 1672 and became director of Bank of England 1702, Lord Mayor of London, MP etc.
London - Goldsmith-bankers
Rise in goldsmith-bankers - tradition role to forge items out of gold/silver for trade - had secure valuts for storage
Merchants and those with lots of cash held in in Royal Mint 1640
Storing valuables with goldsmiths seen as safer option - 1670 32 bankers, 44 1677 - started to employ banking services and interest in return for storing gold
London - Paper v Coins
Brokers in London with contacts in other cities able to use bill sto settle international debt rather than perilously moving gold between cities - London = focal point
System functions on familiarity and reputation of Goldsmiths who trusted paper bils - as trust rises, use of paper also rises
London - Banking and Govt
1640 CI’s seizure of goldsmiths’ money at the Royal Mint backfired as no one prepared to lend to him after this
CII heavily indebted to some bankers in 1670s who were borrowing at 6%, and lending to CII at 10%
CII reformed banking 1672 so loans to crown were at lower rates, goldsmiths told funds deposited by them in the treasury had been confiscated - backfired as confidence in Crown to keep investments safe dashed - confience restored well WofO repayed loans 1689
London - Marine Insurance
Merchants needed to cover themselves against shipping risks - ideas brought by Italian merchants in 15C - first insured shipments of broadcloth from Essex to Bruges 1480s
1601 law regulating marine insurance with Assurance Court to deal with issues - but high rates so little interest by merchants
Later 17C - Dutch more conscious of risk so 1657 Dutch insured through Eng brokers, London merchants begin to take up insurance as prices fall by 75% to all destinations
1680 London’s main paper City Mercury provides ads/insurance info
Lloyd’s of London 1688 coffee house turned into first insurance market - merchants and ship owners share info - coffee houses key
