Economic Developments Flashcards
(13 cards)
What was the pattern of trade?
- Value of internal trade was greater than foreign trade
Biggest single development in internal trade -> growth of shipping coal from Tyne to Thames - Wider range of foreign luxury goods imported
Suggests luxury goods becoming affordable for wider range of population - Cloth trade with the N’lands (still imp) but declined relatively as part of the economy
Antwerp declined from 1550s, alternative trade was developed with Amsterdam which was NOT under Sp control (unlike Antwerp) - Attempts made to est new overseas markets e.g. Russia but this remained economically marginal
What were John Hawkins first 2 expeditions to expand trade?
-Main centre of African trade was Guinea.
-Hawkins used this as a starting point for slave trade from 1562, acquiring slaves in Africa which he transported and sold in S America
-First 2 = financial success, also irritated Sp authorities
-1564 2nd expedition Hawkins secured investment from E of Leicester and E who supplied ships for a price
What was John Hawkins’ 3rd expedition?
-Also attracted royal support
-BUT went disastrously wrong when Hawkins’ fleet was blockaded in Mexican port of San Juan de Ulua
-Some gold did get back to Eng
-His activities antagonised further the strained relationship bet Eng and Sp
-E being prepared to become involved suggests she was willing to risk antagonising Phil in return for profit
How did markets change in Eng trading patterns in 1580s?
-Main markets for Eng wool moved from South to North N’lands
-Increase in trade with Ottoman (Turkish) Empire
-Eng however remained relatively backward in its exploitation of trading opportunities in E reign
What trading companies were set up and how successful were they?
-1555 Muscovy Co. - trade with Russia and N. Europe but failed long term to compete with Dutch
-1579 Eastland Co. - trade with the Baltic but similarly limited effect
-1581 Levant Co. - as Turkish Company enjoyed success in developing trade with Ottoman Empire
-1600 East India Co. - to trade with Asia BUT had less investment compared to Dutch East India Co, therefore found it difficult to compete in the short term
What were the trading companies like by the end of E’s reign?
-By end of E reign companies were all still relatively modest (small)
-However SIGNIFICANT change -> they were all (apart from Eastland Co.) joint stock companies in a model of organisation which would prove essential to future capitalist development
joint stock companies =owned by their shareholders, profit depends on shareholding
Explain exploration and colonisation
-Trade extended to mainland of N America
-Attempt to start colony in Virginia
-Idea originated from explorer Humphrey Gilbert
-Process encouraged from Richard Hakluyt, clergyman and geographer, closely linked with Gilbert’s half-brother Walter Raleigh
-Through Raleigh, Hakluyt presented idea to Q
-Gained support of many supporters including Walsingham
-1585 received patent to colonise what would become known as Virginia
-2 expeditions made on Roanoke Island in what would be known as N Carolina
-Attempts = disastrous - poor organisation, ill luck, reluctance from Q when faced with war with Sp
-Not until James I that permanent Eng colonies were est in Virginia
What were broad trends in prosperity and land?
- In general landowners benefited as landed incomes rose and many acquired a range of material possessions unknown by their grandparents
- Large landowners also benefited from generosity of H8 and EdVI through acquisition of church property through dissolution of the monasteries at cheap prices
- As a conseq of this increased wealth -> boom in building great houses and country houses
- Farmers were able to benefit from the rise in agric prices which led to an improvement in living standards for farmers esp in SE. Inventories confirmed this pattern of improvement
What was the relationship like between prosperity and trade?
-Much debated due to lack of hard evidence, difficult to come to definitive conclusion
-Broadly speaking historians in first half 20th C argued -> trade was buoyant (successful) in East Eng reinforced by evidence of shipbuilding
-Historians in second half of 20th C -> more pessimistic view of desperate search for new markets to offset long term decline in cloth trade reinforced by argument that Eng financial institutions were less sophisticated than counterparts in N’lands, Germany and Italy
What was urban prosperity like?
-Impossible to generalise
-Some of oldest towns e.g. Winchester did decline esp if they had been heavily dependent on cloth industry
-On other hand some other older est towns e.g. Norwich, York cont to improve
-Relatively new urban settlements e.g. Manchester also developed usually linked to manufacturing industry
-Impact of growth of London on other urban areas can be debated. On one hand London’s growth as a port and industrial centre had a detrimental effect on other towns/cities BUT Newcastle benefited from supplying London’s economic need for coal
Explain the impact of depression
-Not ALL shared in prosperity
-For many real wages fell which was a particular problem when harvest fail. 9/44 harvests in E’s reign = poor. Impact = esp bad when successive bad harvests 1584-97 = catastrophic for some
-By 1596 real wages had collapsed to less than half level 9yrs earlier which partly explains the subsistence crisis 1596-7
-Distress = common throughout Eng but worst in far North with starvation in urban centre of Newcastle and remote rural areas
What was the economic condition of the regions?
-Wealthiest part of the country = SE, followed closely by Norfolk and Suffolk and then the ‘inner West country’ counties of Somerset, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire
-Poorest counties = N and W Midlands, reflected in income levels amongst different social groups
-Therefore it is perhaps little wonder that the depression of mid 1590s had a more devastating effect in North
How can the Elizabethan economic record be summarised?
= mixed
-Ministers did not have an economic policy as such, tended to react in an ad hoc manner (when necessary) to the current situation
-Sometimes their response was to pass legislation e.g. Statute of Artificers which quickly became redundant
-Main priority = maintenance of public order which many of the political elite considered threatened by the subsistence crisis 1590s
-Relations between crown and landed elites on the one hand and commercial elites of the City of London on the other became closer during E reign esp through joint stock companies which laid the foundation for future commercial expansion
