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ENGLAND IN THE 16th CENTURY : SOCIO-ECONOMIC BACKGROUND. (During the 15th…
ENGLAND IN THE 16th CENTURY : SOCIO-ECONOMIC BACKGROUND.
At th end of the 15th century in England there still were agriculture and cattle rearing.
But the open-field system was too inconvinient , most of all because people had to move from strip to strip and too much time was needed.
So it was replaced with individual farming : individual strips were surrounded by enclousers.
In the 16th century wool became the most requested thing. Landowners understood that it was more convenient to do sheep rearing than corn growing.
So the land became a source of profit to be protected by enclousers and not a means of subsistence.
Lands were now enclosed. Small freeholders, who preoviously had been working in the lands, now could not compete with the larger owners. They had to leave villages and go to work for them.
Cloth making industry developed : clothiers became capitalistic enterpreneurs and thanks to geographical discoveries the commercial classes grew in wealth and power.
All these changes led to the development of towns , that also started to break down barriers between themselves.
Also the craft guilds started to decline because they had too many regulations in a time where quantity was more important than quality.
During the 15th century there was already a lot of poverty due to the Wars of the Roses. This situation increased throughout The Tudor Period.
There were a lot of reasons: the phenomenon of the enclousure ; the decline of craft guilds; the destruction of monasteries and the rise of prices, not affordble for a lot of people.
To cope with this the Poor Law was released in 1601.
Also feudalism started to decline : people had now to be loyal to the King and not to an overlord.
Personal service was now replaced by cash payment.
The King became rich and powerful because he had confiscated his enemies' properties: he could now submit the Barons.
During this period education spread among merchants and nobles in towns. People could go to school and learn the Three Rs: reading, writing,arithmetic.
The gentry sponsored schools where you could learn classic knowledge: Greek and Latin.
Women in higher ranks could get an education, but they still were legally subject to men: their dad and then their husband.
This was a period of geographical expansion: England had a very strong navy and a lot of colonies and could start a regular traffic called the " triangular trade" as it took place between England, Africa and English North America.
English ships went from England to Africa to buy slaves, who were taken to America to be sold to work in the plantations. Eventually the ships went back to England with the new precious loan.