Behide this the goods were made and/or stored. The towns held a
market once a week. Fairs occurred once or twice a year. At given
times in the towns, everyone was to throw buckets of water onto
the street to cleanse it. During epidemics in towns, there was
quarantine of those affected to stay in their houses unless going
out on business. Their houses were marked and they had to carry a
white rod when outside. The quarantine of a person lasted for
forty days. The straw in his house was burned and his clothes
treated. People who died had to be buried under six feet of
ground. There was an outbreak of plague in London roughly every
ten years.
There was a pity for the distressed that resulted in towns voting
money for a people of a village that had burned down or been
decimated by the plague.
Communities were taxed for the upkeep and relief of the prisoners
in the gaols in their communities.
Queen Elizabeth was puzzling over the proper relationship between
the crown and the church when Richard Hooker, a humble scholar,
theologian, and clergyman, attempted to find a justification in
reason for the establishment of the Church of England as an
official part of the governing apparatus of the nation. His
thinking was a turning point from the medieval notion that God
ordered society, including the designation of its monarch and its
natural laws. The belief in a divine structure with a great chain
of being, beginning with God and working down through the
hierarchy of angels and saints to men, beasts, and vegetables, did
foster order in society. Hooker restated the concept of Aristotle
that the purpose of society is to enable men to live well. He
wrote that although the monarch was head of state and head of
religion, the highest authority in civil affairs was Parliament,
and in religion, the Convocation. The monarch had to maintain
divine law, but could not make it. From this came the idea that
the state derives its authority from the will of the people and
the consent of the governed.
Protestant women had more freedom in marriage and were allowed to
participate in more church activities compared to Catholic women,
but they were not generally allowed to become pastors. Due to
sensitivities on the part of both Catholics and Protestants about
a female being the head of the church, Elizabeth was given the
title of "Supreme Governor" of the church instead of "Supreme
Head". Elizabeth was not doctrinaire in religious matters, but
pragmatic. She always looked for ways to accommodate all views on
what religious aspects to adopt or decline. Images, relics,
pilgrimmages, and rosaries were discouraged. But the Catholic
practice of kneeling at prayer, and bowing and doffing caps at the
name of Jesus were retained. Also retained was the place of the
altar or communion table at the east end of churches, special
communion wafers instead of common bread, and elaborate clergy
vestments. The communion prayer contained words expressing both
the Catholic view that the wafer and wine contained the real
presence of the body and blood of Christ, and the Protestant view
that they were commemorative only. Communion was celebrated only
at Easter and other great festivals. Church services included a
sermon and were in accordance with a reformed prayer book and in
English, as was the Bible. Care was even taken not to use words
that would offend the Scots, Lutherans, Calvinists, or Huguenots.
People could hold what religious beliefs they would, even atheism,
as long as they maintained an outward conformity. Attendance at
state church services on Sunday mornings and evenings and Holydays
was enforced by a fine of 12d. imposed by the church wardens.
Babies were to be baptized before they were one month old or the
parents would be punished.
Still, the new religion had to be protected. Members of the House
of Commons, lawyers, schoolmasters were to take the oath of
supremacy or be imprisoned and make a forfeiture; a second refusal
brought death. When numerous Anabaptists came from the continent
to live in the port towns, the Queen issued a proclamation
ordering them to leave the realm because their pernicious opinions
could corrupt the church. The new church still accepted the theory
of the devil causing storms, but opposed ringing the holy church
bells to attempt to drive him away. The sins of people were also
thought to cause storms, and also plagues.
In 1562, the Church of England wrote down its Christian Protestant
beliefs in thirty-nine Articles of Religion, which specifically
excluded certain Catholic beliefs. They were incorporated into
statute in 1571 establishing them as the tenets of the official
religion of England. The first eighteen endorsed the ideas of one
God, Christ as the son of God who was sacrificed for all the sins
of men, the resurrection of Christ from the dead and ascension
into heaven, the Holy Ghost proceeding from the father and the
son, the books of the Bible, the original sin of Adam and his
offspring, justification of man by faith in Christ rather than by
good works, goods works as the inspired fruit and proof of faith
in Christ, Christ in the flesh as like man except for the absence
of sin, the chance for sinners who have been Baptised to be
forgiven if they truly repent and amend their lives, the
predestination of some to be brought by Christ to eternal
salvation and their minds to be drawn up to high and heavenly
things, and salvation only by the name of Christ and not by a
sect. Other tenets described the proper functions of the church,
distinguishing them from Roman Catholic practice. Specifically,
the church was not to expound one place of scripture so that it
was inconsistent with another place of scripture. Because man can
err, the church was not to ordain or enforce anything to be
believed for necessity of salvation. Explicitly renounced were the
Romish doctrine concerning purgatory, pardons, worshipping,
adoration of images or reliques, invocation of saints, and the use
in church of any language, such as Latin, not understood by the
people. Only the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper were
recognized. The Lord's Supper was to be a sign of the love that
Christians ought to have among themselves and a sacrament of
redemption by Christ's death. The wine in the cup of blessing as
well as the bread of the Lord's Supper was to be taken by lay-
people and to be a partaking of Christ; there was no Romish mass.
Excommunication was limited to those who openly denounced the
church. Anyone openly breaking the traditions or ceremonies of the
church which were approved by common authority were to be rebuked.
Elizabeth told the bishops that she wished certain homilies to be
read in church, which encouraged good works such as fasting,
prayer, alms-giving, Christian behavior, repentance, and against
idolatry, gluttony, drunkenness, excess of apparel, idleness, and
rebellion. These she considered more instructive and learned that
ministers' sermons, which were often influenced by various
gentlemen and were inconsistent with each other. Consecration of
bishops and ministers was regulated; and they were allowed to
marry. The standard prayer was: "Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth
as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive
us our offenses as we forgive those who have offended against us.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For
Thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever and ever,
amen."
There was difficulty persuading educated and moral men to be
church ministers, even though Elizabeth expressed to the bishops
her preference for ministers who were honest and wise instead of
learned in religious matters. The Bible was read at home and
familiar to everyone. This led to the growth of the Puritan
movement. The Puritans believed in the right of the individual
Christian to interpret the Scriptures for himself by spiritual
illumination. They opposed the mystical interpretation of the
Communion service. The Puritans complained that the church exerted
insufficient control over the morals of the congregation. Their
ideas of morality were very strict and even plays were thought to
be immoral. The Independent Puritans were those Protestants who
had fled from Mary's Catholic reign to the continent, where they
were persuaded to the ideas of John Calvin of Geneva. He stressed
the old idea of predestination in the salvation of souls, which
had in the past been accepted by nearly all English Christian
leaders, thinkers, and teachers, but not stressed. The act of
conversion was a common experience among the early Puritans. The
concomitant hatred of past sins and love of God which was felt in
thankfulness for mercy were proof of selection for salvation. The
good works that followed were merely an obligation showing that
one's faith was real, but not a way to salvation.
But the puritans also accepted Calvin's idea of independent church
government. They therefore thought that ministers and lay elders
of each parish should regulate religious affairs and that the
bishops, who were "petty popes", should be reduced to an equality
with the rest of the clergy, since they did not rule by divine
right. The office of archbishop should be eliminated and the head
of state should not necessarily be governor of the church. These
ideas were widely disseminated in books and pamphletts. The
puritans disrupted the established church's Sunday services,
tearing the surplice off the minister's back and the wafers and
wine from the altar rail. The puritans arranged "lectures" on
Sunday afternoons and on weekdays. These were given gratuitously
or funded by boroughs. They were strict about not working on the
sabbath, which day they gave to spiritual exercises, meditations,
and works of mercy. The only work allowed was preparing meals for
themselves, caring for their animals, and milking the cows. They
enforced a strict moral discipline on themselves. The puritan
movement included William Brewster, an assistant to a court
official who was disciplined for delivering, upon pressure from
the council, the Queen's signed execution order for Mary of
Scotland after the Queen had told him to hold it until she
directed otherwise. The puritans formed a party in the House of
Commons.
The debased coinage was replaced by a recoinage of newly minted
coins with a true silver weight.
Goldsmiths, who also worked silver, often acted as guardians of
clients' wealth. They began to borrow at interest at one rate in
order to lend out to traders at a higher rate. This began banking.
Patents were begun to encourage the new merchant lords to develop
local manufactures or to expand import and export trade. Patents
were for a new manufacture or an improved older one and determined
the wages of its trades. There was chartering of merchant
companies and granting of exclusive rights to new industries as
monopolies. Some monopolies or licenses were patents or copyrights
of inventors. Others established trading companies for trade to
certain foreign lands and supporting consular services. People
holding monopolies were accountable to the government. There were
monopolies on certain smoked fish, fish oil, seal oil, oil of
blubber, vinegar, salt, currants, aniseed, juniper berry liquor,
bottles, glasses, brushes, pots, bags, cloth, starch, steel, tin,
iron, cards, horn, ox shinbones, ashes, shreds of gloves, earth
coal, calamite stone, powder, saltpeter, lead manufacturing by-
products, and transportation of leather.
For far-flung enterprises and those where special arrangements
with foreign countries was required, there was sharing of stock of
companies, usually by merchants of the same type of goods. In
joint-stock companies each member took a certain number of shares
and all the selling of the goods of each merchant was carried on
by the officials of the company. The device of joint stock might
take the form of a fully incorporated body or of a less formal and
unincorporated syndicate. The greatest joint-stock company was
East India Company, chartered in 1600 to trade there in
competition with the Dutch East India Company. It was given a
fifteen year monopoly on trade east of the southern tip of Africa.
Unlike the Muscovy Company, and Merchants of the Staple,
individual members could not trade on their own account, but only
through the corporate body on its voyages. It was regulated as to
each particular voyage and helped with problems by the Crown and
Privy Council, for instance when further subscriptions were
needed, or when carpenters were needed to be pressed into service
for fitting out ships, or to deal with an unsuccessful captain.
Its charter retained many of the aspects of the medieval trade
guild: power to purchase lands, to sue and be sued, to make by-
laws, and to punish offenders against them by fine or
imprisonment. Admission was by purchase of a share in a voyage,
redemption, presentation, patrimony (sons of members who were
twenty-one), and apprenticeship. Purchase of a share in a voyage
was the most common method. A share for the first ship cost 100
pounds. When share purchase did not suffice, redemption for such
cash payments as could be obtained was resorted to. Occasionally
presentation or a faculty "for the making of a freeman" was
granted to some nobleman or powerful member. Members' liability
was limited to their individual subscriptions. Each voyage had 1)
a Royal Commission authorizing the Company to undertake the
expedition and vesting in its commanders powers for punishing
offences during the voyage, and quenching any mutiny, quarrels, or
dissension that might arise; 2) a code of instructions from the
Company to the Admiral and to commanders of ships setting forth in
great detail the scope and objects of the voyage together with
minute regulations for its conduct and trade; 3) authorization for
coinage of money or export of specie (gold or silver); and 4)
letters missive from the sovereign to foreign rulers at whose
ports the ships were to trade. The first voyage brought back
spices that were sold at auction in London for ten times their
price in the Indies and brought to shareholders a profit
equivalent to 9 1/2% yearly for the ten years when the going
interest rate was 8% a year.
Town government was often controlled by a few merchant
wholesalers. The entire trade of a town might be controlled by its
drapers or by a company of the Merchant Adventurers of London. The
charter of the latter as of 1564 allowed a common seal, perpetual
existence, liberty to purchase lands, and liberty to exercise
their government in any part of the nation. It was controlled by a
group of rich Londoners, no more than 50, who owned the bulk of
the cloth exported. There were policies of insurance given by
groups of people for losses of ships and their goods. Marine
insurance was regulated.
New companies were incorporated for many trades. They were
associations of employers rather than the old guilds which were
associations of actual workers. The ostensible reason was the
supervision of the quality of the wares produced in that trade.
(Shoemakers, haberdashers, saddlers, and curriers exercised close
supervision over these wares.) They paid heavily for their patents
or charters.
There was no sharp line between craftsman and shopkeeper or
between shopkeeper and wholesale merchant. In London, an
enterprising citizen could pass freely from one occupation to
another. Borrowing money for a new enterprise was common.
Industrial suburbs grew up around London and some towns became
known as specialists in certain industries. The building crafts in
the towns often joined together into one company, e.g. wrights,
carpenters, slaters, and sawyers, or joiners, turners, carvers,
bricklayers, tilers, wallers, plasterers, and paviors. These
companies included small contractors, independent masters, and
journeymen. The master craftsman often was a tradesman as well,
who supplied timber, bricks, or lime for the building being
constructed. The company of painters was chartered with a
provision prohibiting painting by persons not apprenticed for
seven years.
The prosperous merchants began to form a capitalistic class as
capitalism grew. Competition for renting farm land, previously
unknown, caused these rents to rise. The price of wheat rose to an
average of 14s. per quarter, thereby encouraging tillage once
more. There was steady inflation.
With enclosure of agricultural land there could be more innovation
and more efficiency, e.g. the time for sowing could be chosen. It
was easier to prevent over-grazing and half-starved animals as a
result. The complications of the open system with its endless
quarrels and lawsuits were avoided. Now noblemen talked about
manure and drainage, rotation of crops, clover, and turnips
instead of hunting, horses, and dogs. The breed of horses and
cattle was improved. There were specializations such as the
hunting horse and the coach horse. By royal proclamation of 1562,
there were requirements for the keeping of certain horses. For
instance, everyone with lands of at least 1,000 pounds had to keep
six horses or geldings able for demilances [rider bearing a light
lance] and ten horses or geldings for light horsemen [rode to
battle, but fought on foot]. One with under 100 pounds but over
100 marks yearly had to keep one gelding for a light horseman.
Dogs had been bred into various types of hounds for hunting, water
and land spaniels for falconry, and other dogs as house dogs or
toy dogs. There were no longer any wild boar or wild cattle. The
turkey joined the cocks, hens, geese, ducks, pigeons, and peacocks
in the farmyard. Manure and dressings were used to fertilize the
soil. Hay became a major crop because it could be grown on grazing
lands and required little care.
There are new and bigger industries such as glassware, iron,
brasswares, alum and coppers, gunpowder, paper, coal, and sugar.
The coal trade was given a monopoly. Coal was used for fuel as
well as wood, which was becoming scarce. Iron smelters
increasingly used coal instead of charcoal, which was limited.
Iron was used for fire-backs, pots, and boilers. Good quality
steel was first produced in 1565 with the help of German
craftsmen, and a slitting mill was opened in 1588. Small metal
goods, especially cutlery, was made, as well as nails, bolts,
hinges, locks, ploughing and harrowing equipment, rakes, pitch
forks, shovels, spades, and sickles. Lead was used for windows and
roofs. Copper and brass were used to make pots and pans. Pewter
was used for plates, drinking vessels, and candlesticks.
Competition was the mainspring of trade and therefore of town
life.
The mode of travel of the gentry was riding horses, but most
people traveled by walking. People carried passes for travel that
certified they were of good conduct and not a vagrant or sturdy
rogue. Bands of roving vagabonds terrorized the countryside. After
a land survey completed in 1579 there arose travel books with
maps, itineraries, and mileage between towns in England and Wales.
Also, the Queen sent her official mail by four royal postal routes
along high roads from London to various corners of the nation.
Horses are posted along the way for the mail-deliverer's use.
However, private mail still goes by packman or common carrier. The
nation's inland trade developed a lot. There were many more
wayfaring traders operating from town inns. In 1564, the first
canal was built with locks at Exeter. More locks and canals
facilitated river travel. At London Bridge, water-wheels and pumps
are installed.
New sea navigation techniques improved voyages. Seamen learned to
fix their positions, using an astrolabe or quadrant to take the
altitude of the sun and stars and to reckon by the north star.
They used a nocturnal, read by touch, to help keep time at night
by taking the altitude of the stars. They calculated tides. To
measure distances, they invented the traverse board, which was
bored with holes upon lines, showing the points of the compass; by
means of pegs, the steersman kept an account of the course
steered. A log tied to a rope with knots at equal intervals was
used to measure speed. There were compasses with a bearing dial on
a circular plate with degrees up to 360 noted thereon. Seamen had
access to compilations of Arab mathematicians and astronomers and
to navigational manuals and technical works on the science of
navigation and the instruments necessary for precision sailing.
For merchants there were maps, books about maps, cosmographical
surveys, and books on the newly-discovered lands. In 1569 John
Mercator produced a map taking into account the converging of the
meridians towards the pole. On this chart, a straight line course
would correspond to a mariner's actual course through the water on
the earth's sphere, instead of having the inaccuracies of a
straight line on a map which suggested that the world was flat. It
was in use by 1600.
Christmas was an especially festive time of good fellowship.
People greeted each other with "Good cheer", "God be with you", or
"Against the new year". Carols were often sung and musicians
played many tunes. There was dancing and gambling. There were big
dinners with many kinds of meat and drink. A hearty fire heated
all the house. Many alms were given to beggars.
Parliament enacted laws and voted taxes. The Queen, House of
Lords, and House of Commons cooperated together. There was
relatively little dissension or debating. Bills were read, voted
on, discussed, and passed with the lords, peers, bishops, and
justices sitting in their places according to their degree. The
justices sat on the wool sacks. A bar separated this area from the
rest of the room, where the members of the commons stood. There
were many bills concerning personal, local, or sectional
interests, but priority consideration was given to public
measures. The House of Lords still had 55 members. The Queen
appointed and paid the Speaker, Clerk, and Sergeant at Arms of the
Commons. The knights in the Commons were almost invariably from
the county's leading families and chosen by consensus of knights
with free land of at least 40s. in the county court. In the towns,
the electors might be the town corporation, holders of certain
properties, all the freemen, all the ratepayers, or all the male
inhabitants. Disputed elections were not usually concerned with
political issues, but were rivalries for power. The Commons
gradually won for its members freedom from arrest without its
permission and the right of punishing and expelling members for
crimes committed. Tax on land remained at 10% of its estimated
yearly income. The Queen deferred to the church convocation to
define Christian faith and religion, thus separating church and
state functions.
The Treasury sought to keep a balanced budget by selling royal
land and keeping Crown expenditures down. The Crown carried a
slight debt incurred before the Queen's accession.