to the public for a nominal sum of five pounds. Now the Merchant
Adventurers and private traders could participate. It provided
that dividends were to be paid only in cash and not in kind
(goods). It also provided for appraisals of the Company's property
to be made every three years, so any shareholders could redeem
their shares proportionately. His shares would then be resold.
People began to buy and sell their shares among each other. The
Company made the minimum subscription 100 pounds. Each person
holding 500 pounds worth of shares had one vote. Holding 1,000
pounds worth of shares qualified one for election to the committee
of twenty-four. The seats of the members of this committee and of
the Governor and Deputy Governor could no longer be permanent, but
had limited and staggered terms. The continuity of capital took
the place of the permanence of the governing body in providing
stability. There was a regular scale of salaries for employees,
and rules of conduct such as the one disallowing any clerk of the
India House from going to play houses, dancing schools, or
taverns. The Company established almshouses for its widows and
orphans.
In 1657 the Muscovy Company, renewed its charter for trade in
Russia and established a New General Stock. If a man bought a
share, he bought freedom of the company. An annual dividend was
declared from the annual profits.
Commercial men regularly kept accounts with bankers. Merchants
used division to apportion profits or losses to the parties whose
capital was involved. Simple and compound interest were used. The
concept of contract became a familiar one.
Regular private bankers of London emerged from the Goldsmiths from
1640 to 1675. They issued bank notes and paid checks.
Cromwell increased trade by seizing territories, establishing
colonies, and warring with competitors for master of the seas and
trade. In 1649 it was provided that no one who paid his assessment
for soldiers' pay would have to quarter any of them.
Authority was given in 1649 to impress seamen: mariners, sailors,
watermen, surgeons, gunners, ship carpenters, caukers, coopers,
whoymen, and carmen for carriage of victuals.
English ships were embellished with decoration. Their sail area
was increased by triangular fore and aft sails. The Navy increased
from 39 to 80 vessels.
After serving in foreign wars, ex-soldiers were allowed in 1654 to
practice any trade without serving a seven year apprenticeship.
Colonies New Hampshire and Maine were established in 1635,
Connecticut in 1636, and Rhode Island in 1638, as offshoots from
other colonies.
About 1650, steel was hardened by repeated quenchings and
temperings when the steel had reached certain colors. Brass was
made from copper and zinc alloyed together.
There were power-driven rolls for the coinage from 1657. Strips of
silver were passed between engraved rolls. Then coins were punched
out and their edges serrated.
In the 1650s, Huygens invented the pendulum clock, which increased
the accuracy of time-keeping tenfold.
There was a thermometer which used liquid such as water or alcohol
in a glass tube instead of air.
Dutchman Stevinus showed that the pressure at the bottom of a
column of liquid is proportional to the height of the column, and
not to its bulk, about 1634. He also studied oblique forces, and
the balancing of such that could bring about "stable equilibrium".
At a time when mathematics was only a business of traders,
merchants, seamen, carpenters, and surveyors, mathematician John
Wallis, the son of a minister, studied sections of cones as curves
of the second algebraic degree. He worked with negative and
fractional exponents. Around 1655 he invented the infinite
arithmetic and introduced the symbol for infinity. He determined
that the area under any curve defined by the equation y = (x to
the nth power), was x to the (n+1)th power divided by n+1. ,
Blaise Pascal, a French mathematician, physicist, and religious
philosopher, constructed a calculator in 1644 to assist his
father, who was involved in local administration, in tax
computations. Around 1646, he proved his law that pressure applied
to a confined liquid is transmitted undiminished through the
liquid in all directions regardless of the area to which the
pressure is applied. Around 1653, he laid the foundations for the
theory of probabilities, including the creation of "Pascal's
Triangle" of coefficients of (a=b) raised to the nth power. He and
lawyer and mathematician Pierre Fermat invented the theory of
probabilities. Fermat also proved that the law for refraction
(bending) of light results from light's following the path that
takes the shortest time. He founded number theory. Fermat
formulated the notion of a line tangent to a curve and started the
development of differential calculus, in which a rate of change is
expressed as a function of time in equation form and also as a
tangent to the curve associated with that equation.. This work
helped lay the foundation for analysis. He and German Gottfried
Leibniz formulated the principle that an equation with two unknown
quantities can represent a curve. Leibnitz believed that man's
mind can arrive at truths about entities by pure thought.
Since the Puritans forbade music in churches, but enjoyed it in
domestic circumstances, much secular music was composed,
published, and played. There were many musical clubs. The violin
became very popular. Solo songs were much sung. The first English
opera: "The Siege of Rhodes" was written and performed with women
on stage. Writers of the time included John Milton, political
philosopher James Harrington, poet Edmund Waller, Thomas Fuller,
poet Abraham Cowley, and biographer Issak Walton. John Aubrey
wrote anecdotes about famous men. Jeremy Taylor, chaplain to
Charles I, wrote on theology. People still read French romances
translated into English. Dancing was still popular. Coffee houses
came into prominence as places of social discourse. The first
coffee house was established in London in 1652; ten years later,
there were 82 coffee houses in the City. There were elegant
pleasure gardens, with a fee for access. They were used for
promenades and picnics. Ladies and their gallants rendezvoused
there. Cromwell introduced the habit of port drinking to England.
In 1657, one general Post Offices was established with one
Postmaster General for all of England. No other person could have
the horsing of the through-posts. It cost 2d. for a letter to or
from 80 miles of London and 3d. for one outside 80 miles of
London.
There was continual problem with Catholics. Where Papists or
others had caused rebellion and insurrection and plundered,
robbed, pillaged, murdered and raped, mayor, Justices and capital
burgesses of such towns were given the power in 1642 to call,
assemble, train, and arm soldiers for defense. The Committee of
the Militia of London was given authority in 1647 to search all
houses and places for Papists and to search for and seize any
arms, ammunition, and war materials in custody of such persons. In
1648, all Papists and soldiers of fortune who had borne arms
against Parliament were ordered to depart from within twenty miles
of London and Westminster or be imprisoned as traitors. In 1657
convicted Papists and people marrying convicted Papists were
required to take an oath renouncing the pope and Catholic Church
or lose two-thirds of their lands and estate, retaining their
house on the remaining one-third. If one went to mass in an
ambassador's house, the fine was 100 pounds and imprisonment for
six months, one half going to the informer. In 1659 all
householders in London and Westminster had to give a list of
persons lodging in their house, and the horses and arms there. But
the laws against Catholics practicing their religion were not
rigorously enforced, nor were those against adherents of the
formerly established Church of England.
The Society of Friends was founded by the son of a weaver. They
greeted everyone as "friend" and did not bow, remove their hat (as
was the custom when before the king or an earl), or otherwise show
any reverence to anyone. From 1650, they were called Quakers
because they trembled when religiously stirred. They reverted to
the ancient "thou" and "thee" appellations. Their dress was
particularly simple, with no buttons, lace, ruffles, or
embroidery. They hated ritual so much that they rejected baptism
and communion. They did not observe the sabbath as a special day
different from other days. They derided the holiness of churches.
No clergy were admitted into their sect. When they met for divine
worship, each rose to deliver extemporaneous inspirations of the
Holy Ghost. Women were admitted to teach the brethren and were
considered proper vehicles to convey the dictates of the spirit.
Quakers believed that every man, in his own life, could be fully
victorious over sin. The denied any clerical authority and all
texts. They believed in the separation of church and state. They
refused to swear to any oath, e.g. in court, or to participate in
war. They refused to take off their hats to anyone but God. It was
their practice to turn the other cheek when one cheek had been
struck. If asked for his cloak, a Quaker would give it. He never
asked more for his wares than the precise sum which he was
determined to accept. The Quakers developed a value of making
provision for children from a first spouse when remarrying. They
carefully selected masters and mistresses who wanted to take on
child apprentices for their suitability for such responsibility.
The education of Quaker women did not decline, as it did for other
women. From the fervor of their zeal, the Quakers broke into
churches, disturbed public worship, and harassed the clergyman and
audience with railing and reproaches. When brought before a
magistrate, they show no reverence but treated him as an equal.
Sometimes they were thrown into mad house or prisons and sometimes
whipped or pilloried. They endured stoically under this suffering.
Mary Fisher from Yorkshire introduced Quakerism to New England.
In 1653 there were separation agreements between spouses as to
property, e.g. support and maintenance.
Cromwell had bad experiences with Parliaments. The Rump Parliament
was a remnant of the Long Parliament. The army and then Cromwell,
although a member, came to believe that its members were self-
interested, preoccupied with perpetuating themselves in seats of
power, and corrupt. They thought that their own hopes of reform in
the law, in the church, and in public finances were being
deliberately frustrated. Cromwell came to doubt that it would ever
give the people adequate government and protection. He started to
believe that one man as chief executive could do this better.
Cromwell dismissed the Rump Parliament in 1653. A new constitution
created a Puritan "Parliament of Saints". These men were nominated
in various ways, such as by church parishes, and selected by
Cromwell. This one-house Parliament of Saints in 1653 made
Cromwell Lord Protector for life with executive power of the
state, with responsibility for making peace and establishing order
after a decade of civil strife and political chaos. He was to
administer the government and be the chief magistrate. It also
provided for triennial Parliaments (consisting of one house), and
religious freedom for all except Roman Catholics and adherents of
the formerly established Church of England. Cromwell did not
tolerate the ritual of the formerly established English church nor
allow any of its adherents to have any office under him. His was a
purely Puritan government. He did not sell offices. The Parliament
of Saints challenged many vested interests in property such as
sales of delinquents' and Papists' lands. It clashed severely over
the continuation of tithes to the church. It became disorderly
when some declared the Parliament dissolved and left. Others
remained in their seats. To avoid a Parliamentary crisis, Cromwell
had soldiers close the Parliament of Saints and lock its doors.
The people supported this action because they were dissatisfied
with the state of public affairs. The next Parliament that was
tried was elected on a new constitutional basis of men with 200
pounds, but these men voted to make Parliament sovereign without a
chief executive, thereby abolishing the protectorate. Cromwell was
distressed that this Parliament had also voted themselves to be
the sole determinors of atheism and blasphemy instead of advancing
liberty of religious conscience and religious toleration as
Cromwell had advocated. dissolved this Parliament, declaring that
it was not acting for the public good. A last Parliament was also
dissolved by Cromwell for tending to loosen the bonds of
government and thereby threatening the peace of the nation.
Cromwell had first ruled as a democratic leader who did not
believe in force, but preferred to persuade with reason. He
initially believed that people would do the right thing according
to their consciences, but was disillusioned and then became
autocratic. He came to rule as a military dictator. Payment of
taxes was enforced by distraint. After 1654, he issued about 100
proclamations covering public amusements, roads, finances, the
condition of prisons, the imprisonment of debtors, banning of
dueling and cockfighting, law reform, control of religion and
education, and reorganization of the army. The singing of ballads
was banned. The Court of Chancery was reformed by proclamation.
The established church was reformed and the power to interfere
with different faiths was denied to it. Each parish could choose
its form of service, whether Presbyterian, Congregational,
Baptist, or any other seen as fundamental by the Puritans. No one
was compelled to attend any particular church or to accept the
discipline of any particular minister. But the Book of Common
Prayer was forbidden. There was freedom of worship for
Presbyterians, Independents, Baptists, Quakers, Catholics, and
Jews (who had secretly migrated to England to avoid persecution on
the continent), but not Prelatists (those favoring government of
the church by bishops).
In 1655, Cromwell placed major generals in charge of eleven newly-
established provinces. As their Governors, they had authority to
levy troops, exact taxes imposed by the Protector, disarm
Royalists and Catholics, examine into the conduct of the clergy
and schoolmasters, arrest dangerous and suspicious persons, and
prevent unlawful assemblies, and to enforce the existing laws
against immorality and blasphemy. The only appeal was to the
Protector. Since they were Puritans, they ordered public ale
houses to close as dusk, banned idlers, minstrels, and actors,
forbade exercising of horses on Sunday and the holding of markets
on Saturday as well as Sunday, censored the press, and proscribed
newspapers. Horse races, which meetings were used for seditious
purposes, were closed. Theaters were closed. Dancing was
discontinued. Organs and choirs in churches prohibited. Court
masks continued because they provided soothing music. After a
year, Cromwell withdrew the major-generals. From this time, men of
property hated the idea of a standing army.
In 1657, the officers of a new Parliament modified the
constitution and Cromwell approved it, to secure liberties of the
people as they never before had. Under the modified constitution,
there were again two houses. The Commons regained its old right of
exclusively deciding on the qualification of its members.
Parliamentary restrictions were imposed on the choice of members
of the Council, officers of state, and officers of the army. A
fixed revenue was voted to the Protector. No moneys were to be
raised except by consent of Parliament. Liberty of worship was
guaranteed to all except Papists, Prelatists, Socinians (who
denied the divinity of Jesus), for those who denied the
inspiration of the Scriptures. Liberty of conscience was secured
for all. In 1658, Cromwell tried another Parliament, but dissolved
it because it wrangled without resolution.
After Cromwell died, the people demanded the return of a genuine
and free Parliament. The old constitution was restored and a new
House of Commons was elected. It called Charles II to return to be
king if he promised religious freedom and backpay to the army,
which had not recently been paid. When Cromwell's Puritan soldiers
were disbanded, they did not drift into thievery as royalists
soldiers had before, but took up honest work such as baker, mason,
brewer, baker, or haberdasher. Puritanism now made itself felt not
by the sword, but in literature and politics. It affected the
character of the English, who tend to be stoics, and imbued
capitalists with a hard-working attitude.
- The Law -
After the civil wars, the law against enclosure was not enforced.
What was passed in Parliament in Cromwell's time were called
statutes, but after Cromwell's time, these statutes were not
recognized as legitimate.
"whereas Public Sports do not well agree with Public Calamities,
not Public Stage-plays with the Seasons of Humiliation, this being
an Exercise of sad and pious Solemnity, and the other being
Spectacles of Pleasure, too commonly expressing lascivious Mirth
and Levity ... Public Stage Plays shall cease, and be forborne
instead of which are recommended to the People of this Land the
profitable and seasonable considerations of Repentance,
Reconciliation, and Peace with God, ..."
No book or pamphlet may be printed, bound, stitched, or sold or
imported unless licensed and entered into the Register Book of the
Company of Stationers. Officials of this company and of Parliament
may search all places which they shall think meet for all
unlicensed printing presses and all suspected printing houses,
warehouses, and shops and other places for unlicensed books and
pamphlets and papers and seize them and apprehend all authors,
printers, and other involved people and bring them before
Parliament or the Committee on Examinations for punishment.
Justices of the peace and other officers may order doors and locks
broken for this purpose. The fine is ten pounds for authors, five
pounds for printers, two pounds for booksellers, and one pound for
buyers who conceal a book bought. One half of each fine shall go
to the person who discovers and prosecutes the offender, and the
other half shall go to the poor. This law suppressed royalist
newspapers but was enforced only with great difficulty.
All shall observe Sunday and days of Thanksgiving in their "duties
of Piety and true Religion publicly and privately" and none may
sell wares or goods, including fruit or herbs upon pain of
forfeiture of such. None may, without reasonable cause, travel,
carry burdens, or do any worldly labors or work whatsoever or pay
a fine of 10s. This work shall include grinding grain, fulling in
mills, burning turf or earth, gathering taxes, melting wax for
candles, brewing, baking, butchering cattle, tailors fitting or
carrying clothes, barbers trimming hair, being present at fairs or
markets, or washing, whiting, or drying clothes. Nor may any one
maintain or be present at wrestlings, shooting, bowling, ringing
of bells for pleasure or pastime, masks, wake, church-ale,
dancing, games, sport or, for those over 14, forfeit 5s., and for
those having care or education of a child under 14, 12d. Maypoles,
a "Heathenish vanity, generally abused to superstition and
wickedness", shall be taken down by officers or forfeit 5s. per
week. If any offender can't pay his fine, he shall be put in the
stocks for three hours. However meat maybe dressed in private
families, and victual sold in inns and victualling houses in a
moderate way, and milk sold before 9a.m. or after 4p.m.
Persons of the trinity, angels, or saints shall be demolished.
Altar and communion tables must not be raised but leveled. There
may be no copes, surplices, superstitious vestments, or holy water
fonts. There may be no crosses, crucifixes, pictures of the
trinity, angels or saints on plates. All organs must be taken
away.
The fine for using the Book of Common Prayer is five pounds for
the first offense, ten pounds for the second offense, and one year
imprisonment without bail for the third offense. The penalty for
writing or preaching against the Directory for Public Worship is
five to fifty pounds.
Blasphemies and heresies such as teaching or writing or printing
that there is no God, that God is not almighty, that Jesus was not
divine, that the resurrection of Jesus did not occur, that the
Bible is not the word of God, or that there is no judgment day
after death, are felony without benefit of clergy. If such an
offender recants, he shall stay in gaol until he obtains two
sureties. If he offends again after recantation, it is felony
without benefit of clergy.
In 1650 adultery was declared to be a felony, except if the
husband had been beyond the seas for three years or had been
reputed to be dead. Incest was also declared to be a felony. It
was defined as marrying or having carnal knowledge of one's
grandparent, parent, sibling, mother's brother or sister, father's
wife, mother's husband, son's wife, daughter's husband, wife's
mother or daughter, or husband's father or son. Fornication was
given a punishment of three months imprisonment and until security
was obtained for one year for good behavior. It was defined as
carnal knowledge of a virgin, unmarried woman, or widow. A common
bawd or one keeping a brothel or bawdy house was to be whipped,
set in the pillory, marked in the forehead by a hot iron with the
letter: B, and then imprisoned for three years without bail and
until there were sureties for good behavior for life. The second
offense was felony without benefit of clergy. There was to be no
corruption of the blood. However, juries were reluctant to convict
for adultery and incest.
There shall be no profane swearing or cursing of forfeit by a lord
30s., a baronet or knight 20s., an esquire 10s., a gentleman
6s.8d., and all others 3s.4d.There is a double fine for the second
offense. For the tenth offense, the offender shall be bound by
sureties for good behavior for three years.
A person equating himself or another with God or not believing in
God shall be imprisoned for six months without bail. For the
second offense, he shall be banished from the nation.
No longer shall people be punished for nonattendance at church on
Sunday or days of Thanksgiving, but may be at some other place of
prayer, preaching, reading, or the scriptures.
Hawkers and ballad singers have been libelous, so are to be
whipped as common rogues and then dismissed. Also, their ballads
and pamphlets are to be confiscated. Vagrant, idle, loose,
dissolute and disorderly persons and fiddlers in inns, alehouses,
and taverns are to be punished as rogues, vagabonds, and sturdy
beggars, that is, whipped.
In 1649, treason against Parliament was defined as writing,
printing, or declaring that the government is tyrannical, usurped,
or unlawful or that Parliament is not the supreme authority or the
nation, or plot, contrive, or endeavor to stir up or raise force
against the government. Attainder for such would not work
corruption of the blood.
Treason to the Protector was defined the same as it was to the
King.
Army deserters are to be corporally punished or executed.
Fellable wood and underwood, but no timber trees, may be cut
within 60 miles of London because fuel is needed, especially by
the poor. This will be supervised by overseers appointed by
Parliament.
No one may import foreign hats or hatbands to relieve that
industry in England.
As of 1656, certain food could not be exported when the prices of
such exceeded a stated amount. For instance, 5 pounds for a 36
gallon barrel of beef, 6d. for a pound of bacon, 4 pounds and 10s.
for a 224 gallon barrel of butter, and 24s. for 64 pounds of rye,
pease, or beans. The customs for such items was more for
foreigners than for natives, for instance 3s. for natives and 5s.
for foreigners for a barrel of beef.
Butter for sale must not be corrupt and be properly weighed.
One must obtain a license to buy wheat or other grain and put it
to sale in meal or flour or forfeit three times the value.
All books of the law, writs, pleadings, and patents shall be in
English or forfeit 20 pounds.
No deer may be killed or forfeit 15 pounds, half to the informer
and half to the poor.
Interest may not exceed 6 pounds for a loan of 100 pounds yearly
as of 1651.