earlier age than before. This was in part due to birth control such as
coitus-interruptus, long breast-feeding of a current child and/or the
taboo against sex if the wife was still breast-feeding. Rich women often
employed wet-nurses to breast- feed their babies. Babies seldom thrived,
or even survived, without out a regular supply of breast milk.
John Locke, an Oxford don, physician, and son of an attorney, expressed
a view that the monarchy was not based on divine right, but rather on a
contractual relationship with the people, who were reasonable, free, and
equal by nature. This idea was first adopted by revolutionists and then
became accepted as orthodoxy. Also, he articulated the right of
resistance, the supremacy of legislative assemblies, and the
responsibility of rulers to answer to their subjects. He theorized that
men turn to forming a civil government when there is a need to protect
accumulated property from some unreasonable men. This, along with the
protection of life and liberty, was the primary function of government,
before royal pleasure, national pride, or foreign conquest. He wrote
theories on the interaction of supply, demand, interest rates, rents,
coinage, and foreign exchange rates. He believed that interest rates
should be the natural ones determined by market forces rather than by
the legislature, especially if there was an attempt to lower interest
rates below their natural rate, which was not only undesirable but
easily circumvented. He thought that attempting to legislate contrary to
natural economic laws, e.g. prices, was doomed to failure from
unexpected consequences. He agreed with most mercantilists that by
maintaining a large inflow of precious metals through consistent export
of surpluses in foreign trade would lead to low interest rates,
increased trade, increased capital stock, high employment, and high
prices, and therefore a healthy economy and enrichment of the nation.
Locke thought that knowledge comes primarily from experience, i.e.
sensation and reflection, rather than from innate ideas placed in the
mind by God, so that observation and experimentation are necessary to
find truth. He theorized that propositions of truth have probability
rather than certainty. Probable propositions included opinion, belief,
and revelation. His "Thoughts on Education" was a great book on the
formation of character. Locke also advocated the use of a large field
for inventing labor-saving and economic devices for agriculture. He
espoused freedom of thought in "Letters on Toleration" and wrote "An
Essay Concerning Human Understanding", which described how the mind
functions in learning about the world and which attempted to reconcile
science and Christianity. He was a great admirer and friend of Newton
and they shared religious views. He was also a member of the Royal
Society.
At Oxford and Cambridge Universities, there were the most enlightened
theologians, classicists, orientalists, philologists, mathematicians,
chemists, architects, and musicians. There were professors of
Anglo-Saxon, Hebrew, and Arabic. John Locke's influence caused modern
philosophy to supercede traditional scholasticism. There were no more
disputations to qualify for degrees. Some of the students were the sons
of noblemen and sat at meals with the heads, tutors, and fellows of the
colleges. Most students were the sons of landowners, clergymen,
professional men, or prosperous men of business. They were known as the
gentlemen commoner students. The few poor students were known as
servitors and paid for their education by menial work. Corporal
punishment ceased. Instead there were fines, suspension, and expulsion.
Fellows of colleges had common rooms for drinking and smoking together
as they had done in taverns outside college walls. The king had
authority to grant licenses in sell or give land in perpetuity, to
encourage founding and augmenting colleges and schools. The two
universities were vested with the presentation of benefices that had
belonged to Papists.
English nonconformists such as Presbyterians were excluded from Oxford
and Cambridge Universities, so they were educated at Glasgow in
Scotland.
Grammar schools were blamed for the past civil war by educating too
many people above their station, so ecclesiastical control now stifled
them. A few dissenting schools were established. Charity was given to
schools for children of the poor for placement as apprentices, but not
to educate them above their stations.
In the 1670s, about 70% of males in London were literate. By 1680,
illiteracy was a special characteristic of the poor instead of a
characteristic of the vast majority of common people as in 1580.
Fountain pens came into use.
Many books written tended to be about the author's experiences, for
instance Samuel Pepys' "Diary", Gilbert Burnet's "History of my own
Times", John Evelyn's lifelong diary with vivid descriptions of striking
events of the day, and nonconformist Celia Fiennes' description of her
tour of England on horseback. There were many political biographies.
Historians did not yet study history as a continuous process, but
narrated self-contained stories to instruct by example. William
Fleetwood wrote about economic history in "Chronicon Preciogum". George
Hicks put together a "Thesaurus" of the northern languages. Thomas Hyde
wrote on ancient Persian religion. John Spenser compared Jewish rites
with those of other Semitic people, thus starting comparative religion.
Richard Bentley, William's librarian, wrote a "Dissertation" on the
ancient Greeks. He compared the ancient Greek life with modern life. He
also confuted atheism on the Newtonian system. A translated version of
"Critical History of Old Testament" by Frenchman Richard Simon
identified the old testament as history instead of divine revelation.
John Milton wrote "Paradise Lost", which retells the Biblical story of
the Creation and the fall of Adam and Eve against the backdrop of
Satan's rebellion and expulsion from heaven and emphasized God's justice
in spite of everything. The poem deals with the puritan struggling
against evil and the problem of sin and redemption. It has a cold and
severe conception of moral virtue and stoical self-repression in its
characters. There is no sympathy with the human condition. Reading this
book made the English more serious, earnest, and sober in life and
conduct and more firm in the love of freedom. John Bunyan wrote
"Pilgrim's Progress" in which a tinker takes a journey to find the
Everlasting City of heaven and on the way meets people who try to harm
him. But he derives strength from his adversities. The journey is a
metaphor for the Christian soul trying to find salvation. It is Puritan
in its sympathies and has insights into human nature. John Dryden wrote
on large social, political, and humanistic issues, often by political
satire. William Congreve wrote plays such as a comedy on manners.
William Wycherley wrote cynical satires and portrayed folly, affection,
and vice. John Vanbrugh wrote plays satirizing London high society and
social institutions. John Toland wrote "Christianity and Mysterious" on
deism. "Puss in Boots", "Red Ridinghood", and "Cinderella" became
available in print. There were many female poets, bookwriters, and
playwrights. Anne Finch, later Vicountess Conway, wrote the
philosophical book: "Principle of the Most Ancient and Modern
Philosophy" to reconcile the new science with Christian belief. In it
every creature had a body and a spirit. Mrs. Aphra Behn wrote
"Oroonoko", one of the first novels. Basua Makin, governess of the
little sister of Charles II wrote an essay to revive the education of
women, arguing that women's activity in wartime showed that they were
fit to be educated. Elizabeth Elstob, who studied Teutonic languages,
was one of the founders of women's education. Mary Astell proposed a
college for women. Some women painted portraits.
There were rigid censorship acts from 1662 to 1695. The first required
that no one could print a book without first registering it with the
Company of Stationers of London and having it licensed by appropriate
authority: common law books by the Lord Chancellor or the Lord Keeper of
the Great Seal, affairs of state and history books by the Secretaries of
State, heraldry books by the Earl Marshall or Kings of Arms Garter,
university books by the Chancellor or Vice Chancellor of either of the
universities, and all others including divinity, physics, and philosophy
by the Archbishop of Canterbury, or Bishop of London. Books could be
imported only into London and not sold until approved by the Archbishop
of Canterbury or Bishop of London after being opened and viewed by a
scholar appointed by these bishops and a representative of the Company
of Stationers. If heretical, seditious, scandalous, schismatic or
otherwise dangerous or offensive, the importer could be punished. No one
could print or import copies of any books without consent of the owner
with right by letters patent. The penalty for not doing so was to
forfeit 6s.9d. for each such book, of which the king would receive one
half and the owner one half. Printers had to set their own name to the
books they printed and also the name of the author or else forfeit such
book. Only freemen of London who were members of the Company of
Stationers could sell books. The Company of Stationers had the authority
accompanied by a constable to search all houses and shops where they
knew or had "probable reason" to suspect books were being printed. They
could search houses of persons of other trades only by special warrant.
They could examine books found to determine if they were licensed and,
if not, to seize them. Justices could imprison offenders. The first
offense by offending printers was to be punished by suspension from
printing for three years, the second offense by permanent disallowance
from printing, fine, imprisonment, and corporal punishment not extending
to life or limb. This statute was enforced by frequent prosecutions,
such as of publishers of pornographic books.
The only newspapers to appear between 1660 and 1679 were official
government sheets. But in 1695 the requirement to license publications,
including newspapers, was abolished, thereby giving some freedom to the
press. Locke had argued for this freedom, stating "I know not why a man
should not have liberty to print whatever he would speak and to be
answerable for the one just as he is for the other..." In 1702 the first
daily newspaper in the world came into existence in England. The
Stationer's Company monopoly of printing also ended in 1695. Printing
was not regulated and no longer criminal just because it was
unauthorized. Printing could now be done in other places than London,
York, Oxford, and Cambridge.
The rich got richer and the poor got poorer. Many successful merchants
and manufacturers bought landed estates and established a line of
country squires or baronets or even peers. The fashion started in the
nobility and the richest mercantile families that their wives should
become ladies of leisure. For workers though, there was constant
underemployment. In periods of economic crisis industrial workers lost
their jobs. Much work was seasonal. Anyone who could work most of the
time was fortunate. Laboring and out- servants, who comprised one fourth
of the population, and cottagers and paupers, who comprised another
fourth of the population, had to spend more than they earned. The poor
rate collected from the parishes for the cottagers and paupers was 3d.
per week. There was an agricultural depression that was deepest in the
1680s after the collapse of a boom. It was the only bad depression
experienced in peace time. There was famine in 1698.
Any person receiving relief from any parish and his family members
cohabiting with him was required to wear a badge with a "P" which
identified his parish. This was to differentiate them from idle, sturdy,
and disorderly beggars who were not entitled to relief.
There were more poor people and, despite the poor laws, many became
rogues or vagabonds or starved to death. Many went from parish to parish
to build cottages and consumed all the wood there and then went to
another parish. So the parishes were allowed by statute to remove any
person coming to settle in any tenement under the value of ten pounds
who was likely to be chargeable to it. They were then removed to the
last parish were they had resided for at least forty days. Excepted were
people temporarily moving to another parish to work at harvest time. The
overall effect was to decrease the mobility of people. But a later
statute permitted greater movement of poor people by allowing those who
were poor for want of work to go to another parish where labor was
wanted. They had to bring a certificate of their present parish
membership to the new parish, where they could settle if they rented a
tenement worth ten pounds a year or served in a parish office. Later,
settlement had to be given to inhabitants paying its parish's rates, and
unmarried inhabitants hired for one year, and apprentices bound by
indenture. But parishes were displeased with the requirement to give
settlements to these people because they feared they would become poor
and need parish assistance, thereby increasing the rates to be paid.
Parish poor houses were converted into spinning schools to obtain an
income. Parishes of large towns were combined to set up large
workhouses, where the poor could be set to unskilled manufacture, but
the managers lacked the character and education to make them work.
Because prisoners often died before trial and the poor prisoners became
instructed in the practice of thievery in prison, they were set to work
on materials provided to them at public expense. No parish was rated at
more than 6d. per week for such. The president and governors of
corporations oversaw rogues, vagrants, sturdy beggars, and idle or
disorderly persons working in corporations or workhouses.
Assessments were made for building and repairing gaols in order to
maintain the health and safe custody of the prisoners. Also, gaol fever,
a virulent form of typhus, was so prevalent in the large prisons for
criminals and debtors that it frequently spread through the adjacent
towns. During some assizes, it killed sheriffs, lawyers, and justices.
In 1692, London lands were taxed for the relief of orphans.
Churchwardens could seize the goods and chattels of putative fathers and
mothers deserting bastard children.
From 1691 to 1740, Societies for the Reformation of Manners prosecuted
poor people for moral offenses.
All hackney coaches and stage coaches in all the realm became required
to be licensed. The turnpike system came into use. Tolls were paid for
road upkeep and repair by private companies. The local parishes ceased
to have this responsibility. John Ogilby wrote the first road book based
on actual surveys of the roads. Stage coaches cost a shilling for every
five miles and went 40-50 miles a day. The trip from London to Oxford
was twelve hours. The company of Coach and Coach Harness Makers was
founded with the consent of the king. The body of a coach hung from the
frame by leather braces. One axle pivoted for turns. Plate glass was
used in the windows. Rivers improved so that most places were no more
distant from navigable waters than a long day's haul on land.
The several post offices were put under the authority of one Postmaster
General appointed by the king for the purpose of speed and safety of
dispatches, which were carried by horseback. One sheet letter going less
than 80 miles cost 2d., and more than 80 miles, 4d.
When the army was disbanded after the Restoration, its officers and
soldiers were allowed return to their trades and their apprenticeships
without serving the usual seven years. Parishes were required to provide
for poor and maimed officers and soldiers who served Charles I or
Charles II. The Royal Hospital founded by Charles as a home for veteran
soldiers opened in 1692. Greenwich palace was converted to a hospital
for seamen and their widows and children to encourage men to become
seamen: mariner, seaman, waterman, fisherman, lighterman, bargeman,
keelman, or seafaring man in the king's Navy. Also, children of disabled
seamen were to be educated at the expense of the hospital.
Charles retained one regiment from which he started a small standing
army, which slowly increased in size ever after. The army was primarily
mercenary, as it had been in medieval times, with officers buying their
commissions. Colonels were the proprietors of their regiments and
captains were the proprietors of their companies. The soldiers were ill
mannered, swearing and cursing and stealing, sometimes from peoples'
homes, and intimidating people with their swords. The bayonet was
invented to attach onto a gun, which were muzzle-loading with a match
lock. So pikemen with their long spears became obsolete. Hand grenades
and small explosive bombs came into use about 1670.
Explosives were also used in mines. Mines for coal became deeper as
coal replaced the use of increasingly expensive wood charcoal for
brewing and for brick, glass, and china manufacture. Flooding of coal,
tin and copper mines became a problem. In 1698, Thomas Savery invented
the Miner's Friend, a practical atmospheric steam engine without a
piston.
There was resort to many devices to fund wars. The land tax was still
the primary tax. The customs and excise taxes were often extended to
more goods and wares. Sometimes there were duties imposed on marriages,
births, and deaths. Also, hawkers, peddlers, and other trading persons
going from town to town to other men's houses on foot or on horse
carrying wares had to buy a license. There were also loans from
privileged companies such as the Bank of England, East India Co., and
the South Sea Co. Commissioners were appointed to take and state the
account of all money in the public revenue. This discouraged the
prevalent corruption of government officials and thereby the people were
encouraged to pay their taxes.
The Goldsmiths loaned money to the king and to private persons and to
the Exchequer. Receipts from Goldsmiths for storage in strong boxes had
become a de facto paper currency. But when the Goldsmiths had no more
money to lend, the Bank of England was founded in 1694 under whig
auspices to provide money for war. It was the first institution to issue
notes in excess of its total deposits. However, it was not allowed to
lend money to the Crown without the consent of Parliament. It was
incorporated as the first English joint-stock bank and had about 1,300
shareholders. These original subscribers were individuals from London
from many walks of life, including well-to-do tradesmen and about 12% of
whom were women: wives, widows, or spinsters. Not many corporations were
original subscribers. Holders of at least 500 pounds could vote, of 2000
pounds could be directors, and of 4000 pounds could be Governor. The
Bank issued notes payable to bearer and discounted bills, but these were
not legal tender. It lent at 8% to the Crown and occasionally to
corporations. Money was also borrowed by offering annuities on single
lives. This was the first time the government borrowed directly from the
public on a long- term basis.
In 1695 there was inflation due to over issue by the Bank because of
inexperience, pressure from government, and the Bank's greed for
business. After a dividend of 5% in 1695, the next year there was no
dividend and so the bank stock price fell. In 1696, five pound and ten
pound short term bonds were sold to the public. Also in that year was
the first run on the bank. This occurred two days after clipped money
lost currency; people wanted the new recoined money, but the Mint had
not supplied the Bank with sufficient supplies. Interest instead of cash
was given for notes. Cash was short for months. The Bank's credit was
much shaken. It was then given a monopoly so that its notes would not
have competition. Thereafter, its dividends were good - about 12% per
year. Because of its monopoly, its dividends were about 3% above the
current going rate of interest. About this time, Exchequer Bills, with
interest, were started by the Exchequer and circulated by the Bank of
England. They were frequently endorsed many times by successive holders.
The Bank simply took over from the goldsmiths its main everyday
business of deposit, with a running cash note [cashier's note, specie
note, cash note], which was payable on demand and normally did not bear
interest; and a drawn note [precursor to the check, but not on special
paper]. The Bank gradually convinced many of its clients to use its
"check" [cheque] paper when drawing. The check paper was unique to the
Bank and embellished with distinctive scroll work to serve as an
obstacle to fraud. Over time the running cash note tended to be for
round sums of at least twenty pounds and multiples of five pounds. The
Bank of England had a monopoly on issuing notes in the London area.
Country banks arose and issued bearer notes payable on demand and
interest-bearing notes in their areas. The Bank of England gave to its
depositors the service of paying annually to a designee without further
order.
A decision of the common law courts held that bills of exchange
(written orders to pay a given a sum on a given date) were transferable
to other people by successive endorsements. So long distance payments no
longer had to be made in coin, with all the dangers of highway robbery.
The financial revolution of the 1690s meant that the merchant elite
could invest in government bonds or company bonds at 5-6%, or London
leases at 10%, as opposed to income from landed estates, which was under
3%. Shareholders were no longer personally liable for company losses.
Interest on loans was no longer considered sinful as long as it was not
oppressive. The greater ability to borrow spurred the growth of
capitalism.
All brokers and stock jobbers in London and Westminster of bank stock,
bank bills, shares and interests in joint stock must be licensed by the
mayor, which shall necessitate their taking an oath to exercise their
office without fraud or collusion to the best of his skill and knowledge
as of 1697. This is to avoid the collusion of fixing values to their own
advantage.
Compilations of tables of mortality originated the science of
life-statistics. This made life insurance possible. But it was
administered by ad hoc offices rather than companies and was not
reliable in making payments.
William Petty made a statistical study of economics and determined that
the basic values of an economy derive not from its store of treasure,
but from its capacity for production. Trade was studied empirically by
statistics by new offices such as the Inspector General of Imports and
Exports.
Charles instituted a hearth tax of 2s. per year in 1662, with
constables and officers authorized to verify the number of hearths and
stoves in houses. It was repealed in 1688 because it could not be
enforced except by exposing every man's house to be entered and searched
at pleasure by persons unknown to the people, which was oppressive and a
badge of slavery.