merchants, using Italian terms of business: debit (debito), credit
(credito), inventory (inventorio), journal (giornal), and cash
(cassa). The arithmetic of accounting operations, including
multiplication, was described in "An Introduction for to Lerne to
Reckonwith the Penne or Counters" in 1537. Accounting advice was
extended to farmers as well as merchants in the 1569 "The Pathway
to Perfectness in the Accomptes of Debitor and Creditor" by James
Peele, a salter of London. It repeated the age-old maxim:
...receive before you write, and write before you pay, So shall no
part of your accompt in any wise decay. The 1589 "Marchants Avizo"
by Johne Browne, merchant of Bristol, gave information on foreign
currencies and keeping of accounts, and included specimens of
various business documents such as insurance policies, and bills
of exchange. It also advised: Take heed of using a false balance
or measure...covet not over familiarity amongst men it maketh thee
spend much loss of time. Be not hasty in giving credit to every
man, but take heed to a man that is full of words, that hath red
eyes, that goeth much to law, and that is suspected to live
unchaste ... When thou promiseth anything be not stuck to perform
it, for he that giveth quickly giveth double ... Fear God...know
thy Prince...love thy parents ...give reverence to thy betters
...be courteous and lowly to all men... be not wise in thine own
conceit. The old prohibitions of the now declining canon law were
still observed. That is one should not seek wealth for its own
sake or beyond what was requisite for a livelihood in one's
station, exploit a customer's difficulties to extract an
extravagant price, charge excessive interest, or engross to
"corner the market".
The printing press had made possible the methodizing of knowledge
and its dissemination to a lay public. Knowledge associated with
the various professions, occupations, and trades was no longer
secret or guarded as a mystery, to be passed on only to a chosen
few. The sharing of knowledge was to benefit the community at
large. Reading became an out-of-school activity, for instruction
as well as for pleasure.
In 1565, graphite was discovered in England, and gave rise to the
pencil. Surveying accuracy was improved with the new theodolite,
which determined directions and measured angles and used a
telescope that pivoted horizontally and vertically. Scientists had
the use of an air thermometer, in which a column of air in a glass
tube sitting in a dish of water contracted or expanded with
changes in the temperature, causing the water to move up or down
the tube.
William Shakespeare, a glovemaker's son, wrote plays about
historical events and plays which portrayed various human
personalities and their interactions with each other. They were
enjoyed by all classes of people. His histories were especially
popular. The Queen and various earls each employed players and
actors, who went on tour as a troupe and performed on a round
open-air stage, with people standing around to watch. In London,
theaters such as the Globe were built specifically for the
performance of plays, which before had been performed at inns. The
audience applauded and hissed. There were costumes, but no sets.
Ordinary admission was 2d. Before being performed, a play had to
be licensed by the Master of the Revels to make sure that there
was nothing detrimental to the peace and public order. Elizabeth
issued a proclamation forbidding unlicensed interludes or plays,
especially concerning religion or government policy on pain of
imprisonment for at least fourteen days. The common people still
went to morality plays, but also to plays in which historical
personages were portrayed, such as Richard II, Henry IV, and Henry
V. Some plays were on contemporary issues. Musicians played
together as orchestras. Music and singing was a popular pastime
after supper; everyone was expected to participate. Dancing was
popular with all classes. Gentlemen played cards, dice, chess,
billiards, tennis, and fenced and had games on horseback. Their
deer hunting diminished as forests were cut down for agriculture
and the deer was viewed as an enemy eating crops. Falconry
diminished as hedges and enclosures displaced the broad expanses
of land.
Country people enjoyed music, dancing, pantomime shows with masks,
hurling, running, swimming, leap frog, blind man's buff,
shovelboard played with the hands, and football between villages
with the goal to get the ball into one's own village. Football and
shin-kicking matches often resulted in injuries. They bought
ballads from traveling peddlers. Early morning dew gathered in May
and early June was thought to have special curative powers. There
were many tales involving fairies, witches, devils, ghosts, evil
spirits, angels, and monsters which were enjoyed by adults as well
as children. Many people still believed in charms, curses,
divination, omens, fate, and advice from astrologers. The ghosts
of the earth walked the earth, usually because of some foul play
to be disclosed, wrong to be set right, to warn those dear to them
of peril, or to watch over hidden treasure. Good witches cured and
healed. Fairies blessed homes, rewarded minor virtues, and punished
mild wrongdoing. When fairies were unhappy, the weather was bad.
There were parties for children.
The merry guild feast was no longer a feature of village life.
There were fewer holydays and festivals. The most prosperous
period of the laborer was closing. An agricultural laborer's
yearly wage was about 154s., but his cost of living, which now
included house rent, was about 160s. a year. In 1533, daily wages
in the summer for an agricultural laborer were about 4d. and for
an artisan 6d. In 1563 in the county of Rutland, daily wages for
laborers were 7d. in summer and 6d. in winter; and for artisans
were 9d. in summer and 8d. in winter. Unemployment was widespread.
There were endowed hospitals in London for the sick and infirm.
There were others for orphans, for derelict children, and for the
destitute. They worked at jobs in the hospital according to their
abilities. There was also a house of correction for discipline of
the idle and vicious by productive work. Elizabeth continued the
practice of touching people to cure scrofula, although she could
not bring herself to fully believe in the reality of such cures,
contrary to her chaplain and her physician.
In the towns, shop shutters were let down to form a counter at the
front of the shop. Goods were made and/or stored inside the shop.
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,
pilgrimages, 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 relics, 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 which
discouraged idolatry, gluttony, drunkenness, excess of apparel,
idleness, rebellion, and wife-beating however provoked. She
considered homilies 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 designated thus: "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 pamphlets. 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, leather pieces, earth
coal, calamite stone, powder, saltpeter, and lead manufacturing
by-products.
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. Each particular voyage
was regulated and assisted 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 by
fine or imprisonment. Admission was by purchase of a share in a
voyage, redemption, presentation, patrimony (adult sons of members),
and apprenticeship. Purchase of a share in a voyage was the most
common method. A share for the first ship cost one hundred pounds.
Cash payments for less than the price of a share could be invested
for ultimate redemption. 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 offenses 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.