An industrial revolution was also in progress at this time, which was
productive of widespread suffering. It had begun early in Henry's
reign through the great numbers of discharged soldiers, who could not
readily find work.
Sir Thomas More had given a striking picture of their miserable
condition in his "Utopia," a book in which he urged the government to
consider measures for their relief; but the evil had since become much
worse. Farmers, having discovered that wool growing was more
profitable than the raising of grain, had turned their fields into
sheep pastures; so that a shepherd with his dog now took the place of
several families of laborers.
This change brought multitudes of poor people to the verge of
starvation; and as the monasteries no longer existed to hold out a
helping hand, the whole realm was overrun with beggars and thieves.
Bishop Latimer, a noted preacher of that day, declared that if every
farmer should raise two acres of hemp, it would not make rope enough
to hang them all. Henry, however, set to work with characteristic
vigor and made away, it is said, with great numbers, but without
materially abating the evil (S403).