taking a little off the top: how henry viii and edward vi destroyed the value of england’s...

8/12/2019 Taking a Little off the Top: How Henry VIII and Edward VI Destroyed the Value of Englands Currency

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Te Journa OfPeace, Prosperity & Freedom

aking a Little off the op: How Henry VIII and

Edward VI Destroyed the Value o Englands Currency

ABSTRACT:Troughout the udor era, the Crown turned to debasement o the currency the

replacement o the gold or silver content o coins with a base metal as a non-parliamentary

method o raising revenue. udor kings and queens used debasement to tax their subjects with-

out the consent o the people that is guaranteed in English common law. Te heaviest period o

debasement occurred rom 1542 to 1551 during the reigns o Henry and Edward. Troughout

this period, England also experienced the greatest increase in prices. From 1485 to 1603, agri-

cultural prices increased by 338% and industrial goods increased by 131%. Contemporaries

began commenting on the high prices in the late 1540s and the Crown, needing a scapegoat,

blamed the wealthiest members o society. But it was the Crown that made lie more difficult or

its subjects by contributing to price increases through its policy o debasement.

AUTHOR: Marcus Witcher earned a BA rom the University o Central Arkansas where he

majored in history and minored in economics. He is currently a graduate student in history

at the University o Alabama where he intends to earn his MA and PhD. Most o his research

ocuses on integrating the fields o economics and history and he plans to write his dissertation

on destructive entrepreneurship in the United States rom 1950 to the present. Mr Witcher can

be contacted at: [email protected]

Many economic historians have studied the price increases o sixteenth-centuryEngland. A consensus has emerged that ocuses more on population increases

and harvest ailures than on the Crowns policy o debasement. John Munroargues that harvest fluctuations had more o an effect on the lives o everydaypeople than the debasement o the coinage.1However, while it is true that pop-ulation increases and agricultural disasters played a significant role in Englands

1 John H. Mundro, Debasement o the Coinage and its Effects on Exchange Rates and the

Economy inMoney in the Pre-Industrial Worldedited by John H. Munro, (London: Pickering

& Chatto, 2012), 68.


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price rise, the most rapid increase in prices occurred when King Henry VIII andlater his son King Edward VI turned to debasement to und wars. Elizabeth rees-tablished the value o the coinage early in her reign but later turned to debase-ment as a means to pay or her European campaigns. Te result o the udorspolicy o debasement was a rough century in which real purchasing power orEnglish subjects decreased and hardships were the standard not the exception.

I .

Te story o King Henry VIII and his six wives is well-known. It is equally well-known that Henrys tumultuous personal lie dramatically influenced his polices.Te decision to separate rom the Catholic Church can be attributed to Henrysdesire to divorce his first wie Katherine o Aragorn. Less studied is the effectthat Henrys fifh wie, Catherine Howard, had on policy. Henry and Catherinewere married in July o 1540, the marriage proved to be short lived. Catherinehad an affair with Henrys courtier Tomas Culpepper and by 1541 rumors oher infidelity spread through the Court. Initially, Henry reused to believe theaccusations against Catherine. Only believing the accusations when evidence oher adultery was presented to him, Henry asked or a sword so that he might killCatherine but soon afer dissolved into tears and complained o having suchill-condition wives.2 In short, the king was distraught and his manhood hadnow been directly challenged. According to historian John Guy, with his ego inthis ragile state, Henry resolved to restore his honour in a war against France. 3Tus Catherines betrayal contributed to Henrys decision to invade France.

France and Spain had withdrawn their ambassadors to England in 1539 inresponse to Pope Paul IIs excommunication o Henry and or once were alliedtogether against England. Yet the truce between the Spanish and the Frenchdid not last and by the summer o 1541 when Catherine was discovered tohave cheated on Henry the two nations were once again at odds. 4Henry andCharles I o Spain agreed to a treaty in 1543 and had plans drawn up or a jointinvasion o France in the summer o 1544.5Te decision to go to war came easyto Henry who had always antasized about restoring the glory that Henry V hadwon or England at the Battle o Agincourt and restoring his ancient, and prepos-terous, claim to the French throne.6Te decisions about how to finance the war,

2 David Starkey, Te Reign of Henry VIII: Personalities and Politics (London: George Phillip,

1985), 128; Karen Lindsey, Divorced, Beheaded, Survived: A Feminist Reinterpretation of the

Wives of Henry VIII(New York: Addison-Wesley, 1995), 175.

3 John Guy, udor England (New York: Oxord University Press, 1988), 190.

4 Guy, 184.

5 J.J. Scarisbrick, Henry VIII (New York: University o Caliornia Press, 1968), 434; Guy, 190.

6 Scarisbrick, 54, 135.


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however, proved more elusive. Direct taxation had to be approved through par-liament and was thereore not at the top o Henrys options. Henry had consid-erable lands that he had acquired rom the dissolution o the monasteries, anamount totaling 120,000 a year.7Tese rents would have provided the Crownwith financial independence or many years had Henry not gone to war. Need-ing to finance his war, however, Henry sold off the lands or the market value otwenty years o rent. As a result, Henry raised a substantial amount o money inthe short term to pay or the war.8But the king still needed to raise more revenueand in 1542 he turned to debasement o the coinage as a means to make up thedifference.

While Henry ordered or the coinage to be recalled and debasement to pro-ceed in 1542, the coins did not all flow in immediately. Te Crown led in thedebasement by devaluing the coins in its possession. Individuals reminted theirown coins because by doing so they could pay less real money or their debts including their taxes.9Demand to remint coins was so great that the governmentopened six new mints.10Henry received a total o 363,000 rom the debasemento the coinage. While this was a substantial amount o revenue, it was not enoughon its own to pay or the war, which cost 2,134,784. Further revenues to pay orthe war included 656,245 rom taxation, 799,310 rom the sale o ex-religiouslands, 270,000 rom orced domestic loans, and 100,000 rom loans rom Ant-werp.11Te cost o the war put serious financial stress on the Crown.

I unding the war had seemed difficult, the fighting itsel did not go muchbetter. Te plan that Charles and Henry had agreed on was never carried out. Tetwo never marched on Paris; instead Charles negotiated a separate peace withFrancis I o France and lef Henry to besiege the town o Boulogne in the all o1544. Afer nearly two months the ortress town surrendered.12Shortly therea-ter, Henry came to understand that without Charles help there was no way hecould deeat the French. Realizing the war was over, he returned to England. Inthe reaty o Ardres, the French conceded Boulogne to the English until 1554when France would pay 600,000 in exchange or the town. Furthermore, Henryreceived 35,000 per year and the French would use their leverage to bring theScottish into a new peace treaty with England.13

Although on paper it might appear that Henry had won the war and restoredhis masculinity, the war had bankrupted the Crown and the effects o debasement

7 Alison Weir, Te Six Wives of Henry VIII (New York: Grove Weideneld, 1991), 393.

8 Starkey, 135.

9 J. D. Gould, Te Great Debasement: Currency and the Economy in Mid-udor England (New

York: Oxord University Press, 1970), 20.

10 Gould, 3.

11 Guy, 192.

12 Guy, 191; Scarisbrick, 448.

13 Guy, 192.


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were being elt by the English population. Te debasement o the coinage, whichhelped finance the war against France, devalued the currency and raised prices.In 1550, an Englishman explained why prices had risen: By occasion o the warreat Boloine the coyne o Englande was first impaired by Kyng Henry, and romthat tyme continually to this day was corrupted and made worse and worse.14While some contemporaries directly linked the rise in prices to the debasemento the coinage, those who did were certainly in the minority. Most people simplyrealized that prices had increased and that making their daily bread had becomeharder.

I I .

In 1348, the Black Plague broke out in England. Te plague killed around 60%o the English population.15As a result, wages soared and prices declined. It tookover a century or England to regain its population. By the early sixteenth cen-tury, the demography was beginning to catch up with England and the expandingpopulation was pushing prices up and wages down. Some economic historians,such as Geoffrey Maynard, have argued that the growing population in Englandwas more important to the rise in prices than debasement.16Tis argument isbuilt around the idea that the agricultural sector o the economy was unable toexpand its output to meet the demand o an expanding population. Tese his-torians explain that agricultural prices increased more rapidly than did indus-trial prices. Tis, they explain, is due to the inelasticity o oodstuffs, and the argreater demand that was present or agricultural commodities.17One criticismo the population argument is that the thirteenth and eighteenth centuries bothsaw more rapid population increase than the sixteenth century and prices didnot drastically increase.18Furthermore, i the demand or oodstuffs was so greatthen there should have been ample incentive or the demand to be met unlessthere was an outside orce preventing the demand rom being filled. In whichcase that orce, and not population growth, would be the cause o price increases.

14 Evil Effects o the Debasement o the Coinage noted in Contemporary Chronicles, 1550 in

udor Economic Papers,vol. 2. ed. R.H. awney and Eileen Power (New York: Longmans &

Green, 1924), 186.

15 Ole Jrgen Benedictow, Te Black Death 1346-1353: Te Complete History(New York: Boydell

Press, 2004), 383.

16 R.B. Outhwaite, Inflation in udor and Early Stuart England: Second Edition (London: Mac-

millan Press, 1982), 43.

17 R.B. Outhwaite, Inflation in udor and Early Stuart England: Second Edition (London: Mac-

millan Press, 1982), 43; Keith Wrightson, Earthly Necessities: Economic Lives in Early Modern

Britain (London: Yale University Press, 2000), 129.

18 Outhwaite, 49.


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Prices increased throughout the udor era indicating that the large increasein population did play a role in the price increase. From 1501 to 1530, pricesor oodstuffs increased by 50%, while industrial products saw a 12% increase.19During the first third o the century, prices rose without any major debase-ment o the coinage. Furthermore, agricultural prices increased more rapidlythan industrial prices. Te population argument thereore makes sense or thefirst third o the century when a surge in population would have rendered anincreased number o young people without land who would need to consumeoodstuffs but perhaps would have little need or industrial items. It is also possi-ble that there was price stickiness in the production o ood due to an economicenvironment where taking a risk might mean starvation. Additionally, conven-tional Christian doctrine identified the pursuit o wealth as illegitimate; suchpursuits were tainted with the sins o covetousness and avarice.20Also, restric-tions existed that controlled the number o people who could supply a market,there were no economies o scale, there was very little specialization, and mostarmers embraced conservative planting practices that ocused on controllingrisk instead o maximizing production.21

Tose who emphasize population growth as the major cause o the increasein prices deny that the debasement o the coinage by Henry and later by Som-erset during Edwards reign had a great effect on prices. Between the years o1542 and 1551, the heaviest years o debasement, the money supply more thandoubled.22Te only way in which doubling the money supply would not havea dramatic impact on prices would be i the velocity o the currency somehowdecreased. Tere is little evidence that velocity decreased as a result o the debase-ment, in act the debasement increased it by encouraging silver, which had ahigher velocity than gold, to flow into England where it was overvalued.23Tedebasement o gold and silver was not done evenly and although both metalssuffered in the great debasement ollowing 1542, silver suffered much more thangold, with the result that the ratio dropped rom 12.3 to 1 in 1541 to a ridiculous5 to 1 by 1546, a ration which grossly undervalued gold. Contemporary observ-ers noted the flood o silver into the country. William Lane wrote to Cecil in1551 and complained that the lyke o thys myscheffe hapnyd here in ynglo[n]d in the monthes o June, Julij, and awguste laste, in the wyche 3 monthes wascaryyd owte o ynglond not so lyttyll as a hundarthe thousand powndes o gold;and yette dyd there sylvar cume in to the land as aste.24Gold flows out o the

19 Outhwaite, 12.

20 Wrightson, 57.

21 Wrightson, 56-57.

22 Gould, 83.

23 Outhwaite, 56.

24 William Lane to Cecil on the Coinage and other matters, 18 Jan, 1551. in udor Economic

Papers, vol. 2. ed. R.H. awney and Eileen Power (New York: Longmans & Green, 1924), 183.


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country were so extreme that the Crown passed theAct Against the Exportationof Gold and Silverin 1553. Te legislation asserted that the Golde and Sylver othe Coygne o this Realme hathe and daily ys and been carried and conveighedinto France and established that no person sholde carrye or make to be carriedout o this Realme or Wales rom no part o the same, anye maner o money othe coigne o this Realme upon peine o Felonye.25It is clear that the amounto silver in circulation increased in England during the time o debasement.Tereore, it is unlikely that the debasement o the coinage was accompanied byany decline in the velocity o the currency.

Te thirty year price index rom 1531 to 1560 demonstrates that pricesduring the debasement increased much more uniormly than rom 1501 to 1530.Te price o oodstuffs increased by 96% and the price o industrial productsincreased by 69%.26When prices increase because o devaluation o the currency,they tend to rise across the economic spectrum (with some consideration or theelasticity o demand). Te increase in all goods during this time indicates thatsomething beyond population was driving prices up. Some economic histori-ans have claimed that because there was a delay between the debasement andthe upward rise in prices that debasement must not have caused the increasein prices. Tis view does not take into account that while the standards werealtered by Henry in 1542, the debased coins did not go into wide circulation until1544-1545.27Tereore, there would have been a lag between the enactment odebasement as a policy and the increase o prices. Furthermore, the greatest ac-tor that was altered between the 1501-1530 index and the 1531-1560 index wasthe debasement o the coinage. Te debasement o the coinage played a pivotalrole in the drastic increase in prices between the death o Henry and the corona-tion o Elizabeth I.

I I I .

While Henry started the debasement process in 1542, the policy was continuedduring Edwards reign. Edward took the throne when he was only nine. As aresult, a regency council was established to govern until Edward came o age.Te head o the council was Edward Seymour Edward VIs uncle. Seymour,who had been the Earl o Hertord during Henrys reign, awarded himsel a newtitle and became the Duke o Somerset. Somersets major obsession was the con-quest o Scotland and the unification o the English and Scottish thrones through

25 Act Against the Exportation o Gold and Silver 1553 in udor Economic Papers,vol. 2. ed.

R.H. awney and Eileen Power (New York: Longmans & Green, 1924), 178.

26 Outhwaite, 12.

27 Outhwaite, 46.


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the marriage o young Edward to Mary Stuart. Somerset invaded Scotland inSeptember o 1547, just seven months afer the death o Henry. He ailed toimplement an effective blockade and in the summer o 1548 the French sent sixthousand troops with artillery to Scotland.28As a result, the war was extendedand the price o the campaign increased.

When the war was finally over, it totaled 580,393. Somersets invasion oScotland cost an extraordinary amount o money and almost orced the Frenchto declare war on England.29Te campaign ultimately ailed to achieve Somer-sets goals and he withdrew his orces rom Scotland in 1549. In order to financethe conflict, Somerset turned to debasement. Since Henry had debased the cur-rency, rents had increased by 77% per cent.30Common people elt the impact othe devaluation o the currency and some began to orm explanations or theirhardship.

Complaints about the rising price o goods and rent became commonplace. Amerchant responding to complaints about the increase in his prices complainedthat the cost o all textiles had risen and all other kynde o clothe made withinthis Realme is lykewyse raysed at suche lyke pryces, And the pryces nowith-standinge, the sayde clothe was never so yll and alsely made.31 Pamphleteersand preachers such as Hugh Latimer and Robert Crowley blamed enclosures orthe rise o ood prices claiming those that raised sheep or the European clothingmarket were men without conscience cormorants, greedy gulls, Yea, men thatwould eat up men women and children.32Tere was a growing sense that therich land holders were exploiting the poor by raising sheep instead o plantingoodstuffs. One social commentator questioned how seing ther is at this presentso maney Shepe within the realme, howe chanche it, that woll is now doble theprice that it was at within this vij years.33Tere was deep suspicion o the wealthyand many believed that enclosures were to blame or the increase in prices.

Widespread rustration with high prices put pressure on the Crown to takeaction. In June o 1548, Somerset decided to enorce existing legislation againstenclosures. He established a commission to travel across England to implementthe law. Te head o the commission explained that his goal was to remove thesel-love that is in many men, to take away the inordinate desire or riches to

28 Guy, 199, 201-202.

29 Chris Skidmore, Edward VI: Te Lost King of England (New York: St. Martins Press, 2007),

109-110.

30 Skidmore, 91.

31 Rise in the Prices o Cloth Goods, 1551. in udor Economic Papers,vol. 2. ed. R.H. awney

and Eileen Power (New York: Longmans & Green, 1924), 191-192.

32 Skidmore, 91.

33 Policies to Reduce this Realme o Englande Unto A Prosperous Wealthe and Estate in udor

Economic Papers,vol. 3. ed. R.H. awney and Eileen Power (New York: Longmans & Green,

1924), 320.


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expel and quench the insatiable thirst o ungodly greediness wherewith they bediseased, and to plant brotherly love among us.34According to historian ChrisSkidmore, Somerset understood what he was doing: he was the first politicianto realize the ull value o popularity, which he ostentatiously used to supplementhis quasi-regal authority.35Unortunately or Somerset, his attack on enclosurescreated deep animosity among many at Court. Many o those who made up thegovernment were the wealthy land owners that Somersets policy attacked. Oth-ers in Somersets service questioned i enclosures had led to high prices and rents.

Sir Tomas Smith was orced to retire rom his secretary duties in 1549, dueto his insistence that the debasement o the coinage was the major reason orhigh prices. Smith had presented Somerset with a vigorous financial policy thathe believed would solve many o Englands economic problems. At the heart oSmiths program was his opposition to debasement and in the summer o 1549,he was orced to leave London and settle down in his country home. From therehe wroteA Discourse of the Commonweal of Tis Realm of England. Accordingto Mary Dewar the historian who identified Smith as the author o the work the central thesis o Smiths work is that the social distress and widespreadeconomic dislocation were directly related to the debasement o the coinage.36Discourse consisted o the imaginary conversations o five characters, each rep-resenting a different socio-economic section o England. Four o the characterscomplain about the poor economic conditions and the Doctor analyzes theircomplaints and provides explanations. In one exchange, the Knight says to theDoctor: Ten you think plainly that this alteration o the coin is the chie andprincipal cause o this universal dearth? Te Doctor responds that experi-ence and proo does make more plain; or even with the alteration o the coinbegan this dearth, and as the coin appeared so rose the pace o things withal. 37Smith, speaking through the Doctor, conveys to readers what he could not getthrough to Somerset: that the Crown, through debasement, was responsible orthe enduring decline o the English economy.

Around the same time that Smith ell out o avor, Somerset himsel begana political descent. In June o 1549, the council pleaded with Somerset to endthe parliamentary session and reestablish order in the country. Somersets pol-icy towards enclosures had emboldened those who wanted to see more equal-ity and airness in society. John Hales, a member o Parliament, added to thecouncils anxiety by passing theAct for the Relief, which established a poll tax or

34 Skidmore, 92.

35 Skidmore, 93.

36 Mary Dewar, Te Authorship o the Discourse o the Commonweal Te Economic History

Review, January 1 1966, 389-390.

37 Sir Tomas Smith,A Discourse of the Commonweal of Tis Realm of England. Ed. Mary Dewar

(Charlottesville: Te University Press o Virginia, 1969), 101.


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each sheep owned. Afer this act became law, Somerset attempted to reassure thenobility who were livid with theAct for the Relief that his administrationstill held their interests at heart. He did so by pardoning enclosure offenders romthe previous year. Afer a couple weeks, however, Somerset doubled down andreestablished his tone o condemnation o the wealthy or their greed. Te courtpreacher Hugh Latimer, whose sermons condemned enclosures and had influ-enced Somersets policies, spoke with Edward VI in the summer. He complainedthat there was no discipline in England and that Edwards subjects be withoutall order.38Riots broke out across England in the late spring o 1549. While theriots had multiple causes religious, economic, and social grievances all playeda role some who protested pointed to Somersets own policies believing that itwas lawul or them to destroy the gentrys property and redistribute the wealth.39Edward, in his chronicle, blamed enclosures or the uprisings.40Regardless owhat inspired the uprising, the council determined that Somerset was to blameand by October Somerset had been removed as Lord Protector and imprisoned.41

John Dudley, the Earl o Warwick and later the Duke o Northumberland,took control o the government and imprisoned Somerset. Northumberlandsfirst goal was to restore Englands finances. He sold Crown lands, raised taxes,and melted confiscated church gold into coins. Northumberland also turned todebasement. He raised over 100,000 by devaluing the currency. Furthermore,Northumberland employed the talents o Sir Tomas Gresham, who was ableto manipulate the exchange rates between England and Flanders as a resultEngland was repaid over 240,000. In 1552, Cecil convinced Northumberlandthat he needed to reestablish confidence in the currency. Northumberland agreedto a slight recoinage and as a result prices began to stop their accent.42

Somerset went on trial in 1552. Edward asserted that Somerset had commit-ted crimes against him and charged that he had entered into rash wars in mineyouth enriching himsel o my treasure, ollowing his own opinion, and doingall by his own authority.43Somerset was not put on trial or any crimes until afer1551 when he was accused o planning the death o Northumberland. Duringthe trial Seymour (now striped o his titles) admitted to talking with some o hisamiliars and riends about finding means to abase Northumberland, but not tokill him.44Somerset returned to the ower afer being ound guilty. On January22, 1552 Somerset was executed.45Edward began to play a more active role in the

38 Skidmore, 112-113.

39 Guy, 208-209; Skidmore, 113.

40 Jennier Loach, Edward VI (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999), 85.

41 Judith M. Richards,Mary udor (New York: Routledge, 2008), 96-97.

42 Guy, 217.

43 Loach, 91.

44 Skidmore, 218.

45 Guy, 215.


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affairs o government in 1552, but in the winter o 1553 he eel ill with pneumo-nia. Te young king, on the verge o taking the reins o his kingdom, died thatJuly.46

IV .

Although Northumberland had issued a recoinage, the monetary base had notbeen returned to what it was prior to Henrys debasement in 1542.47As a result,when Queen Mary I took the throne prices remained high. Marys reign beganin economic turmoil. She inherited a debt o more than our times the expectedannual surplus in royal revenue.48Furthermore, Mary was thirty-seven when shecame to the throne and she was Catholic. Marys primary objectives were to getmarried, have a child, and roll back as many o Edwards protestant reorms as pos-

sible. Marys marriage to Phillip o Spain brought her into conflict with the Frenchand as a result her debt problem magnified. She achieved much o the needed rev-enue by raising taxes in 1555 and 1558, but like Henry and Edward beore her shecould not resist debasement. Marys debasement raised 58,000 and ensured thatprices would continue to rise.49Mary died in November o 1558 and her youngersister Elizabeth I, Henrys daughter with Anne Boleyn, became queen.

As soon as Elizabeth took the throne, there were calls or her to restore thevalue o the coinage. Sir Tomas Gresham wrote a letter to the queen explainingthat in order to restore this your reallme you should bringe your basse moneyinto fine o xi ounces fine, and so gowlde afer the ratte. Gresham also suggested

that Elizabeth stop granting licenses to nobles, not to incur debt, and to keepup the Crowns credit.50Elizabeth or perhaps her council took Greshamsadvice to heart and decided that the coinage should be reormed to the stan-dard that was in place prior to Henrys reign. Te Crown realized that this policywould hurt debtors and those who had long term contracts that set prices. Asa result, Elizabeth decreed that all debts and rents must be adjusted to the newstandard.51In an official memorandum, Elizabeth concluded, afer questioning

46 Richards, 108; Diarmaid MacCulloch, Te Later Reformation in England, 1547-1603 (New

York: Palgrave, 2001) 17.

47 Northumberland was executed or treason in 1553 he had endorsed an elaborate plot en-

dorsed by Edward to place Lady Jane Grey on the throne (who was also married to his son)

instead o Mary.

48 Richards, 122.

49 Guy, 240-241.

50 Gresham to Queen Elizabeth on the Fall o the Exchange, 1558 in udor Economic Papers,

vol. 2. ed. R.H. awney and Eileen Power (New York: Longmans & Green, 1924), 149.

51 Memorandum on the Reasons Moving Queen Elizabeth to Reorm the Coinage, 1559 in


Green, 1924), 194-195.


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why the country was in economic decline, that the greatest and almost the onlycause thero hathe proceded by the inhauncementes o the coigne in the tyme oher ather and brother, and that the only remedy thereo is to reduce the moniesto the auncient standard.52Te official proclamation announcing a reorm o thecoinage echoed Gresham and Elizabeths conclusion that nothyng is so griev-ous, ne likely to disturbe and decaye the state and good order o this Realme,as the suffraunce o the base monies.53Elizabeths message to the country wasclear: Henry, Edward, and especially Mary had run the country into the groundbut she would restore England. While the country was experiencing hard times,Elizabeth played up the image o hersel as Englands savior. Nonetheless, herpolicy o recoinage was effective. Confidence in the currency was restored andprices began to stabilize.54During the first ten years o Elizabeths reign, the priceo oodstuffs decreased or the first time in the sixteenth century. From 1561to 1570, agricultural prices decreased by 5% and industrial products increasedby only 17%. During the 1550s both agricultural and industrial products hadincreased by around 45%.55 Elizabeths policy o recoinage was successul inslowing the increase in prices.

Elizabeth was successul in controlling price increases or the first thirtyyears o her reign. While agricultural prices increased by 91%, industrial prod-ucts only increased in price by 12%. While agricultural price increases mimickedthe increases that occurred during the debasement period (the thirty year indexrom 1531-1560), industrial price increases returned to the rate o increase expe-rienced rom 1501 to 1530.56Overall, the recoinage decreased the monetary baserom 1,580,904 in 1560 to 1,391,325 in 1562, a 12% decrease in the monetarybase. Te monetary base in 1562, however, was still 64% above the 1542 mon-etary base.57Tough Elizabeth had taken a step towards reestablishing the cur-rency, she did not return England to its pre-debasement monetary base.

Elizabeths success in restoring the value o Englands currency, however,came to an end when she became involved in European wars. Te deense oEngland rom the Spanish Armada and Englands campaign in the Netherlands

52 Memorandum on the Reasons Moving Queen Elizabeth to Reorm the Coinage, 1559 in


Green, 1924), 193.

53 Proclaimation Announcing a Reorm o the Coinage by Queen Elizabeth, 27 September

1560 in udor Economic Papers,vol. 2. ed. R.H. awney and Eileen Power (New York: Long-

mans & Green, 1924), 196.

54 Wrightson, 119.

55 Outhwaite, 12. Te parity in the percentage o price increase during the 1550s supports the

claim that price increases that are due to inflationary monetary policies should increase prices

in all sectors at roughly the same rate.

56 Outhwaite, 12.

57 Gould, 82-83.


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cost 1,580,781.58Elizabeth debased the coinage in the 1590s as a means to payor her military conflicts. While Elizabeth deserves some credit or restoringconfidence in the English coinage early in her reign, she was also a pragmaticruler who embraced debasement when she was desperate or unds.

V .

Troughout the udor era, the Crown turned to debasement as a non-parliamen-tary means to raise revenue. In reality it was a way or udor kings and queensto tax their subjects without the English peoples consent (through Parliament) which is guaranteed in English common law. From 1485 to 1603, agriculturalprices increased by 338% and industrial goods increased by 131%.59Te heaviestperiod o debasement occurred rom 1542 to 1551 during the reigns o Henryand Edward. Troughout the period o greatest debasement, England also expe-rienced the greatest increase in prices this is no coincidence. Debasement othe coinage had a significant effect on the price o goods in England. Contem-poraries began commenting on the high prices in the late 1540s and the Crown,needing a scapegoat, blamed the wealthiest members o society.

Te story o debasement in udor England has been replicated through-out history. Governments who desire to wage wars that the populace would beunwilling to pay or increase the money supply. Tis increase in the money sup-ply depreciates savings, raises prices, and imposes a de acto tax increase on theentire country. During the sixteenth century, the English people suffered incred-ible increases in the price o ood, industrial items, and rent. Common peopleound it incredibly difficult to just get by under the reign o the udors. Popula-tion increases undoubtedly played a role in the overall price increases during thecentury. But the Crown made lie more difficult or its subjects by contributingto the price increases through the policy o debasement.

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Boydell Press, 2004.Dewar, Mary. Te Authorship o the Discourse o the Commonweal Te Economic

History Review, vol. 19 (1): 388-400.

Gould, J.D. Te Great Debasement: Currency and the Economy in Mid-udor England.

New York: Oxord University Press, 1970.

Guy, John. udor England. New York: Oxord University Press, 1988.

58 Christopher Haigh, Elizabeth I (New York: Longman, 1998), 138.

59 Outhwaite, 12.


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Haigh, Christopher. Elizabeth I. New York: Longman, 1998.

Lindsey, Karen. Divorced, Beheaded, Survived: A Feminist Reinterpretation of the Wives of

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