Even by the time he reached the Magellan Straits he was reduced to only one ship, which he renamed the Golden Hind, and his crew was riddled with scurvy and mutiny. Land enclosure meant that the traditional open field system whereby individual peasant farmers could farm their own pieces of land was ended in favour of creating larger and more profitable farming units which required fewer people to work on them. By 1600 they had contacts on the east African coast, Macao, India, Ceylon and ‘the Spice Islands’, Sumatra and Java, with other islands in the East Indian archipelago, as well as the southern end of the Burmese peninsula and Japan. Steps had been taken by previous monarchs to provide care for those who washed up on London's streets. And by the time of the Glorious Revolution (1688–89), it had reached 1,570. Lord Burghley, one of the Queen's most able ministers, was particularly concerned that large numbers of homeless and unemployed people could present a serious threat to law and order. While the Elizabethans primarily saw the benefits, the trading industry was established by previous monarchs to Queen Elizabeth I. Fortunately, she continued on with the policies and a lot of trading was established during Queen Elizabeth I’s reign. The common soldier would receive 8 denarius per day.(walternelson.com). It was a colourful metropolis and contained the best and worst of city life. Perhaps the most significant of these, the Statute of Artificers, was devised by the Privy Council and combined two bills that had failed in 1559 with various additions during its passage through the Commons to produce a cohesive set of regulations concerning labour, apprenticeship and wages. In any case, by 1587 any idea of planting foreign colonies had to give way to the need to devote shipping and experienced seamen to defeating Spain.

Later Acts stated that vagabonds should be burned through the right ear and, if they persisted, could be imprisoned and even executed. The 1597 Act, for example, laid down stricter guidelines for vagabonds and beggars in response to the economic crisis of the 1590s. The policies of ear-boring and execution remained in force until 1593. But the overland route to the East was too vulnerable to be practicable. In fact, there were more often than not too many people trying to attend theatres than were allowed in the doors. These figures do not include the ever-rising tide of broadsheets and ballads that were intended to be posted on the walls of inns and alehouses as well as in other public places. But problems remained. In 1589 Hakluyt published The Principal Navigations, Voyages and Discoveries of the English Nation, with a much expanded edition in 1598–1600. His route lay south-west across the Atlantic, round the Cape Horn by the channel that Magellan had pioneered, then up the west coast of South America, pausing from time to time to sack a Spanish town or capture a Spanish treasure ship. David Dean, ‘The commonweal’ in Law-Making and Society in Late Elizabethan England, 133-187. The most famous explorer of them all was Francis Drake. The Spanish resented this intrusion into their markets, and Hawkins had to give it up after a few years, but the precedent had been set for a sinister trade that brought fortunes to British slavers until its final abolition in the British Empire, in 1807. Social reality, at least for the poor and powerless, was probably a far cry from the ideal, but for a few years Elizabethan England seemed to possess an extraordinary internal balance and external dynamism. This era was a tough hit on the English economy that ended up ruining the economy for the following era. Liza Picard considers some of the consequences of these expeditions: overseas colonies, imported goods and the slave trade. Suddenly, Englishmen were on the move: Sir Humphrey Gilbert and his band of settlers set forth for Newfoundland (1583); Sir Walter Raleigh organized what became the equally ill-fated “lost colony” at Roanoke (1587–91); John Davis in his two small ships, the Moonshine and the Sunshine, reached 72° north (1585–87), the farthest north any Englishman had ever been; and the honourable East India Company was founded to organize the silk and spice trade with the Orient on a permanent basis.

The Elizabethan age saw the flowering of poetry (the sonnet, the Spenserian stanza, dramatic blank verse), was a golden age of drama (especially for the plays of Shakespeare), and inspired a wide variety of splendid prose (from historical chronicles, versions of the Holy Scriptures, pamphlets, and literary criticism to the first English novels). This led to a rising amount of unemployed beggars. As it was said, Englishmen went forth “to seek new worlds for gold, for praise, for glory.” Even the dangers of the reign—the precariousness of Elizabeth’s throne and the struggle with Roman Catholic Spain—somehow contrived to generate a self-confidence that had been lacking under “the little Tudors.”. First off, speaking from the economic perspective things really did change in England. By 1545 its production was being shipped to Spain as 'pieces of eight' in such quantities that European commerce was transformed. Not all of its recommendations were ever implemented; nevertheless its influence can be traced through eight statutes passed in 1559 (concerning shoemakers, tanned leather, leather exports, sweet wines, linen cloth, iron mills, English shipping, and the preservation of fish spawn) and a platform of measures enacted in the 1563-6 Parliament that have since been dubbed the ‘Elizabethan economic settlement’. A lively and informative new podcast for kids that the whole family will enjoy! Instead, people were shown a different side and topics that would interest them, even if they did not agree with it. Large numbers headed for the towns in the hope of a better life. The educated Englishman was no longer a cleric but a justice of the peace or a member of Parliament, a merchant or a landed gentleman who for the first time was able to express his economic, political, and religious dreams and his grievances in terms of abstract principles that were capable of galvanizing people into religious and political parties. The Portuguese had already established trading posts down the west coast of Africa. Richard Chancellor had sailed to Archangel in 1553 and travelled overland to Moscow, where Ivan IV, called ‘the Terrible’, gave him favourable trading terms. As a result, many people who had lived and worked in the countryside their whole lives found themselves without any means of support and, in many cases, evicted from their homes. There were several reasons for this increase in poverty. The 1597 Act went even further in stating that an official be appointed for each parish specifically to supervise the needs of the poor. The Spanish New World colonies needed labourers to replace the indigenous Amerindians, who were being killed off by European diseases. (elizabethan-era.com), There was a large variance of pays during this time. Adventurers responded differently; they went “a-voyaging.” From a kingdom that had once been known for its “sluggish security,” Englishmen suddenly turned to the sea and the world that was opening up around them. ‘The Spanish Main’ – the north coast of South America – and the islands yielded pearls, gold and gemstones, but the biggest stroke of luck was the vast silver mine at Potosi, in Peru. The Tiger Who Came to Tea by Judith Kerr: sketches and original artwork, Sean's Red Bike by Petronella Breinburg, illustrated by Errol Lloyd, Unfinished Business: The Fight for Women's Rights, The fight for women’s rights is unfinished business, Get 3 for 2 on all British Library Fiction, Discovering Literature: Shakespeare & Renaissance. The economy in Elizabethan London increased… It was believed that women always needed someone to look after them. Liza Picard considers some of the consequences of these expeditions: overseas colonies, imported goods and the slave trade. One of the first explorers to catch the public interest was Martin Frobisher, who led three expeditions (1576–78) in search of the north-west passage which he was convinced existed round the north of the American continent and then west and south to the riches of Asia. A manservant would receive around 2 pounds per annum, a maid or servant boy would receive around 40 shillings per annum. Citizens were called upon to support the needy, and anyone refusing to pay the tax was punished. Several major towns launched their own initiatives to try to tackle the problem. She was Henry VIII’s grandniece and, in the eyes of many Roman Catholics and a number of political malcontents, the rightful ruler of England, for Mary of Scotland was a Roman Catholic.