HVIII in England and Europe (Domestic policies (Economic issues)

Domestic policies

Economic issues

Tudor Eng suffered from serious economic problems that caused social tensions- there was poverty with food shortages, high prices, unemployment, crime and depopulation.
The principle cause of these social ills was the increase in population from its late medieval low point.

Renaissance humanist thinkers, such as Thomas Wolsey, and Thomas More, believed that one task of gov was to find rememdies to these economic and social problems- they did not understand the population increase, and instead blamed the problems on the enclosure of fields.

Enclosure of open fields and common lands was, therefore, preceived to be evil by the humanists, and was expressed in the phrase 'Sheep ate up men'.
The humanists based their theories on the ideas of classical authors such as Plato, Cicero and Aristotle. The classical authors judged that immoral and irresponsible landowners…