Economic History Society The Economic History Society. which numbers over 3.000 members. publishes the Economic History Review three times a year (free to members) and holds an annual conference. Enquiries about membership should be addressed to the Assistant Secretary. Peterhouse. Cambridge. Full-time students may join the Society at special rates. Papermacs are sold subject to the condition that they shall not. by way of trade or otherwise. be lent. re-sold. hired out. or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent. in any form of binding or cover other than that in which they are published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. STUDIES IN ECONOMIC HISTORY This new series, specially commissioned by the Economic History Society, focuses attention on the main problems of economic history. Recently there has been a great deal of detailed research and re-interpretation, some of it controversial, but it has remained largely inaccessible to students or buried in academic journals. This series is an attempt to provide a guide to the current in terpretations of the key themes of economic history in which advances have recently been made, or in which there has been significant debate. Each book will survey recent work, indicate the full scope of the particular problem as it has been opened by research and distinguish what conclusions can be drawn in the present state of knowledge. Both old and recent work will be reviewed critically but each book will provide a balanced survey rather than an exposition of the author's own viewpoint. The series as a whole will give readers access to the best work done, help them to draw their own conclusions in some major fields and, by means of the critical bibliography in each book, guide them in the selection of further reading. The aim is to provide a springboard to further work and not a set of pre packaged conclusions or short cuts. STUDIES IN ECONOMIC HISTORY Editedf or the Economic History Society by Prcifessor M. W. Flinn PUBLISHED R. H. Hilton The Decline of Serfdom in Medieval England E. L. Jones The Development of English Agriculture, 1815-1875 J.D. Marshall The Old Poor Law, 1795-1854 G. E. Mingay Enclosure and the Small Farmer in the Age of the Industrial Revolution S. B. Saul The Myth of the Great Depression, 18 73-1896 IN PREPARATION A. S. MilwardThe Impact of the World Wars on the British Economy R. S. Sayers Monetary Policy in the 1920s A. J. Taylor Laissez-Faire and State Intervention in Nineteenth-Century Britain Inflation in Tudor and Early Stuart England Preparedf or The Economic History Society by R. B. OUTHWAITE, B.A., PH.D. Lecturer in Economic History at the University cif Lez'cester Palgrave Macmillan ISBN 978-0-333-10144-5 ISBN 978-1-349-00698-4 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-00698-4 © The Economic History Society 1969 First published 1969 by MACMILLAN AND CO LTD Little Essex Street London wc2 and also at Bombay Calcutta and Madras Macmillan South Africa (Publishers) Pty Ltd Johannesburg 0/ The Macmillan Company Australia Pty Ltd Melbourne The Macmillan Company of Canada Ltd Toronto Contents Acknowledgements 6 Editor's Priface 7 Some Measures of the Price Rise 9 Contemporary Opinions 15 Monetary Explanations 23 Real or Physical Explanations 37 Conclusion 47 Select Bibliography 56 Index 59 Table Indexes of ( 1) Price of a Composite Unit of Foodstuffs (2) A Sample of Industrial Products 10 Graph Index of Prices of 'basket of consumables', 1400-1700 11 Acknowledgements MY objectives have been to trace the emergence and development of the differing opinions about the causes of inflation in Tudor and early Stuart England and to review critically the principal modern interpretations. I have been helped in these tasks by Dr. D. H. Aldcroft and Professor Ralph Davis of Leicester University, Mr. Harland Taylor of Nottingham University, and by the editor of this series, Professor M. W. Flinn, all of whom kindly read drafts of this work. Any virtue the work has owes much to their efforts; for its failings they are held blameless. I am grateful also to Dr. L.A. Clarkson of Queen's College, Belfast, who generously allowed me to read an unpublished paper on the subject of the 'Price Revolution'. R. B. 0. Leicester July 1968 6 Preface SO long as the study of economic history was confined to only a small group at a few universities, its literature was not prolific and its few specialists had no great problem in keeping abreast of the work of their colleagues. Even in the 1950s there were only two journals devoted exclusively to this field. But the high quality of the work of the economic historians during the inter-war period and the post-war growth in the study of the social sciences sparked off an immense expansion in the study of economic history after the Second World War. There was a great expansion of research and many new journals were launched, some specialising in branches of the subject like transport, business or agricultural history. Most significantly, economic history began to be studied as an aspect of history in its own right in schools. As a consequence, the examining boards began to offer papers in economic history at all levels, while textbooks specifically designed for the school market began to be published. For those engaged in research and writing this period of rapid expansion of economic history studies has been an exciting, if rather breathless one. For the larger numbers, however, labouring in the outfield of the schools and colleges of further education, the excitement of the explosion of research has been tempered by frustration caused by its vast quantity and, frequently, its controversial character. Nor, it must be admitted, has the ability or willingness of the academic economic historians to generalise and summarise marched in step with their enthusiasm for research. The greatest problems of interpretation and generalisation have tended to gather round a handful of principal themes in economic history. It is, indeed, a tribute to the sound sense of economic historians that they have continued to dedicate their energies, however inconclusively, to the solution of these key problems. The results of this activity, however, much of it stored away in a wide range of academic journals, have tended to remain in accessible to many of those currently interested in the subject. Recognising the need for guidance through the burgeoning and 7 confusing literature that has grown around these basic topics, the Economic History Society decided to launch this series of small books. The books are intended to serve as guides to current interpretations in important fields of economic history in which important advances have recently been made, or in which there has recently been some significant debate. Each book aims to survey recent work, to indicate the full scope of the particular problem as it has been opened up by recent scholarship, and to draw such conclusions as seem warranted, given the present state of knowledge and understanding. The authors will often be at pains to point out where, in their view, because of a lack of information or inadequate research, they believe it is premature to attempt to draw firm conclusions. While authors will not hesitate to review recent and older work critically, the books are not intended to serve as vehicles for their own specialist views: the aim is to provide a balanced summary rather than an ex position of the author's own viewpoint. Each book will include a descriptive bibliography. In this way the series aims to give all those intere~ted in economic history at a serious level access to recent scholarship in some major fields. Above all, the aim is to help the reader to draw his own conclusions, and to guide him in the selection of further reading as a means to this end, rather than to present him with a set of pre-packaged conclusions. University cif Edinburgh M. W.FLINN Spring, 1968 General Editor 8