ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses a more general focus by looking at economic issues across the broader Tudor period, although with the main emphasis on Elizabethan England. One of the most striking economic trends of the period between 1500 and 1600 was inflation. The growth of population and the rise of inflation both interacted with major changes during the Tudor period in the ownership, management and use of land. Of these, the two most important were the commercialisation of agriculture and the development of enclosures. Tudor England, therefore, saw a decisive shift in the overall economic structure. The increase in population created an increased demand for consumer items. At the same time, the higher prices, which drove many off the land, developed a larger labour pool. The domestic textile industry became during the Tudor period the largest single employer apart from agriculture. Internal trade expanded rapidly during the Tudor period.
