ABSTRACT
The Tudor and early Stuart period had witnessed an unprecedented growth in the population of England. A number of broad trends can be detected in the agricultural sector in the later Stuart age, some of them new, others just a continuation of earlier developments. Many manufacturing processes became more focused in particular areas or region, not least because, as they expanded, their growing demand for coal or other raw materials led them to be based in areas where they were quite plentiful. Manufacturing was also boosted by some modest improvements in internal transport and communications. The growth of English commerce made London one of the focal points of world trade, and brought not only wealth but style to the capital city. Politics and religion were the cause of such intense controversy in the late Stuart period that a casual observer might well have assumed that fanaticism and intolerance were still characteristic of English public life.
